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Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice about where is good and reasonable for a new kitchen? Me and my Dad will fit it, but the long and short is, that due to flood damage, they are replacing the base units only, and wont replace the uppers, the worktops, or the doors possibly! Just the carcasses. So I may have an option to get a cash payment based on a contractor's quote for replacing the base units and the refitting of old doors and worktops etc. Im hoping that if I can get a kitchen cheap enough, I can replace the lot for not much more than the contractor's quote.
Dont know how much that is yet, but would appreciate any pointers as to where is best / cheapest for units.
Cheers in advance!
Ikea
ikea
b&q do a take away service too and may match existing units as far as the backs are concerned - Ikea used to do funny deep units that caused problems getting services etc along the back.
Surely what you want is an expensive contractor to quote 🙂
We've just bought ours from ikea. Quality is good, price is good and it's easy to sort it out yourself without dealing with a salesman and you know what price you will end up paying. As mentioned above there is no service void so you get bigger cupboards but no room for pipes of you want to route them behind the units.
Ikea
Howdens
Or trademark
= the biggest load of shite I ever wasted my money on. Ikea are tons better.Howdens
Thanks guys, we are hoping the contractor gives a large quote as the adjuster says he will give us the contractors quote minus vat as a cash settlement.
Cant see refitting new carcasses, and then fitting old doors to new hinge points etc, probably need modified to do so, and fitting old worktop back on, sink in, appliances in etc being a cheap job for a contractor working for an insurance company? So hoping its a large quote and we can get a complete ikea basic kitchen for the same money. Fingers crossed as its been a stressful few weeks! Could do with a wee bit of good luck out of all of this!
If you've any pipes that run behind the units, avoid ikea. There's no 50mm gap behind the carcasses. Find a Howdens.
Nothing wrong with Ikea as long as you can handle the lack of service void at the back.
Here's a couple of pics of ours:
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/manoirdelourde/11328411135/ ]DSC_0267[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/manoirdelourde/ ]manoirdelourde[/url], on Flickr
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/manoirdelourde/11328528694/ ]DSC_0262[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/manoirdelourde/ ]manoirdelourde[/url], on Flickr
Howdens are pricy even at the mega super discount you will invariably get.
Ikea kitchens are fine - service voids are for lazy people who dont want to move pipes. - see if you drop them to floor level there is a 600mm service void under the carcass 🙂
Although that said my dad no longer fits either . Hes found a good bespoke supplier that does favourable prices because of the level of work my dad sticks through him and people he works for want to pay the extra as its "bespoke"
But at the end of the day A poor kitchen can be made reasonable by a good fit a good kitchen can be made poor by a poor fit.
The good thing is they will be replacing all the flooring, so we will be back to a good level bare rectangular shell. All the pipes etc come from under the flooring so should be straight forward to pop them up exactly where they are needed. Ive fitted about 4 kitchens in my time, with the help of my old man (the skilled one!) All B&Q and they were all fine, so either B&Q or Ikea Im thinking. Will all depend on what the contractor quotes 🙁 Im not feeling very lucky these days though!
As mentioned above, don't discount DIY kitchens, they are very, very good kitchens and reasonable prices. On paper, far better than Howdens.
Magnet.
I put in a B&Q kitchen myself in my home.
I designed the layout/units etc in CAD and took the drawings to the store. Using the dimensions from the catalogue.
The assistant put them into their design software and put together the order. 20% off doors at the time. Delivered too, I sourced hob, sink, built in oven etc separately new off the internet at good prices.
Quality of units etc was good and the final result very good. The only thing I didn't like were the plastic feet the carcasses sit on which were duff. I did add some extra support and fixings to the units but I would probably do that with any kitchen. Got a plumber in to connect the gas hob & plumb in the sink, didn't take him long, peace of mind and I had plenty to do.
A lot of work, looked great and saved a great deal particularly as it was quite a big room and I could sort out the electrics etc in a bare room.
I have also renovated a kitchen reusing some parts etc. But it was easier gutting the room and starting again with new carcasses and materials.
Magnet is a joke - wall cupboards barely deep enough to hold a dinner plate. The Ikea ones take a large dinner plate plus about 100mm spare room for something else. We also bought a fairly expensive stainless sink (not from Ikea)- eventually got it around 25% off manufacturer's rrp. Magnet list price was 20% OVER rrp - but when questioned they "could maybe push to a 10% discount" (so still 10% over RRP)!
Ikea also do tall wall cupboards (the photos above show the shorter / regular one). Using them you can run right to the ceiling (lots more storage and no dust / junk collecting space on top).
I bought a second hand one of ebay. Excellent quality inc soft close doors, bosch hob, oven, extractor, fridge, sink £500. Removed it and installed it myself.
Just spent 2.5K on Ikea kitchen units - be warned the kitchen design process is about as bad as it gets. Took us about 4 months to get to placing the order (and we aren't particularly demanding)though it is quite store specific you may be stuck woth your closest store .. on the plus side we rolled over into a new promotion and got a £200 gift card to spend on accessories.
However, if you're fitting it and you have a reasonably easy space they were by far the cheapest and best quality we came across, including all the suspects mentioned above. We might have gone with Homebase, but I reckon your scenario is perfect for Ikea.
I'll tell you how the fit goes post February 🙂
Ikea units, worktops from somewhere online as Ikea's weren't deep enough and shop around for appliance as you'll get what you really want.
If you can, fit it yourself.
Huh? It took me about an hour to spec the cabinets, doors, etc using the pretty clear brochure. Then popped into store, double checked a few dims and the chap typed it into the computer in about 10 mins. Ready to collect in 45 mins with a few bits posted out later FOC.be warned the kitchen design process is about as bad as it gets. Took us about 4 months to get to placing the order
Ikea units, worktops from somewhere online as Ikea's weren't deep enough and shop around for appliance as you'll get what you really want.
Exactly what we did.
We also had a quick look at Homebase, mostly to see if their guy could come up with some design ideas we had not already thought of.
Even with 60% of at homebase the kitchen would still be more expensive through them than ikea, and i actually think the ikea units are better designed than homebase ones.
Ikea also do tall wall cupboards (the photos above show the shorter / regular one). Using them you can run right to the ceiling (lots more storage and no dust / junk collecting space on top).
Those in the pictures are the tall ones, our ceilings are 2.7m high . . .
What is the standard wall cupboard (double) width?
I Popped into Ikea hoping to get a new shelf for our Howdens kitchen the other day but they were too narrow being 800mm wide but the Howdens are 1000.
Ended up popping to B&Q and found an off-cut of contiboard on an odd-ends for £3, got them to cut it into 2 shelves and grabbed a pack of shelf supports and I had two new shelves for just over a fiver!