[Closed] Howdens Kitchens .... Your experiences please 🙂

I think they are overpriced tat.. Kitchen fitters love them because they make them look like they are worth more than really are, and the carcases come pre assembled so they save oodles of time building the kitchen and charge you more for the privilege.

edit unless you have an account and you are fitting them, then its comparable to any other kitchen b+q etc..

They would be bought by us through a family member in the trade.

So, hopefully, no mark up 😆

We will be fitting them

We have one here. If I was paying for it I'd choose something else. Finish in them isnt all that great.

Not the greatest quality IMO, even though they 'split' from Magnet, we thought Magnet better quality (@ the same price).
Though we got plans & prices from both, we used a third company in the end...

Ours too was a trade prices, as our builders are friends (I was cycling with one of them last night).

I'll echo everyones elses comments as I wasn't that impressed with them. Where abouts are you as [url= http://www.keencost.co.uk/stores/leeds.html ]KeenKost Kitchens[/url] are good value and well made.

well if you can get a trade account at b+q then do that, you'll get a good if not better kitchen for less.

You can get better quality for less money than Howdens. MIL has a Howdens kitchen and it's fine and all that..... but some of the detailing is lacking compared to ours from an LKS (Local Kitchen Shop!)
Details like when you open the doors, there's holes on both sides of the door so it can be hinged left and right, where ours are only drilled one side. The inside of the units is not quite the same colour as the outside (One carcass colour fits several door colours) Both of those are cost-cutting exercises to my eyes....
And I don't think they have a brilliant range of sizes of units either.

Stuff like that. There's nowt really wrong with Howdens stuff, but it's deffo not the be-all-and-end-all of kitchens IMO.....

We have Howdens oak worktops in ours - they appear to be good quality.

I see MrPP has more time to post and beaten me to it...

My mum had one put in and I was not overly impressed with the quality of it. It is little things like non-specific doors so their are hinge holes either side when you open the doors. The carcases are white so the inside of cupboards do not match the outside if you have a wooden kitchen. There cupboard sizes are very limited.

Is there an echo in here? 😉
EDIT
Swift edit there! 😀

The in laws have had one for about a year and a half now. In that time they have had 1 new door due to It falling to pieces, New hinges fitted to the built in fridge and the fridge collapsed in the cabinet so that needed replacing.
We went for wickes, Fingers crossed so far so good.

We have a 2 year old Howdens kitchen, fitted by the builder who did a cellar conversion for us.

Thoughts:

Pros - Very cheap, cost us £5k for units. B&Q and Wickes would have been approx £12k, Magnet £20k+

Good quality units IMO and good worksurface (for the money, no worse than the above) 2 years in nothing has gone wrong and still look as good as new.

People do not think we have a cheap kitchen, but that could be because we invested in decent flooring, appliances, lighting etc.

Cons - There was no real 'design' process. We basically used designs from other kitchen places and had to heated discussions with builder and Howdens because they were relluctant to anything other than bog standard drawings.

Not easy to see the units before hand.

To be honest if you can get one cheap like we did then they are just as comparable to any other manufaturer. However if you are paying non trade prices, then you can probably get better service else where.

z1ppy,Howdens where never part of Magnet but partof MFI.as for howdensd kitchens , they price every single bit, so by the plinth coers, or kick boards as Contiboard from B and q, also the in built cookers and fridgtes are sometimes unbranded stuff, if you want cheaper, but parts latter on may be a problem.

The cabinets are all wrapped in cling film, and pre assembled etc, also expect stuff to be missing, otherwise nice freindly to do buisness with.

Oh and if anything is dodgy or broken they always replace stuff no questions asked or they do for me.

Just replaced our 13year old kitchen which
Was getting worn/tatty looking it was fitted by
A kitchen company(yes all howdens units) took
13 years of abuse from family of 5 no problem !
New kitchen fitted by local company and yes howdens
Units again.. Just over £5000 other firms were
Starting at closer to £10000 🙁
Decent units for the overall cost I reckon

🙂

WE have a Howdens ktichen and I'm impressed with it, Homebase was ridiclously expensive, B&Q we didn't like any. Our kitchen certainly doesn't look cheap (maybe because we bought decent wall and floor tiles) and does look good quality. I supposed to each to their own.

Just finished fitting an Ikea kitchen at home, easy online planner and dead easy to do, decent quality units (way better than our previous house MFI ones). Worked out cheapest option for us, loads cheaper than B&Q etc, spent the money we saved on decent extras such as proper oak worktops and travertine flooring. Taken a long time to do as it was a complete gutting job, ceiling, plastering, plumbing, gas work but well worth it now i've finished.

If you are doing the fitting, also consider http://www.discountkitchenfactory.co.uk . The quality, for the money, is amazing. I just replaced the doors, and the odd cabinet, rather than the whole kitchen though.

They used to have a couple of different types
1 Contractors kitchens.........cheap as ...
2 Retail kitchens ..........more expensive and better quality

Backing up most of the other replies, Howdens are mid-range, reasonable, and just about budget priced. I fit them for a living, and have complaints about them as everyone does, but I think all kitchen makers are the same in that they are always short-stocked on something, or something gets damaged during delivery.

I think B+Q are far worse, and the poster above who rated Ikea, it wasnt the experience I had with an Ikea kitchen - they were very poor, and had no space at the back for pipe/electric runs. Fine if you are starting from scratch, but a real pain if fitting in an existing kitchen.

Of the DIY sheds, Wickes are the best kitchens. I've done a few Chippendale kitchens recently. Similar pricing to Howdens, they maybe look a little better when finished, but come flat packed, and quality has been variable - a white kitchen came in 2 or 3 shades of white, yet a beech one was perfect.

If fitting my own, I would choose between Howdens, Magnets and Wickes, whoever had the right colour at the right price.

Alan.

DIY-kitchens.com have best price to quality in my opinion
But we went with howdens. Only bought units from howdens and got appliances and worktops from elsewhere.

The beauty of howdens is that they are very good quality but have all items in stock. So you won't spend time twiddling thumbs waiting weeks for the inevitable missing or damaged piece to turn up.

Magnet trade ar also good option if you know someone with an account. They'll do you the units from the magnet retail side even though those units aren't advertised in the trade brochure.

The quality of the fitter has as much to do with the end product as the units IMHO

We got worktops from here:
http://www.worktop-express.co.uk/

as considerably cheaper than Howdens, can't fault them they are lovely, had issues and their customer service was good too.

Just had our kitchen extension fitted out with a Howdens kitchen. Friend in Howden made sure the price was good. Some of the stuff had 89% discount so if you do buy from Howdens then haggle hard.

The 7mx4m kithen with units on the 4m, 7m and other 4, (actually 3,5 m because of the shape) came in under 4k including sink, taps, under lighters etc. Other places were 9 - 25K

You get what you pay for to a certain extent but if you are going for a standard kitchen the units are chip board for one price range or wood for another.

The quality of hinges and door handles does vary but you can fix a lot of problems if you have just save £15K

Some of the stuff had 89% discount so if you do buy from Howdens then haggle hard.

All the trades get 89% discount at howdens, thats why they are so popular as there is nothing a kitchen fitter likes more than showing you a "retail" catalogue with massive prices (like 400 quid for a blinking 600 carcaes) and then discounting it to a more reasonable 150 quid, and he pays about 50 quid for the carcase.

It was the sink and the tap that was impressive. my son in law is a plumber and City Plumbing and Plumbase couldn't match the quality price ratio.

Having said that, I know what you mean regarding list price. Never believe it.

The only things I know worth paying full list price for are [url= http://www.BigBikeBash.co.uk ]Big Bike Bash [/url]tickets

If you're in the midlands use Holthams in heage, derbyshire! Quality stuff!

Have a Howdens kitchen for a couple of years now and no complaints, designed it myself, fitted by builder, all good.

Ikea kitchen here - fitted from an empty room by me.

Its been in 6 years so far with absolutely no problems.

I glued all the carcasses when I assembled them and we splashed out on real wood doors.

Agree about the lack of space down the back for services though.