[Closed] Kitchens - how much?!

Do not use the fitting service offered by the supplier. Get your own workmen in to do it.

How big is the kitchen? Whereabouts in the country are you?

I think your range for quotes looks about right

I really recommend Ikea. For around £50 they come to your house for a 2hr slot and measure up and put it all in their design programme. You can then buy the kitchen and fit independently or pay them to fit it for you. Ball park figures of £8 to £12K all in sounds about right. Ikea warranty all the work and give all gas & electrrical certs. If bits are missing they sort it all instantly, takes a lot of hassle out the process.

PS - Ikea sub out the work to trained local kitchen fitters.

Thanks both. The kitchen is approx 3.5m x 3.5m and we're looking at a U shape layout. It also has a similar sized room attached to the side which would require plastering and some lighting but no cabinets. Ikea are on the list of potential suppliers though I've heard issues about their warranty not being worth the paper its written on....though the same can be found for just about any supplier it seems! Oh, and our new place is just outside Bristol.

I would back up TJ on the fitting.
With that in mind, plan a long way in advance, and find a good and recommended fitter.
Everyone in our area is busy, only the less reliable lower quality tradesmen are available at shorter notice.
Get one booked in and then organise the delivery of the kitchen.
Howdens is a good option, they are supposedly Trade Only so your fitter should be able to sort this for you.
Trades men like Howdens as they get the discount and pass on what they want to you, also the base units come already assembled.
This also means that you need to get your ducks in a row as they take up loads of space...

DIY Kitchens gets my vote. You need to find and employ your own tradesmen but kitchens are really easy to fit.

Take advantage of a free design service (Howdens were good for this) and then copy the ideas you get with DIY Kitchens.

I just ordered a kitchen from Howdens. In fact it's sat in the conservatory as won't be fitted until later in the month.

Kitchen units, integrated dishwasher and free standing fridge freezer, £4k. 25 year warranty.

Carpenter I know and trust to fit fit £800-900.

Same quotes around a year ago were £7-8k but seem to have come down in price.

Ooh,we've just done this.

As you'd expect the cost can vary massively depending on what you choose for things like worktops and appliances, quality of cabinets,hinges fittings etc.

Your price range looks about right to me though. The top end price should get you good appliances, nice quartz or granite worktops, high quality doors and cabinets, blum soft close hinges etc

We ended up using Howdens for the cabinets,doors,fittings etc. Appliances from various suppliers on the Internet (ie whoever was cheap for what we wanted) worktops from a local stone place. Fitting by brother in law.

Howdens don't officially sell direct to public, but we found it pretty easy to open a trade account with them and order everything ourselves.

It's an absolute minefield out there though, and very confusing

We were initially quoted £26k for what we wanted by a local one stop kitchen shop, in the end it cost about 13k by doing it in the way I described above.

Also, not sure how old your house is, but ours (built in 1930s) is wonky as anything,and doesn't have a straight wall anywhere, which made fitting a nightmare.

This is all encouraging stuff! Howdens is on the list as well though we were put off by the need to go via an intermediary tradesman; interesting to hear you managed to set up a trade account.

Also, that's the second recommendation for DIY kitchens...they look very good, if a little complicated!

I have this headache coming up next year on current trajectory of renovations. What with personal changes in circumstance, I'm actually thinking of just selling the house instead.

Any fitter or builder will have a Howdens account.
Discounts from list vary up to 90% but Howdens will ask the fitter if they want to add a markup.

Here's one I did recently, similar size to yours in a U shape. I think all units and appliances came to £1600 inc VAT

[img] [/img]

Just tell howdens that you're a private landlord, looking to refit a couple of your houses. They'll open you an account no problem

I fitted our kitchen (inc Elec, plumbing and Gas) and it really wasn't difficult at all...

Came with instructions which I followed and it all worked out fine. Made a bit of the mess of the grouting, but covered the tiles in photos so you don't notice....

[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3202/5759641316_4d06844b93_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3202/5759641316_4d06844b93_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/9LXEGC ]Kitchen[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

We just did this using b and q
If you do the same do not accept their first price. We designed at easter and after not ordering immediately, they rang me a couple of weeks later with an offer to close the deal. I got all appliances (cooker, hob, dishwasher and fridge) free! It reduced the cost of the kitchen by almost £2k!

Then got a local fitter to fit.

If you have kids or dogs then stay away from high gloss stuff, it scratches easily and shows every fingerprint

On a similar note, earstone worktops look good but stain really easily, especially with tea or blackurrent squash. Once stained the only way to get the finish back is to sand the top down again.

Your price range is correct. As has been said find your own fitter and do not expect him to be available straight away. It could take you some time to find one but it will be worth it. Howdens are ok but not the bargain they used to be. Diy have good reputation. Ikea cannot be beaten on price and the quality is not bad either. But there are many other smaller quality brands that a good fitter will know about. Find a good fitter before the kitchen as he will give you good unbiased advise that is based on practical experience.A salesman/designer is always trying to sell you something.Ignore special offers and free dishwashers they are a con.Hope this one helpful . I have fitted kitchens good living for the last 30 years .There is only one make I will not fit and that is W...s.

Another recommendation for diy kitchens. My fitter rated the build quality. Lots of choice and you can colour match units to farrow and ball colours if you want. It is tricky working out which panels you need but my kitchen guy just gave me a list.
My tip would be to sort the floor at the same time and plaster as early as possible.

We went with Howden's via a local fitter for cabinets, worktops and appliances came from elsewhere. Couple of years on still really pleased with it. Much depends on finding the right person to work with. I would personally try to avoid the one stop shops that provide their own fitters.

Thanks everyone, some very useful tips there. Good to see that the names we were considering have been recommended and that I'm roughly in the right ball park on price. Think I'm going to heed the advice to find a decent local fitter and see what they recommend. Time wise, we're not expecting anything to materialise within 6 months anyway.

Fatbikedog: don't happen to work around Brizzle? Happy to do an STW discounted rate, yeah??! 😉

Fatbikedog: serious question from my wife, why would you recommend against using the kitchen supplier that shall not be named?

Get a larger kitchen sink rather than the standard size like the above. Save you time having to mop up the floor later on. 😛

The two pics above have rather large kitchen but tiny kitchen sink. Are those designed by people who don't cook? 🙄

I am more than happy with my ikea units. Been in over a long time now

IKEA kitchens are great. The units are deeper than average plus the base units go closer to the ground, 8cm iirc which gives you more cupboard space too. Plus the hanging rail method of install makes it a doddle to fit.

We fit probably 10 to 15 kitchen a year as part of our main building work, and just to second what fatbikedog said, we won't have anything to do with the firm he almost mentions, not that the quality is so very different from some other budget kitchens, more to do with the appalling after sales service when there are problems with damaged/ missing parts.
(And there almost always are)

What do you do in your sink chewk ? Throw sexy parties ?

My sink currently has pride of place at the window so you can stand and look out vacantly as the dishwasher does the dishes.

My remodel has the dining table by the window and a small sink in the back wall

Kitchen fitter here. Absolutely nothing wrong with Wickes kitchens as far as I'm concerned. Nearly every kitchen cabinet out there is made from 18mm melamine faced chipboard and it always surprises me when people get snooty about where the kitchen came from. As mentioned before, Howdens cabinets come ready built as opposed to flat-pack which helps a fair bit and Wickes do an off-the-shelf range (as well as their normal range) which is in 15mm but apart from these they're all fairly similar.
If buying from Ikea don't use their worktop cutting service as they often don't allow for details such as decor end panels and so they come up short. They also cut them based on a square room ,which is never the case, whereas a kitchen fitter will make them up to fit the actual walls of the kitchen allowing for any run out.
Hope this helps.

trail_rat - Member
What do you do in your sink chewk ? Throw sexy parties ?

Cleaning 12 inches to 14 inches woks the traditional way with bamboo brush. 😛

If the wok cannot go into the sink with a bit of space to spare then it is very inconvenient. 😀

I have many different size woks and chopping boards too.

Did this last year but ended up having a family friend who owns a kitchen company do ours. That said we had stopped around first and learned some lessons:
1. Fitter make or breaks your kitchen. A good fitter will make almost any cabinet look great. Here is where to spend cash.
2. Big sink! I've got family in the US and grew up there so may be biased here. We went with a Blanco Silgranit one which family in the states have. Bought on Amazon for 250 ish. It's bombproof.
3. If you go for painted cabinets consider having them painted in situ. They come primed (almost looking finished) and get brushed on site. Yes it's more expensive but when they need touching up it's easier to do and not obvious unlike with pre sprayed units
4. Don't be pressed into a design that bludgeons a manufacturer's units into your space. Howdens did this for us initially and the design just didn't really work.

Apologies, ignore me, no experience of Wickes, it's the other firm that begins with w we have had issues with?

infidel - Member
[b]2. Big sink! [/b]I've got family in the US and grew up there so may be biased here. We went with a Blanco Silgranit one which family in the states have. Bought on Amazon for 250 ish. It's bombproof.

This man knows his cooking! 😛

Sink - [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0070WT2EQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509913301&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=blanco%2Bsubline%2B700-u%2Banthracite&dpPl=1&dpID=51mjrqRzWKL&ref=plSrch&th=1&psc=1 ]Blanco u-line[/url]

How long is a piece of string 😉

Kitchen refits vary enormously depending upon unit quality and as TJ hinted where in the country you are (labour costs, markup etc). What’s interesting (stunning) is when you hear what developers pay when fitting say 10, 20, 30 ... kitchens.

All that being said the top end of your budget should get you something pretty nice with quality appliances.

Be nice to chew, he is only speaking his opinion. Without getting drawn into being accused of racial sterio types its my experience that Asian kitchens tend to have rather large sinks. I imagine Chew would agree hence his post.

Alpha 1653
I am in Monmouth so can get to North Bristol but I do it to earn a living. W...s kitchens are poor quality and even poorer after sales service. I am sure you can work out who it is. Not Wrens.

Brizzle based here and looking at new kitchens too. Current one is IKEA and strongly considering them again but also looking at Howdens. They're coming round on Friday to do a design measuring thing.

Tall wall cabinets that go right* to the ceiling give a lot of extra hidden, dust-free storage space.

Really think about the layout and how YOU (not a kitchen "designer") use the space. Our kitchen is tiny, but still room for multiple people doing different things e.g someone washing up, someone making brews, someone else cooking etc. Same for dishwasher location - washers with cutlery drawers are really handy, even more so if that drawer opens directly adjacent to the kitchen cutlery drawer for unloading.

I've been very impressed with our Ikea kitchen which is now coming up to 10yrs old - especially with quality of things like drawers, runners and taps (compared to similar priced B&Q stuff elsewhere that I've just had to repair).

*stop just short of the ceiling and use a narrow infill piece or doors might rub on a wonky ceiling.

Tall wall cabinets that go right* to the ceiling give a lot of extra hidden, dust-free storage space.

Although if you're in an old house, you may have quite a slope to contend with...

FBD: small world, I'm from Chepstow / schooled in Monmouth. To be fair, Mon to Bristol's probably a bit far but thanks for the advice!

Howdens are good. Just bought my son a kitchen for 6K, Magnet not bad either as that's what I have.
Must admit I prefer the Magnet worktops although Howdens now do Granit.

Alpha 1653. Yes small world. I was brought up in Bristol.

Other plus point about Howdens is that it's all in stock, so next day pick up or delivery on full kitchens and you can just pop in for bits.
As said above, they're not quite as cheap as they used to be.
I've heard good things about Benchmarx, might be worth a look.

My ikea kitchen is still good after 5 years. All units from ikea but worktops granite, handles from john lewis i think, sink from plumbers merchant. I didnt like the whole ikea look.

I was in howdens last year and said i was a private landlord so they offered me an account, maybe a builder will get better discounts though.

Get a few people to look at the design.

We're in a similar boat and have just finished the design for our new kitchen.
Similar sort of size to the OP, u-shaped with a breakfast bar.
We've managed to get some of the cupboards/appliances as an ex-display from the local showroom.
Saved a good few £k and costing £9.5k with 2 x Neff ovens, 5 burner hob, dishwasher, fridge-freezer, granite worktops etc. The Howden design was about £7.5k with basic range appliances.

We are having a Howdens kitchen fitted as we speak and have used them through work for a few years. Just don't accept the first quotes. I think someone else mentioned that they apply a 'discount' on each item in the quotation (not that you would ever pay their 100% price). On ours some items started at 45%-65%, after we had mentioned we were getting other quotes and still deciding the quote kept coming down each week. In the end our discounts ended up around 85% for a lot of it.

Just had our kitchen done completely from Magnet - fitted by them as well, £850 for that, just haggle. Magnet use contractors who pay Magnet for the job and dont get that deposit paid back till the job is done when you sign, this gives them an incentive to do it and do it well.

Oh and just purchase the kitchen when they have their "rare" sales on. 🙄

Job took two weeks to do.

All in all it was £10k, this included:

Removal of old kitchen and floor tiles
Fitting new units (15), ceramic sink and tap, worktops, upstands, decoglaze splashback
Electrics redone & new lights
Artex plastered over and walls re-plastered after old tiles removed
Karndean flooring
All appliances which included a range cooker (dont buy from magnet - they were half the price at places like ao.com) and fitting
Painted walls & ceiling
New skirting and window board
New blinds

Floor dug out and new insulation and concrete laid.
Florida tiled.
New windows and new door put in.
Boarded all round and skimmed.
Plumbing moved about.
Electrics sorted.
New downlights.
IKEA kitchen built and fitted.
Walls tiled.

7k.

All appliances from IKEA (5 year warranty; fridge, freezer, oven, dishwasher and induction hob)
Worktops from elsewhere. As stated IKEA think your room is 100 % square. I needed at lot more worktop on my gable end as the wall was about 6" out.

Did it all myself apart from capping off the gas. Went for an induction hob and luckily I had removed the electric shower from the bathroom and left the wire isolated in a junction box in the kitchen ceiling. Perfect and it's on its own fuse.

We bought from Howdens and got a local joiner to fit it. He had all the correct routing tools and was a far quicker worker than I would have been. All integrated appliances bought online and self fitted (apart from gas connection to hob). Saved several thousands over an all in one service.

Another Howdens here. My brother's BiL fitted it. Happy with it all and their own appliances (Lamona) are decent enough.
Howden's designer fella came round after I'd done the initial design with the fitter and made some useful suggestions.
(Except one - the "hidden" cutlery drawer: DO NOT get this!)

Our Ikea kitchen hasn't been trouble free:
- The shelves and doors have already started to delaminate where they are exposed to heat and steam from the oven door
- The worktops also do not cope with either water or stains. Water has soaked into the wood and it's started to delaminate as well.

In both cases Ikea's warranty was useless. They send out someone to inspect, then tell you it's not covered. Have a google...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/05/ikea-25-year-guarantee-kitchen-faulty

We have coated the worktop in "Rustins plastic coating" iirc, which has worked really well.

Also worth nothing that Ikea units have very little space at the back and we found them tricky to fit to an old house with wonky walls.

Some friends of mine were advised by there local chippy to buy from Howdens as saves on day rates not having to build flat pack units and where we are located they have a good local depot with lots of stock and a quick turn around.

They didnt listen, went B&Q, when stuff arrived damaged and pieces were missing they are now waiting a few weeks for the new stuff to arrive because the local B&Q doesn't carry stock.

IKEA had a great kitchen at a good price, but were hopeless at customer service. When it finally was sorted out and ordered they discontinued it, making spares only available mail order (we'd chosen one built and demoed in the store). Stopped the order - their fitting by the way was 6x what we eventually paid by getting individual local trades and doing a bit ourselves (Dad is a sparky, and we ran the last few M of HEP and connected appliances.

Bought a Cooke & Lewis (B&Q) in the end and can't fault it - spares are on the shelves off the big stores (kids used a cantilever door as a swing ^^), bought the worktops from worktop express online, an AO.com for appliances who are excellent. Got a 1200 electric range up a flight of stairs and a steep drive with far more than deserved cheeriness, took all the packaging away etc. - great service for nothing extra on a cheap price.

We did our last place with B&Q cabinets. No issues with quality, however, we weren't there long enough to comment on longevity.

Appliances sourced by ourselves. Mixture of new from assorted online sources & seconds from the bay.

£2k

...but small kitchen.

Fitting was astronomical when B&Q quoted.

I fit kitchens as my job. Self employed.
I’ve prob fitted nearly every mainstream brand in the U.K.
I’ve fitted Howdons showrooms and probably over 200 of their kitchens.
My house has a DIY kitchen in it.
I deal with their parent company as a trade customer tho, I use a different website to order, the diy site is a pain to use.

Once again, thanks everyone for your replies and advice. At the moment, DIY kitchens and Howdens appear to be at the top of the list, coupled with using local tradesmen for the fitting / plastering / flooring and electrics. Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!

Late to the party but i cannot reccomend diy kitchens higher. I fitted.my man room out with them. Excellent quality, come built and reasonable prices.

\hijack So how do you go about finding a good kitchen fitter then? (Any recommendations for one in Oxford?)

Used DIY kitchens, it's not hard to measure up a kitchen, most are just a rectangular room.
Then used a local fitter, found on checkatrade, I think the kitchen was around £1500 and the fitting was anther £1000 so 2.5k all in.

All this talk of £7500 - £10,000 kitchens reminds me of when I had Dolphin Bathrooms round to quote...the house was a small 2 up/2 down terrace with a tiny bathroom...the price was 20k+....the salesman then did that 'classic' thing of saying "today for one day only I can ring my boss and get a discount"...he finished the call by giving me a new price of £14,000 there and then, lol.

I had to remind him I was only 24yrs old, single, in my first little starter home and it had only cost £130,000 anyway....i asked him what he thought the chances of me spending 14k on a bathroom were?...he realised he was on a hiding to nothing commission-wise and left.

Did the same as above, went to B&Q and put a bathroom together for about £750 then had a local plumber fit it for a grand on top of that.

I'll be doing the same in the new year for our current house when we plan to do the bathroom.

Don't use B&Q. Our cupboards all started delaminating after a few years.

I've just fitted a big kitchen in our house (8mx7m, 21 units including a couple of full height larder units.) The units were 10k, with quartz, slate flooring, big range, american FF, and furniture bringing the total to 20k. It is solid wood frames/doors on oak veneered mdf carcasses, which I fitted/hand painted. For a bespoke, made to measure kitchen, it came in at half the prices quoted by Harvey Jones or Smallbone.

A photo of it nearly finished

[img][URL= http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/dantsw13/FHKJ1718_zpsrfektcoa.jp g" target="_blank">http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/dantsw13/FHKJ1718_zpsrfektcoa.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL][/img]

Alpha1653 - Member 
Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!

I'm in north Bristol and if you want I'll pass you the details of the local guy who did my plastering, electrics, plumbing and fitting. He's done my bathroom and kitchen now and I rate his work and I seem to recall he was a competitive price).

Mintman - Member

Alpha1653 - Member
Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!

I'm in north Bristol and if you want I'll pass you the details of the local guy who did my plastering, electrics, plumbing and fitting. He's done my bathroom and kitchen now and I rate his work and I seem to recall he was a competitive price).

That would be great, thanks! Could you drop the details to al_cave@hotmail.co.uk? Thanks a lot. 😀

Dantsw13 - amazing looking kitchen! I would love to get all hands on and everything but I've simply not got the time or the skill.

Thanks- I just posted up to show that it is possible to get the really high end kitchens without the 40k price tag! The in-frame units and solid carcasses are lovely, and really don't take that much to fit. As the units are solid, I reckon they are even easier than standard flat pack stuff to fit. As they are bespoke sizes, you don't need filler panels either. Solid kick panels and architrave really finish it off, and because it's hand painted, very easy to fill/sand/paint to match in.

Things like solid oak drawers (1m wide units on the island) are brilliant - all soft close 30kg capacity too.

Shopping around for handles is an eye opener, as is the prices kitchen shops charge for granite/quartz worktops. I've got 9m of carrrera quartz, which was £3k. Harvey Jones was double that.

I also sanded down all my old knackered oak worktops, cut them down to make chunky shelves and dresser tops. I've finished them in Matt OSMO to keep them looking rustic.

Other top tips, having fitted my last 3 kitchens:

Deep pan drawers much better than cupboards
Having always cooked on gas, I'm completely sold on induction
You can't have too many sockets! Get some USB ones too for charging
Pullout larders are great for all your dry food storage

May be good at DIY, but you didn't get the "Don't use Photobucket" memo eh? 😉

I am just south of Bristol outside of WSM and have just used a company called Better Kitchens, they have small showroom, can order all online and came built very solid units and they will do a design for you. Very reasonable price compared to the high street names

Dez - no, I moved from Flikr to photobucket last year, but as my wife loves to tell me I'm a techno Luddite!! What is the stw free hosting site these days? (It worked last night anyhow, butgone this morning 🙁 )

We're getting a U shaped layout of basically 3 metres each length. We've already got a fridge but are spaffing a bit on mid-range Neff appliances (2 ovens, extractor, 80cm induction hob & dishwasher), tall larder unit, integrated bin then one and a half lengths of wall units is coming in at 10k as well as a few extra units and laminate worktop for a utility room. The quartz worktop is 2.5k. Flooring is going to spread in to another area so not really included but we're budgeting £50 per sqm inc. fitting (hopefully).

So for what we think is a reasonable sized kitchen, with mid-range appliances and fittings we're looking at £12.5k, however all plastering and wiring is all part of a building project.

For tiling (slate) 40m2 floor area- not under cupboards and around island cost me £900 for oyster quartzite tiles, £400 for ufh boards, 500 for electric ufh and £1300 to fit, including self levelling the floor

Pieface - £50m/2 is a bit nett for tiling but ballpark. £30-£35 m2 labour is going rate at mo, plus tiles. If it's going onto a clean smoothish slab. Extra for underfloor heating or massive tiles or timber floor etc.