Kitchens - cheap vs expensive

[Promised Land]

Sheepshanks said:

Are the quartz guys going to template the quartz before the temporary worktops are fitted?

The days of cutting plastic templates have long gone, the worktop outfit will set a laser up in the room and measure every 100mm or so along the walls, Wren for one issue a temporary worktop and sink to fit before the chap comes to measure up for quartz worktops so it’s common practice now.

As long as your base units are spot on level and all in line, ie packed off the wall with shims if the wall is all over the place the quartz tops will be measured with temporary worktop fitted.

[Sheepshanks]

Promised Land said:

….the quartz tops will be measured with temporary worktop fitted.

Thanks - we had it done a few mths ago but I wondered if the kitchen could be lasered with the temporary worktops in place.

[Wagonwheel555]

FWIW said:

I would implore you to avoid Wren, if only for your own sanity.
You might get lucky, but if not they’ll take you to hell and back.
It’s really not worth the risk.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the fitters are building in some fluff factor for when they have to keep coming back to fit replacements for the almost inevitable damaged or missing items.

Edited by FWIW on Friday 30th December 23:22

We ordered it a year ago, wife has adjusted it about 5 times. There is no way we can go back to square one and start again with someone else, it’s been stressful enough pretending to offer my input up until now.

Honestly at a point where I just don’t care anymore, she wanted Wren so she can deal with the consequences

[FWIW]

Wagonwheel555 said:

We ordered it a year ago, wife has adjusted it about 5 times. There is no way we can go back to square one and start again with someone else, it’s been stressful enough pretending to offer my input up until now.

Honestly at a point where I just don’t care anymore, she wanted Wren so she can deal with the consequences

Fair enough. Good luck!

[Road2Ruin]

Wagonwheel555 said:

Honestly at a point where I just don’t care anymore, she wanted Wren so she can deal with the consequences

Anything goes wrong in my house....it's my fault.

[HRH2009]

Road2Ruin said:

Anything goes wrong in my house....it's my fault.

I know the feeling!

[Joe M]

Meeten-5dulx said:

Fife OK for you? I had a kitchen fitted by a chap from there and can highly recommend.
It was around Xmas last year that I contacted him and it was installed at Easter.
He powered through the installation and is a perfectionist.

We put in a kitchen by Zurfiz
https://blossomavenue.co.uk/kitchens/zurfiz-serica...

Day 2 Carcass internals


With front units
[url]

Peninsula with hob
|https://thumbsnap.com/MMNbuffC[/url][url]


|https://thumbsnap.com/KV4fGEfk[/url]


There was an issue with the induction hob - Neff have a trapezoid shape outlet and I hadn't got the correct adapter.
He worked out some modification (rather than tools down) and just got on with the job in hand.

we wanted the hinges changed to the other side for the fridge and freezer a couple of weeks after fitting and he came back and changed it to ensure we were happy.

Website isn't up to much, but service was brilliant
https://hifkitchens.co.uk/

Big D is the fella - happy to talk more over DM and welcome to see his handiwork if you want.

Nearly finished....

Edited by Meeten-5dulx on Friday 30th December 00:08

That looks decent, thanks. I'll check out the site.

[Meeten-5dulx]

Joe M said:

That looks decent, thanks. I'll check out the site.

Worthwhile considering him.
There will be cheaper, (and more expensive) but his quality of work is top notch.

[James6112]

Wagonwheel555 said:

FWIW said:

I would implore you to avoid Wren, if only for your own sanity.
You might get lucky, but if not they’ll take you to hell and back.
It’s really not worth the risk.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the fitters are building in some fluff factor for when they have to keep coming back to fit replacements for the almost inevitable damaged or missing items.

Edited by FWIW on Friday 30th December 23:22

We ordered it a year ago, wife has adjusted it about 5 times. There is no way we can go back to square one and start again with someone else, it’s been stressful enough pretending to offer my input up until now.

Honestly at a point where I just don’t care anymore, she wanted Wren so she can deal with the consequences

The vast majority have no problems at all.
You’ll find people whinging about every kitchen supplier out there. A few have problems & that’s all you hear about.

Enjoy your new kitchen. couldn’t be happier with my Wren kitchen & the service received

[FWIW]

James6112 said:

The vast majority have no problems at all.
You’ll find people whinging about every kitchen supplier out there. A few have problems & that’s all you hear about.

Enjoy your new kitchen. couldn’t be happier with my Wren kitchen & the service received

What do you call a ‘vast majority’? Wren had 56% customer satisfaction rating in the Which Report and consistently come bottom in their surveys. It’s not ‘a few’ having problems - Wren are notorious for it.

[PaulJC84]

A friends parents were getting a kitchen recently from the company above. The number of doors etc that showed up damaged was unbelieveable.

The fitter was very helpful and rejected any damaged items and they ended up with 28 spare (but damaged) doors!

[OutInTheShed]

PaulJC84 said:

A friends parents were getting a kitchen recently from the company above. The number of doors etc that showed up damaged was unbelieveable.

The fitter was very helpful and rejected any damaged items and they ended up with 28 spare (but damaged) doors!

I know someone whose kitchen has all it doors from customer rejects.
If you like wood and are handy with sandpaper and varnish, may the odd bit of veneer, moulding and glue, it's amazing what can be done.

A couple in the Sailing Club have a lovely kitchen.
They were once asked 'Was it very expensive?', which got the reply, 'Yes, bloody hundreds, which was a lot of money back then.'
He built it when they got married, which must be a while back, their grandson is a big lout now.
I've seen a lot of expensive kitchens looking quite tired at 5 years old.

[sutoka]

Minsky said:

I can’t be doing with pricing nonsense. I want to know the price I pay is fair.

It's deliberately confusing it's how they try and prevent the customers comparing and contrasting against competitors. I seen it all, every excuse in the book.

Go into a kitchen place and say your budget is £10k and you will every single penny of that. Try and save money, play one kitchen shed off against the other and they will put obstacles in your way and try and bamboozle you. One of the most ridiculous is using carcass thickness of 1mm difference to explain £2k price differences between two shed kitchens which came from the same German factory.

[skeeterm5]

Meeten-5dulx said:

Worthwhile considering him.
There will be cheaper, (and more expensive) but his quality of work is top notch.

Can I ask how much more installation added to the cost of the units on the website?

[Yazza54]

sutoka said:

Minsky said:

I can’t be doing with pricing nonsense. I want to know the price I pay is fair.

It's deliberately confusing it's how they try and prevent the customers comparing and contrasting against competitors. I seen it all, every excuse in the book.

Go into a kitchen place and say your budget is £10k and you will every single penny of that. Try and save money, play one kitchen shed off against the other and they will put obstacles in your way and try and bamboozle you. One of the most ridiculous is using carcass thickness of 1mm difference to explain £2k price differences between two shed kitchens which came from the same German factory.

You should never walk in and tell them what your budget is though, you really ought to have some idea as to whether you can afford what you want before you get there but just tell them what you want and then you can work it down from there if needs be after going away for a think about it.

[Wagonwheel555]

Having ours fitted in a months time.

Quote ended up around £8k inc VAT.

Needed £3300 worth of electrics, new circuits in the kitchen for lighting, sockets, hob/oven and new consumer unit with RCBOs etc.

Got four quotes and they were all about the same so its clearly the going rate. Ours is not just a dry fit, it includes electrics, plastering, tiling, plumbing and virtually everything except the flooring and worktops.

Edited by Wagonwheel555 on Wednesday 8th February 08:29

[Joe M]

Wagonwheel555 said:

Having ours fitted in a months time.

Quote ended up around £8k + VAT.

Needed £3300 worth of electrics, new circuits in the kitchen for lighting, sockets, hob/oven and new consumer unit with RCBOs etc.

Got four quotes and they were all about the same so its clearly the going rate. Ours is not just a dry fit, it includes electrics, plastering, tiling, plumbing and virtually everything except the flooring and worktops.

Looking at your previous post, with the kitchen, appliances and worktop on top of that for around 15, so £23k all in?

I've had 2 quotes for my kitchen, one of them is 22.5 without appliances or paint. The other was 33 with appliances, but no paint or flooring.
Regardless of the price, I much prefer the cheaper one, locally built cabinets with second nature doors, silestone worktop etc. So much so, deposit is paid.

[MrJuice]

singlecoil said:

My answer will be from the perspective of a small volume kitchen maker, rather than a buyer.

I believe that what my customers (and those of the other makers on PH) are looking for is a personal service and a quality build. They don't want to have to design the kitchen themselves, they don't want it to be made of melamine faced chipboard and they will often need to have the units made to specific, non-standard sizes in order to fit the space they have and to provide symmetry and balance. And they don't want to have to pay fancypants prices.

Hi

Just saw on your profile that you no longer make kitchens. Are you able to say who you'd recommend?

Thanks

[singlecoil]

MrJuice said:

Hi

Just saw on your profile that you no longer make kitchens. Are you able to say who you'd recommend?

Thanks

My inclination would be to locate one or more local joinery firms and see if any of them offer kitchens, I know plenty of them do. You'll probably pay a bit more than if you went with a national company but it will in all likelihood be a better option and worth the extra.

[Wagonwheel555]

Joe M said:

Looking at your previous post, with the kitchen, appliances and worktop on top of that for around 15, so £23k all in?

I've had 2 quotes for my kitchen, one of them is 22.5 without appliances or paint. The other was 33 with appliances, but no paint or flooring.
Regardless of the price, I much prefer the cheaper one, locally built cabinets with second nature doors, silestone worktop etc. So much so, deposit is paid.

A quick totting up and I am around:

£11500 for Kitchen itself including Double Oven, Fridge/Freezer, Hob and Dishwasher (we have our own WM)
£8000 for fitting including stripping all walls of tiling, replaster, plumbing (DW, WM and Rad), new electrics including new consumer unit, tiling splashback.
£200 for radiator
£2500 approx for Quartz
£1500 approx for flooring (Amtico glue down)
£100 for tiles

Around £23800 mark ish total from start to finish plus a hundred quid for paint.
Assuming I have to buy sockets also so say another £100 if we want metal ones.

I am sure there are a few more bits we need so I reckon we will be close to the £25k mark when finished but that seems ok to me. The kitchen was tired and old and we are going for something much more modern and bright with quartz tops so I am hopeful it would add a decent amount towards the house value, although not the £25k we are spending. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, lots of cooking and with a breakfast bar we eat in there most of the time so its worth us spending the money.

Kitchen is around 3.5m x 3.5m.