Kitchens are a bloody rip-off, tips please
Discussion
I just want to bolt in an inoffensive, clean looking kitchen for a house sale.
I get quotes for up to 5 grand for what is essentially a pile of nasty chipboard and mdf. To give an example Wickes "Base E/Wg curve 300"... £536. Over £500 for a chipboard cuboard. And thats apparently half price! How do they get away with it?
Any thought on how to lessen the blow?
A trawl of ebay has found solid wood worktops for next to nothing, franke s/s sink for £62.50 delivered, various cheap taps.
I still need units (annoyingly B&Q are the cheapest of the usual suspects), oven, hob and extractor.
Are there any deals going or tricks I can use to get this done cheaply without it looking obviously cheap n nasty? Thanks!
I get quotes for up to 5 grand for what is essentially a pile of nasty chipboard and mdf. To give an example Wickes "Base E/Wg curve 300"... £536. Over £500 for a chipboard cuboard. And thats apparently half price! How do they get away with it?
Any thought on how to lessen the blow?
A trawl of ebay has found solid wood worktops for next to nothing, franke s/s sink for £62.50 delivered, various cheap taps.
I still need units (annoyingly B&Q are the cheapest of the usual suspects), oven, hob and extractor.
Are there any deals going or tricks I can use to get this done cheaply without it looking obviously cheap n nasty? Thanks!
I feel your pain (albeit more so). I am pricing up my new kitchen and it's coming to about £25k as it stands.
What I've found is that the applicance costs are not too bad (I think for what you are getting), the Corian costs are extortionate, but worst of all are the cabinet costs. Some places are charging what is effectively £1k for a single drawer, it's mad.
My plan at the moment is to break it all up into individual components which we will mix and match from the likes of Howden, but I'd also be very interested in hearing any other places which sell the carcasses.
What I've found is that the applicance costs are not too bad (I think for what you are getting), the Corian costs are extortionate, but worst of all are the cabinet costs. Some places are charging what is effectively £1k for a single drawer, it's mad.
My plan at the moment is to break it all up into individual components which we will mix and match from the likes of Howden, but I'd also be very interested in hearing any other places which sell the carcasses.
Muncher said:
Just moved in and bought a kitchen from them, its really good solid stuff, the manufacturing video shows the process too. gonna have a full on build thread once the jobs done in prob 2 weeks as I have zero time to keep up a blog with working all hours too! Even with homebase 60% off and another 20% special in January they were still about 1/3 cheaper, but note any curved units are ridiculously expensive, twice the straight equivalent.
For a bogo house sale I'd do an ikea jobby they hav a 10yr guarantee and great vfm.
Matt
I feel your kitchen pain. What follows is not meant to be a boast just my experience.......
Building a house in the US has been a learning experience. We were amused by the fact our builder just flatly told us that we have to buy everything through him at 30% mark up on list price do he can make a profit. This meant his prices were triple what we would pay from a shop. It was the kitchen where we were most shocked The "standard" kitchen comes with solid wood cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Counter tops are granite including the island. The estimate for the kitchen as standard was $20k. We wanted to make a few changes so we met with the kitchen guy. After an hour we had specified $60k in upgrades to the wood components alone! With our new appliance choices and the other fittings such as lights the kitchen was now at $100k all in. I spoke with a guy at the US equivalent of B&Q who said he could do the same kitchen cabinets for $15k. That's a drop from approximately $60k for the cabinets. The kitchen would have been nice but not worth anywhere near that much. We even toyed with the idea of letting them do the standard kitchen and pulling it out and replacing it before we moved in. What we have ended up with is a moderate kitchen at still an inflated cost but something closer to reality. We are taking standard appliances and will either sell or donate them. We are then having ones of our choice fitted before moving in. Its cheaper to give away the standard stuff than pay for the upgrade. They also refuse to supply a fridge.
I will never buy a house from a developer again. It's galling paying someone to rip you off. Especially as my with is a professional project manager and has driven the build of our house more than the developer.
Building a house in the US has been a learning experience. We were amused by the fact our builder just flatly told us that we have to buy everything through him at 30% mark up on list price do he can make a profit. This meant his prices were triple what we would pay from a shop. It was the kitchen where we were most shocked The "standard" kitchen comes with solid wood cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Counter tops are granite including the island. The estimate for the kitchen as standard was $20k. We wanted to make a few changes so we met with the kitchen guy. After an hour we had specified $60k in upgrades to the wood components alone! With our new appliance choices and the other fittings such as lights the kitchen was now at $100k all in. I spoke with a guy at the US equivalent of B&Q who said he could do the same kitchen cabinets for $15k. That's a drop from approximately $60k for the cabinets. The kitchen would have been nice but not worth anywhere near that much. We even toyed with the idea of letting them do the standard kitchen and pulling it out and replacing it before we moved in. What we have ended up with is a moderate kitchen at still an inflated cost but something closer to reality. We are taking standard appliances and will either sell or donate them. We are then having ones of our choice fitted before moving in. Its cheaper to give away the standard stuff than pay for the upgrade. They also refuse to supply a fridge.
I will never buy a house from a developer again. It's galling paying someone to rip you off. Especially as my with is a professional project manager and has driven the build of our house more than the developer.
if you know someone with a tradepoint card in B&Q, or you can blag being a property developer its about 20% off the price of kitchens, and then if you can find someone on their kitchen fitters list thats another 20% off, ive seen quotes for a boggo kitchen for around £500 plus appliances which will be another £250ish although comet etc are usally better
sinks about £30 and a cheap tap about £20
or get a quote from homebase etc and then get B&Q to price match it since they beat any price
sinks about £30 and a cheap tap about £20
or get a quote from homebase etc and then get B&Q to price match it since they beat any price
Muncher said:
I feel your pain (albeit more so). I am pricing up my new kitchen and it's coming to about £25k as it stands.
What I've found is that the applicance costs are not too bad (I think for what you are getting), the Corian costs are extortionate, but worst of all are the cabinet costs. Some places are charging what is effectively £1k for a single drawer, it's mad.
My plan at the moment is to break it all up into individual components which we will mix and match from the likes of Howden, but I'd also be very interested in hearing any other places which sell the carcasses.
I think maybe you should re consider corian. Your local stonemason should be able to supply and fix granite or quartz worktops which are both vastly superior to corian at 30-40% cheaper priceWhat I've found is that the applicance costs are not too bad (I think for what you are getting), the Corian costs are extortionate, but worst of all are the cabinet costs. Some places are charging what is effectively £1k for a single drawer, it's mad.
My plan at the moment is to break it all up into individual components which we will mix and match from the likes of Howden, but I'd also be very interested in hearing any other places which sell the carcasses.
Benchmarx are the trade arm of Wickes, and sell exactly the same kitchens at roughly half the cost of a Wickes "half price" sale.
They sell direct to the public also, and you don't need a trade account or have to buy through a builder like Howdens insist on.
http://www.benchmarxjoinery.co.uk/
They sell direct to the public also, and you don't need a trade account or have to buy through a builder like Howdens insist on.
http://www.benchmarxjoinery.co.uk/
I'm about to go down the B&Q route and I'll update this thread with my findings.
I'm planning to do most of the work myself but get a professional in for the bits involving plumbing and tiling. Plumbing isn't something I really want to "have a go" at, since mistakes can be very costly. Tiling is something I can do, but a professional can doubtless do much better.
I looked at both B&Q and Ikea. I felt the quality of the Cooke and Lewis stuff at B&Q was a bit better. And I had more confidence that B&Q would look after me. With Ikea it can be a bit of an ordeal returning stuff.
B&Q is only 2 miles away from me and I like the idea of being able to go and buy/swap/return bits as needed, rather than waiting for Internet stuff to arrive and hoping it's OK. Particularly since I'll be doing the job over a few weeks, in spare evenings. And there is a part of me that wants to support bricks and mortar shops who make an effort with staff etc.
I'm planning to do most of the work myself but get a professional in for the bits involving plumbing and tiling. Plumbing isn't something I really want to "have a go" at, since mistakes can be very costly. Tiling is something I can do, but a professional can doubtless do much better.
I looked at both B&Q and Ikea. I felt the quality of the Cooke and Lewis stuff at B&Q was a bit better. And I had more confidence that B&Q would look after me. With Ikea it can be a bit of an ordeal returning stuff.
B&Q is only 2 miles away from me and I like the idea of being able to go and buy/swap/return bits as needed, rather than waiting for Internet stuff to arrive and hoping it's OK. Particularly since I'll be doing the job over a few weeks, in spare evenings. And there is a part of me that wants to support bricks and mortar shops who make an effort with staff etc.
AmitG said:
I looked at both B&Q and Ikea. I felt the quality of the Cooke and Lewis stuff at B&Q was a bit better. And I had more confidence that B&Q would look after me. With Ikea it can be a bit of an ordeal returning stuff.
It's true that B&Q are very good with returns, and there's also someone in store to ask for advice. By contrast IKEA is more like Heathrow airport - and you need to know that the Splog fits into the Blat and is twice the size of a Thurgson.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff