Kitchens from wickes

[theboyfold]

Hopefully this doesn't go against the naming and shaming rules.

On the hunt for a new kitchen and having never bought one before I'm not sure of where to look for a decent deal.

At the moment Wickes have what looks to be a good deal on, but I'm not sure what the quality is like and if they are 'expensive' or not.

I not after the be all and end all in terms of quality, just something functional for the 3/4 years we plan to spend at the place

[B17NNS]

I've fitted a couple of Wickes kitchens in my time. Quality is not bad at all for the price.

I'd recommend you try and find someone with an account at Howdens though if at all possible.

[missdiane]

Cue Cock Womble 7, I think he may be an expert in this area, not sure if he visits this forum if you want to give him a nudge

Edited by missdiane on Sunday 30th May 11:16

[B19GRR]

Are you looking at the flat pack DIY range or the more expensive range? We bodged together a utility recently with a couple of base units and some wall cupboards from the DIY range (Houston I think, plain white anyway). Yeah, they're OK really, decent fittings, all with soft close thingies. The only real complaint is the base level draw unit, assembling the draws is pretty much pure guess work due to lack of pre-drilled holes, and they don't come out straight no matter how much you point out the error of their ways to them!!

All of which is irrelevant if you're looking at the premade stuff.

Cheers,
Rob

[RedLCRB0b]

Our kitchen came from Wickes, fitted by us (well by my Dad and myself). We looked at loads of different options and in the end the only one that we liked was from Wickes. My Dad has fitted loads of kitchens from all the different manufacturers and he was very impressed with the Wickes stuff, it went together easily and the quality was pretty good. This was 4 years ago and the kitchen is still standing up to heavy everyday use, no problems with any of the doors dropping or working loose.

[Sticks.]

I had the total design, supply and install through Wickes and their approved installers. Like you, didn't want a Rolls Royce one, but not cheap one either. No real issues 4 years on. Bin's not much good, that's about it.

[x type]

I got a flat packed one fitted 4 months ago , not bad ,quite solid really when all fitted together ,cost £650 less than a similar one from b+q

If you buy their special offer kitchen sink ,the actual sink is smaller than normal ,we struggle to get large plates ,dishes in to wash them

One more thing to watch out for on the self assembly is ALL the end panels are white ,meaning like my place I had to buy 5 extra coloured end panels for the ends of the run of cupboards etc. at a cost of about £150 to match the coloured end panel on the floor to hold the worktop as you can see below



would I buy another ? ...... maybe

[theboyfold]

Thanks for the replies, I've been doing lots of sums tonight and it seems the best way to do it is take the current offer and get the appliances elsewhere.

[Trevelyan]

I bought and fitted a Wickes kitchen about two years ago, and my brother did the same thing a couple of months later. Having fitted half a dozen or so kitchens in my time I found Wickes to be far the best in terms of quality for the price. It's stood up to fairly heavy use without any problems so far. Another factor which shouldn't be underestimated if you're fitting it yourself is that the units all arrived on time, with no damage, and with no parts missing. They were also happy to sell me more cupboards that I knew I'd be able to use (one dimension of my kitchen was so tight it was impossible to tell beforehand whether I could squeeze the in the layout I wanted) and take back the unused units afterwards for a full refund.

I'd definitely use them again - they'll certainly be my first port of call next time I want a kitchen, and I'd only go elsewhere if I didn't like any of their styles at the time.

ETA:
I only bought the units themselves from Wickes, the worktops, sink and applicances came from other places, but I had no problems getting it all to work together.

Edited by Trevelyan on Sunday 30th May 22:39

[theboyfold]

Took a trip to Stevenage to a place called Wren Kitchens and was very impressed. The quality isn't quite up to the standard of Wickes, but I think that's mainly because we were looking at a solid wood cabinets and the ones at Wren are all MDF or something similar to that.

The price was very good though and the price on the appliances is actually better than I could get online. The only issue is that they don't provide fitting, so we would have to find somebody to do that for us.

Will be getting a quote from Wickes on Thursday to compare.

[m4ckg]

I'd be very surprised you'd get a solid wood kitchen 'off the shelf', nearly all are mfc but possibly have solid wood end panels.

I think the man behind Wren is the man who owned Mfi, the company went downhill after he sold it

Edited by m4ckg on Monday 31st May 23:22

[theboyfold]

m4ckg said:

I'd be very surprised you'd get a solid wood kitchen 'off the shelf', nearly all are mfc but possibly have solid wood end panels

The website says:

"Underneath the delicate painted finish of Heritage Bone lies pure, solid American oak framed doors with square veneered centre panels."

So I guess you are right. It's the heritage bone suite at Wickes: http://www.wickes.co.uk/pcat/kitchenshowroom?WT.ac...

[Simpo Two]

Don't see the point of solid wood if it's going to be painted!

[bga]

x type said:

One more thing to watch out for on the self assembly is ALL the end panels are white ,meaning like my place I had to buy 5 extra coloured end panels for the ends of the run of cupboards etc.

That depends on the kitchen. I have just fitted a Wickes Marlow kitchen and the panels are all cream.

Overall I was pretty pleased with the kitchen. Cabinets were easy to make and everything came up square. The larder unit with pull out cage was a bit fiddly and instructions were very bad (the internals are from another company).

The Wickes planner we got in to measure up wasn't very good. He mis-measured one wall and was 40mm out. Not good when I reconciled it against our measurements and had to re-work the design to account for the difference.

[zcacogp]

Another thumbs-up for Wickes kitchens.

I fitted my first kitchen about 2 years ago, and we went to Wickes on recommendation from PH. They had a good range of designs, but (more importantly), had a very good range of different cabinet sizes and styles in each different design. It meant you could design the kitchen you wanted, rather than having to design a kitchen around what shapes and sizes of cabinets they produced.

They seemed to have two 'levels' of kitchen; one was flat-packed and available in store, made of thinner stuff and aimed at the more budget market. The other was also flat-packed but had to be pre-ordered and made of thicker stuff. Most of their kitchens are of the latter type.

Quality seemed excellent to me. Everything went together well. The price was excellent (we bought worktops and cupboards from Wickes, but appliances, taps and sink from somewhere else.) The delivery was good, and they were quick to deliver replacements for the couple of items which arrived broken. And they allowed you to do silly things like mix-and-match the handles from a different style of kitchen.

I'd recommend them. (And their 'kitchen designer' - who pretty much just put together the shopping list of things we wanted - was called Colin Chapman. How can you argue with that! )


Oli.

[russ_a]

We visited all of the usual cheap kitchen places and a few semi-expensive ones and the wickes kitchen was by far the best. Though, if you didn't order soft close draws the draw sides were plastic rather than metal.

However, the bathroom items were all below standard, except for the bath as they never delivered it as they couldn't fit it in their van!

Have to agree that the planning chaps are rubbish too,

[hehdiddlydo]

Funnily enough we've been to Wren today looking at the quality of their units as we're doing a house up to sell. I worked as a kitchen designer for MFI for years, many years ago, so know what I'm looking at. You can buy solid wood doors from the 'sheds' the thing to look for is whether any knots etc on one side match up on the other. If they don't it's not solid wood. Remember to check for same on frame as well as inner panel of door. Nothing wrong with veneers but if you really want solid wood, that's how to be sure. Covered doors are generally made from MDF (medium density fibre board) stronger than chipboard and can be machined into carved shapes. Chipboard is what the carcasses are usually made of. Green chipboard is usually used for worktops and has extra protection against exploding Weetabix effect when wet. I don't believe any of the well known kitchen retailers sell anything other than robust, quality items and no I don't work in the industry now. Worktops should be at least 38mm thick to avoid sagging in long runs and designers are trained to offer many smaller units eg 2 400mm rather than 1 800mm. Yes it gives better storage but also bumps up the price. Think about the sizing of your doors. A 600mm one next to a row of 400mm ones looks odd. Go for 2x300mm to even it up. Keep the sizing of wall and base units similar for same reason. Carcasses are usually a standard colour so wherever you have an end showing, say next to an extractor or end of run, you usually need to buy a colour match end. Go for the plain ones as the fancy ones are expensive and take up room as they tend to go over the top rather than instead. Check how well the hinges and drawer runners in the showroom are standing up to daily use too. Remember 3m worktops are 3m. Daft sounding I know but the amount of people who buy them and then have no room to manouvre them let along carry them is shocking. Biscuit joints make your kitchen look 100 x better so pay a joiner to avoid spoiling the look - same with cornice if you haven't got the skills/tools to do it. Hope this helps.

[theboyfold]

Thanks for the input, what did you think of the quality of the stuff from Wren? I thought it was ok, passable really, which is the level I'm looking at getting to be honest. The appliances are very good prices, which is refreshing.

[Simpo Two]

One thing that can make a cheap kitchen feel much more expensive is soft-close hinges and runners. I spent a little time 'upgrading' my Hygena MFI kitchen into a Schreiber MFI kitchen (they said it was impossible) and it was well worth it.

[theboyfold]

They all come as standard with Wren. One thing we are thinking of splashing out on it a solid wood work surface and an induction hob.