Kitchens are a bloody rip-off, tips please

[Hornsey]

I've used www.diy-kitchens.com and www.withknobson.com in the past and have been very happy with both.

[transactor]

http://www.gower-furniture.co.uk/ check the price list in the download section

Ig you buy from Stax you can take about 25% off them prices

[-Pete-]

brickwall said:

We fitted out our utility room with carcasses from Howdens. Reasonable quality, and damn cheap. Also, don't ever pay full price.I think we got about 50% off list.

We did our kitchen & utility using Howdens cabinets (I agree about expecting >50% discount off list) and granite from cargogranite in Bedford, both extremely good service and value for money.

[brickwall]

-Pete- said:

brickwall said:

We fitted out our utility room with carcasses from Howdens. Reasonable quality, and damn cheap. Also, don't ever pay full price.I think we got about 50% off list.

We did our kitchen & utility using Howdens cabinets (I agree about expecting >50% discount off list) and granite from cargogranite in Bedford, both extremely good service and value for money.

We're fitting out our kitchen with stuff from Harvey Jones. Bloody expensive.
And the service has been truly terrible (especially given how much we're spending with them). If we'd known how awful the service would be we'd never have signed the contract, and probably just got the whole lot from Howdens instead.

[SuperHangOn]

AmitG said:

I'm about to go down the B&Q route and I'll update this thread with my findings.

Me too, ordered from B&Q kitchen in the end because the whole process was getting too boring! Went for the cheaper IT cupboards with cooke & lewis white gloss doors, came to about £1500 (units only). Could have bought a decent MX5 for that.

Will pick up the worktops, sink etc on ebay

[solo2]

My kitchen came from www.lanzet.co.uk and all in but fitting it ourselves came to £10K, only 3£k of which was for the units although this was 8 years back.

The kitchen still looks like new and shows no sign of wear, something our previous kitchen did after just 5 years.

I'd have no hesitation to use Lanzet again.

[Craikeybaby]

It seems like the OP is sorted now, but I'll add my experience for anyone else reading in the future.

We went to a local guy, who makes all the carcasses on site etc, then to Magnet to see how much cheaper it would be from a big chain, but even with a supposed 50% sale on the cabinets (we chose their cheapest range too) Magnet were still twice the price of the local guy. So it could be worth looking at smaller companies too.

[Autopilot]

I'm on the cusp of doing my kitchen so thanks for all the decent links!

I bought a kitchen, must have been about 5 years ago now and tried all the usual places. The place I disliked the most was Homebase as not only was everything horrendously overpriced, their design service was pretty naff in my experience. I took the dimensions of the room in and the man just dropped and dragged units about so they fit in the space available leaving appliances etc exactly where they were. I went to Wickes (Hove) and the chap there actually designed something and put in under cabinet fridge and freezer to make the best use of the space and not have a horrible freestanding fridge/freezer as soon as you walk in to what was essentially and almost open plan downstairs.

I had the whole kitchen done, replastered, tiles/tiling, new plumbing, electrics, all new appliances, including fitting for around £5k. The kitchen was of reasonable quality, fairly good appliances etc, but the bit I saved the most money on was the fitting. A couple of chaps who work as kitchen fitters for a Local Housing Authority ripped the old kitchen out and got the new one in around a day and a half. They were serious grafters and did an impeccable job! I was going to do the tiling, but they did such a good job that I thought my work would let the room down so they 'kindly' gave me the details of their tiler and he came and did it all.

My current place place has a very long kitchen so feel comfortable buying from somewhere like diy-kitchens and get the guys I used last time to do their magic. 'Most' of the regular places, Homebase etc all wanted around 15k for installation! I paid £750 in used notes.

[SuperHangOn]

If I was doing the kitchen for keeps I would have gone for the Ikea Varde freestanders. I reckon they could look great with a bit of jigging around and very hygienic as you can clean underneath. Solid beech too.

Not sure what buyers would have made of them though so I played it safe with a boring white fitted.

[paul0843]

Craikeybaby said:

It seems like the OP is sorted now, but I'll add my experience for anyone else reading in the future.

We went to a local guy, who makes all the carcasses on site etc, then to Magnet to see how much cheaper it would be from a big chain, but even with a supposed 50% sale on the cabinets (we chose their cheapest range too) Magnet were still twice the price of the local guy. So it could be worth looking at smaller companies too.

I love the magnet 50% sale..

We sell an average granite worktop for about £2k.. They start at £6-7k but give
a 50% discount.. What a load of boxxxxs....It shouldn't be allowed..

[dazV12]

I fit kitchens for a living and benchmarx are the cheapest and best quality ( cushon close hinges and draws as standard ) closely followed by magnet then howdens I don't bother with b&q and never use idea as there is no service gap behind the units to run your pipes and electrics , however the solid wood work tops are cheaper at Ikea by far and also draw dividers etc are cheap
Hope this helps

[Muncher]

dazV12 said:

I fit kitchens for a living and benchmarx are the cheapest and best quality ( cushon close hinges and draws as standard ) closely followed by magnet then howdens I don't bother with b&q and never use idea as there is no service gap behind the units to run your pipes and electrics , however the solid wood work tops are cheaper at Ikea by far and also draw dividers etc are cheap
Hope this helps

Have you seen anything by DIY-kitchens.com? The Benchmarx range looks good, how easy is it to open a trade account there? What kind of discounts do they offer to trade? PM me if you'd rather not post here.

[Podie]

When designing a kitchen, try and use fewer units that are as large as possible. For example a 1000 unit will cost less than 2x 500s.

Might sound obvious, but the "designers" in stores are really just salesmen who know how to maximise spend.

[Chimune]

FLGirl said:

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/

This stuff looks great - however, been to Wicks - chose the style we like, saw it on the Benchmarx site, but i just spoke to them and:
a - they dont sell to the public and
b - there isnt a joiner with a trade account near me

[rsv gone!]

Podie said:

When designing a kitchen, try and use fewer units that are as large as possible. For example a 1000 unit will cost less than 2x 500s.

Might sound obvious, but the "designers" in stores are really just salesmen who know how to maximise spend.

I used to fit (only) kitchens and I always recommended the opposite. Two smaller cabinets are stronger than one larger one. This is especially relevant with wall units.

[Podie]

rsv gone! said:

Podie said:

When designing a kitchen, try and use fewer units that are as large as possible. For example a 1000 unit will cost less than 2x 500s.

Might sound obvious, but the "designers" in stores are really just salesmen who know how to maximise spend.

I used to fit (only) kitchens and I always recommended the opposite. Two smaller cabinets are stronger than one larger one. This is especially relevant with wall units.

Interesting, and worth knowing.

[anonymous-user]

Chimune said:

This stuff looks great - however, been to Wicks - chose the style we like, saw it on the Benchmarx site, but i just spoke to them and:
a - they dont sell to the public and
b - there isnt a joiner with a trade account near me

Try and get your own trade account, you are temporarily going into the Kitchen Fitting business after all

http://www.benchmarxjoinery.co.uk/wrms/downloads/d...

[dmitsi]

Chimune said:

This stuff looks great - however, been to Wicks - chose the style we like, saw it on the Benchmarx site, but i just spoke to them and:
a - they dont sell to the public and
b - there isnt a joiner with a trade account near me

Which one did you go to? We had no problem picking stuff up from them. They said they would sell to the public but weren't allowed to advertise.

[spats]

We spent ages at the usual suspects (Howdens, Magnet, Wicks, BandQ etc) getting prices for our new kitchen.

Prices were from 5k down to about 3.5K without fitting. Also some of the so called "designers" couldnt design their way out of a paper bag, let alone listen to what we wanted.

Went online and build ours using the Ikea system. Went in store and pulled it up on their system, a lady came over and helped with the final bits and made sure we ordered everything like the drain pipes etc and it came in at under 3k WITH all appliances we needed. Also got another 300 quid back to spend in store.

I built the units (after they delivered it) and I've got a carpenter friend to fit them. So far hes very impressed and said the only difference he can see with magent/howdens/wicks etc is the thinner rear sections of the cabinets. But when properly secured to the wall isnt an issue.

Had an issue with the wrong doors turning up, went and swapped them after 90 days without hassle.

Nice worktops too.

[andy43]

Bluequay said:

Chimune said:

This stuff looks great - however, been to Wicks - chose the style we like, saw it on the Benchmarx site, but i just spoke to them and:
a - they dont sell to the public and
b - there isnt a joiner with a trade account near me

Try and get your own trade account, you are temporarily going into the Kitchen Fitting business after all

http://www.benchmarxjoinery.co.uk/wrms/downloads/d...

Worked for me with a different supplier - just phoned them and told them I was trade and wanted one of their kitchens.
I opened a mail.com account with a property managment trade sounding name and IIRC I had to email them a letterhead as well. I was quite pleased with that letterhead
All the bits delivered to the door fairly quickly, on time, in perfect condition, with a decent discount and no missing bits. Beat that B&Q. We (wife and I) did do all the design ourselves using google sketchup and alcohol, with a brief trip to the fantasy land of Magnet for a poorer attempt at the same design.
Have a go - you'll save money and avoid the designaaaaaars salesmen.