New Kitchen advice

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vincent

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Buying a new kitchen. Anyone able to provide some advice in respect to the best way to do this? Not sure whether to buy a kitchen from Wren (or similar type of company) and ask them to also do the fitting etc. Or just buy the kitchen only and then get a fitter from mybuilder (or similar) and ask them to fit it.
 
vincent said:
Buying a new kitchen. Anyone able to provide some advice in respect to the best way to do this? Not sure whether to buy a kitchen from Wren (or similar type of company) and ask them to also do the fitting etc. Or just buy the kitchen only and then get a fitter from mybuilder (or similar) and ask them to fit it.
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I've heard Wren are pretty poor quality. We bought ours from Ikea and they organised the fitter. All seems fine 5 years on.
 
Howden's kitchen are great. However trying to find somebody with an account is harder.
I'm in the property business, yet if you don't buy with them regularly, they close your account.
 
If you go into Howdens they normally have a board with trade's peoples cards and have a chat with the people who work there
 
fulabeer said:
Howden's kitchen are great. However trying to find somebody with an account is harder.
I'm in the property business, yet if you don't buy with them regularly, they close your account.
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We have a Howdens kitchen. We had the full house refeb'd by a builder but we said we would get an Ikea kitchen as we have had one before and they were/are fine.

Builder said give me the plan and costing and i will see if i can match it. He ended up about 10/20% more by the time we had bought all the bits but was a decent firm and quality is better so we went with it. Without the attempt to price match Ikea i think it would have been 40/50% more. Most kitchen fitter specialists don't pass on the trade discount but ours did as he was already on site and it was easier for him to get his own people to fit.
 
Spent 12 months looking at kitchens and what I would say is go to somewhere like Wrens for ideas and look at sizes of things like worktops, cupboards, islands etc. Wren tends to be cheap but they make up for it by charging over the odds for fitting. I would recommend going with a specialist kitchen firm and asking them to fit
 
we went to IKEA and Howdens, we were warned away from Wren as the uptick in price (inc. fitting) is not reflected in the quality (that was 2 people telling me)

IKEA was cheap, no doubt, but two things we got held up on: 1) the quality wasnt really that good and 2) the fitter was not keen at all b'cos if something breaks, something is missing etc, and you dont live near IKEA then you get delays and more delays (there are ALWAYS delays, you dont want more).

We went with Howdens, who busted a gut to price match with IKEA (they ended up ~15% over) and the lass was extremely helpful with the kitchen design. One thing that further concerned me about IKEA was that the Howdens designers were a bit shocked at what the IKEA designer had reckoned could be done. Now that it's fitted i am inclined to agree; i cannot see how IKEA's was remotely possible and it was quoted up and ready to buy, i dread to think what problems that would have caused down the line. We were on a treadmill at IKEA, a queue of people waiting for designs so i cant see how the real thought can be given - was really handy to see it on paper though :D. our Howdens is decent quality without being amazing, happy with it.
 
Did mine last year had a local company come out and we sorted the design between us.
Then went into their showroom and chose units work tops etc. Sourced my own cooker/fridge etc and they fitted it all. Based in Middleton so not sure if local to you Vincent.
 
Hes the left back remember said:
Did mine last year had a local company come out and we sorted the design between us.
Then went into their showroom and chose units work tops etc. Sourced my own cooker/fridge etc and they fitted it all. Based in Middleton so not sure if local to you Vincent.
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yeah good advice, dont take Howdens white wear as it's not very good, and IKEA charge way too much. get your own delivered. this is a big saving i reckon.
 
Depends on your budget, if you want to do it on the cheap, I would buy your units from b&q most units are flat pack anyway and if installed properly will be fine, your biggest cost will be appliances which you can find on internet and choose your doors and worktops from a supplier. Job sorted or 10k for a company to rip you off,
 
My son works as joiner/fitter for a kitchen installer. In fact that do all fitting in a house. The fact they don't need to advertise but have plenty of work tells you the quality and competitive price.

My advice would always go with recommendations whatever the job

Good luck in your search
 
As others have said always try and get somebody who is recommended, I waited six months for my bathroom because I knew the quality of the work would be top notch having seen work carried out at my mates . The lad who did it doesn’t advertise because he gets recommended all the time .
 
Depends on your budget - kitchens are typically the area of a home you dedicate the majority of your housing budget on. Kitchen specialists are the best approach but come at a cost. However, they provide a wealth of options on top of their experience

For our house, we spent many months with a specialist (No cost) designing & planning based on thelayout and they installed (with precision) within 24hrs. 5 1/2 years later, the only regret I have is a bar we have that I wanted something different (But balked at the price) - else, fantastically happy with the result & function, appearance of the kitchen
 
We used a local fitting firm who specialise in bespoke German kitchens. It was made in Germany. Built within 2 days of delivery. Nothing wrong, everything fitted superbly.

Did the same with the main bedroom.

Worth it as its 6 years old now and looks as new.
 
Surely worth checking the small print of the house insurance? Fairly straightforward to engineer a convincing 'accidental' fire in the kitchen and should pay for a redec of the rest of the downstairs +carpets if done well.
 
I sell fitted kitchens. I’ve been in the business for fifteen years but I can’t actually cook.
 
I sometimes fit kitchens in my job as a building contractor, I dont specialise in it though, I have experience with a few of the afforementioned companies but can only say as I have found. Wren seemed fine,quality good and easy to deal with(some parts were branded Howdens on reverse too).Howdens are a good company too, I used them sometimes and kept an account going for when a kitchen job came up, although Ive let it go now as I am starting to wind down. My experience with Ikea not so good,some end/fascia panels a bit flimsy (reversible)and had to use my own wall cabinet fixings as I didnt trust theirs,also they couldnt cut a worktop to the right length for us.After the third attempt( a week each time)we ordered it oversized and had it cut ourselves. One you might consider is B and Q higher end stuff,Cooke and Lewis, good quality,easy to get bits for and a good price(we got one ourselves).Of course you can pay as much as you like(and there are some cracking kitchens out there), but no matter how long it lasts, you might want a change of style after a few years anyway. As regards fitting, try to get someone whos been recommended or has fitted for friends etc as the fitting is probably the most important aspect. Anyway,good luck and I hope it goes well.
 
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