New Kitchens

O O

Otamendi's Beard

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Joined
11 Jul 2007
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4,422
So we're in the dreaded process of finding a new kitchen.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

So far we've looked at Wren, Howdens, local firm, IKEA, etc, but finding the balance between value and quality is bloody difficult!!
 
We've just gone through the same process.
IKEA will charge you to come and measure up, although fee is knocked off the price of the kitchen if you order from them.
After looking round a number of independent firms, we opted to get one from Wickes. We paid to have it fitted by their fitter - really professional and finished the job in a week. No complaints at all.
Wickes tried to sell us appliances as part of the package - we found their products fairly limited, and so we sourced these ourselves, separately.
The kitchen fitter recommended his mate (also works for Wickes) to give us a quote for tiling. We took him up on this, and gave a competitive quote - we bought the tiles and he fitted in less than a day.

One thing to be aware of (dependant in the age of your property), there have been changes to Electric Regs and our fuse box needed to be replaced and new wiring installed into kitchen. Wickes quoted for this, but we arranged to have this done by relative who is a spark.

All in all, the missus is really pleased with the finished job!
 
we used howdens. The 'designer' was bobbins but gave us a good idea of what we could have, and it was free, no hassle visit.
Quality is bang on as was price. Had to go back a couple of times for missing bits but was no bother.

Dont forget to get them little clear strips that go on bottom of kick boards and, pun intended' splash out on a good tap.
 
Joe CurryGan said:
We've just gone through the same process.
IKEA will charge you to come and measure up, although fee is knocked off the price of the kitchen if you order from them.
After looking round a number of independent firms, we opted to get one from Wickes. We paid to have it fitted by their fitter - really professional and finished the job in a week. No complaints at all.
Wickes tried to sell us appliances as part of the package - we found their products fairly limited, and so we sourced these ourselves, separately.
The kitchen fitter recommended his mate (also works for Wickes) to give us a quote for tiling. We took him up on this, and gave a competitive quote - we bought the tiles and he fitted in less than a day.

One thing to be aware of (dependant in the age of your property), there have been changes to Electric Regs and our fuse box needed to be replaced and new wiring installed into kitchen. Wickes quoted for this, but we arranged to have this done by relative who is a spark.

All in all, the missus is really pleased with the finished job!
Click to expand...

That cooker wire was about 20 quid a metre when i had to buy some.
 
pm me if you want a well designed ,good quality kitchen , arrives on time and in full , supply only or fitted by us .
My shop is in Stockport ,i have plenty of happy customers who will recommend me.
Whatever you do ,dont use Wren , go see the facebook group called "Wren kitchen disasters"
 
Joe CurryGan said:
We've just gone through the same process.
IKEA will charge you to come and measure up, although fee is knocked off the price of the kitchen if you order from them.
After looking round a number of independent firms, we opted to get one from Wickes. We paid to have it fitted by their fitter - really professional and finished the job in a week. No complaints at all.
Wickes tried to sell us appliances as part of the package - we found their products fairly limited, and so we sourced these ourselves, separately.
The kitchen fitter recommended his mate (also works for Wickes) to give us a quote for tiling. We took him up on this, and gave a competitive quote - we bought the tiles and he fitted in less than a day.

One thing to be aware of (dependant in the age of your property), there have been changes to Electric Regs and our fuse box needed to be replaced and new wiring installed into kitchen. Wickes quoted for this, but we arranged to have this done by relative who is a spark.

All in all, the missus is really pleased with the finished job!
Click to expand...

Nice one. Wickes is a good shout and not looked there yet. Will check it out.
 
Following on from above, I heard a report on BBC about Wren. You really don't want to have anything to do with them.
 
stonerblue said:
we used howdens. The 'designer' was bobbins but gave us a good idea of what we could have, and it was free, no hassle visit.
Quality is bang on as was price. Had to go back a couple of times for missing bits but was no bother.

Dont forget to get them little clear strips that go on bottom of kick boards and, pun intended' splash out on a good tap.
Click to expand...

Howdens seems to be the one that builders/joiners recommend.

We'll only have good taps and splash backs in our house, though it doesn't always go down well with the missus ;-)
 
smeeagain said:
pm me if you want a well designed ,good quality kitchen , arrives on time and in full , supply only or fitted by us .
My shop is in Stockport ,i have plenty of happy customers who will recommend me.
Whatever you do ,dont use Wren , go see the facebook group called "Wren kitchen disasters"
Click to expand...

PM on its way.
 
Choice of Sinks at Wickes is fairly limited - we got Franke stainless steel sink from an online supplier and Franke tap from Screwfix
 
You need to play them, takes a bit of time but well worth it, go to howdens, get a quote, all free of charge I may add, if not in trade then inbox me and il get them to come out, then go wrens with howdens quote, ask if they can beat it, then to magnet etc etc, end of the day, they all want your money just have to be bit hard faced
 
Mixed and matched ours 4 years ago. Solid oak worktops from wickes, units from b and q, taps and sinks from an online shop, built in stuff price matched from another online place and fitted by a recommendation. Was around 5k all in, including the spark needed to upgrade the leccy.

Shop around. Quotes a plenty.
 
BimboBob said:
Mixed and matched ours 4 years ago. Solid oak worktops from wickes, units from b and q, taps and sinks from an online shop, built in stuff price matched from another online place and fitted by a recommendation. Was around 5k all in, including the spark needed to upgrade the leccy.

Shop around. Quotes a plenty.
Click to expand...

Did you get extra low counter top heights?
 
Everybody thinks theyre getting ripped off , people truly believe there is too much profit in kitchens , MFI went bust , Moben ,bust Kitchens Direct , bust Betta Kitchens ,bust
plenty of others i have long forgotten . Its a cut-throat business !
Once the cheapest kitchen the customer can find arrives , amazingly its a load of crap ,and the kitchen industry gets a bad rep ,yet its the customer forcing prices
(and quality) down
 
smeeagain said:
Everybody thinks theyre getting ripped off , people truly believe there is too much profit in kitchens , MFI went bust , Moben ,bust Kitchens Direct , bust Betta Kitchens ,bust
plenty of others i have long forgotten . Its a cut-throat business !
Once the cheapest kitchen the customer can find arrives , amazingly its a load of crap ,and the kitchen industry gets a bad rep ,yet its the customer forcing prices
(and quality) down
Click to expand...

Yep, crap kitchens are crap. I've installed a few that absolute shite and they take two to three times as long to install.
And then they fall apart, twist, warp etc.
Ikea, for what it is, is actually not that bad. They have cheaped out recently by giving you shitty plastic toe kicks and stuff but you just make your own.
 
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