Kitchen Worktops

katiepops_2

Does anyone have any idea of roughly what you'd expect to pay to have kitchen worktops fitted? I needed mine fitting, and I rang someone who came very highly recommended from several people at work.

I have two runs of cupboards in L shapes, so basically two joints to do ... this person I rang wanted £180 per cut to do it! I've been led to believe by other people that around £60 per cut is about right - so obviously chummy didn't want the work (in which case I'd far sooner that he'd said so from the start), or perhaps he thought I was just a stupid woman who'd pay exorbitant prices because I don't know any better!

Kate

theadore_2

that does seem extorionate, our last kitchen we had the builder provide us with marble salb he took out of a bank so i can't work out the cost. but id definately get more opinions.

its a fairly simple job and have done it myself before... what about a bit of DIY? or maybe try getting an odd job man or simialr rather than a builder?

Griffin29

Hi Katiepops - been through this myself, before making to hasty a decision have a think about what is really going to be included.
I consider myself fairly handy with DIY but there is no way I would recommend this if you are after a professional job (unless you have real experience of using a high quality router and the correct templates). I'm assuming you want the joins that fit flush together rather than a metal joining strip (which is indeed DIY doable).

In my kitchen I have a U shape (so like you 2 joins) - I paid just over £300 after having 3 quotes and umpteen phone calls. I think the £50-£60 per cut is an urban myth - no-one would do mine for that. I expected the job to take about 4 hours - it actually took over 2 days and (because I had booked the time off to decorate) I watched the guy do most of it and it is far more complex than I thought.

Firstly the joins have to be 100% accurate and that means at 90 degrees - if your walls are out slightly then it is likely he will need to chisel them out so the worktops fit.
Joing each surface requires considerable work with a router because for the best results you need to use at least 3 bolts which need to be 'set in' to the worktop (you can get screw on blocks but they do not hold the worktop tight enough).
Does the price include holes for sinks etc? do you want the ends of each L finishing? etc etc.

If the price you have is just to measure the work surfaces and do the cut then I agree it is a lot but if this is a price to actually fit the units including all fittings etc then I'd say it sounds about right (maybe just a tad expensive)

I nearly fell over when I was originally quoted but having seen the work and more to the point the results then I think you get what you pay for.

If you want to have a go yourself then you need a good quality Router, the correct bits (fairly common ones but I didn't have them) and a template. The templates vary from about £60-250, bits are about £10 upwards - is it worth the risk?

As an aside when you are buying your worksurface, if you get chance to see them before delivery try and make sure that they are flat across the width - I know it sounds strange but any slight curve from front to back will show up when they are joined together - apparently Wickes are notorious for this because of the way they stack the boards (some face up some face down so you end up with a very slight 'u' and 'n' profile to be joined (does that make sense ????)

Sorry for the long reply, hope it's of some use.

Malestrom

A friend of mine got two cuts done for £100 total - however, after seeing the job I know why! The bloke must have used a jigsaw, its awful.

owey

Iv'e had our kitchen done twice, first time just new doors and worktop, then a whole new fitted kitchen. When I got it done the first time he had to do the cuts again as he made a mess of them, when he had another go they were not much better and he left me a tube of colour filler :mad: .
When I went for the fitted kitchen they were perfect, but it did cost me just under £5000, but not sure how much the cuts where . I would just get a few quotes, when the fitter fitted ours, he did say most of the companies he knows will just pluck a price out of the sky if you want a little job doing, as they are not bottered if they get it or not.

katiepops_2

Griffin29 wrote:

Hi Katiepops - been through this myself, before making to hasty a decision have a think about what is really going to be included.
I consider myself fairly handy with DIY but there is no way I would recommend this if you are after a professional job (unless you have real experience of using a high quality router and the correct templates). I'm assuming you want the joins that fit flush together rather than a metal joining strip (which is indeed DIY doable).

Hi Griffin - thanks for that ... my hubby is quite handy at the old diy, so he did it himself in the end, and he's done a superb job. Actually, he says that if he'd known how easy it would be, my kitchen would have been finished a year ago . And he's happy, cos he got to spend money on boy gadgets that he can play with again (ie the router).

Kate