Advice re DIY Kitchen????

Tinker_belle_2

Hi All


We have purchased our kitchen and we have a quote for a kitchen fitter, it is £1700, is this a decent quote for an 11 unit kitchen and fitted oven? This includes plumbing and moving the gas point.

We have also thought about saving the money and fitting the kitchen ourselves and getting a joiner/carpenter to do the worktops, a plumber to do the sink and a gas installer to do the gas point.

Tell us honestly how hard is it to fit a kitchen - is it impoosible and we are mad to even think about it? My husband is quite good at this sort of thing, but he has never fitted a kitchen before.

We were also quoted £1500 for the bathroom, which consisted of installing a new toilet, bathroom and sink and putting up the tiles - now this does seem a lot of money, or am I just really unaware of the prices of these sorts of things?

Has anyone got any other ideas?

Thanks

OK_Sauce

I've just fitted my third DIY kitchen. It's not hard if you are 'reasonably' competent at DIY. Along with bathrooms it's one of those jobs that requires just a little bit of most 'skills' - carpentry, plumbing, electrics, tiling, decorating...you get the picture! Bear in mind under new regulations you are not allowed to do any elecrical work in kitchens at all, so at one point you will need a qualified electrician and of course a 'corgi' registered gas fitter. One thing I did notice is buying tools for certain jobs do add up. Just drilling through floor tiles required a couple of drill bits costing eight quid each. Something a 'fitter' would already have.

Once the kitchen has been designed it's very much like comleting a puzzle - everything has it's place and for a neat job it needs to be pretty accurate. It's also very time consuming if it's to be fitted whilst holding down a full-time job! I have taken since August and it's still not quite (90%!) finished!

Tinker_belle_2

eeek since august - hmmm think I want to pay someone to do it professionally

I have been looking through the old posts and people have found fitters that have charged just £300, where are these people, why can't I find them

Thanks for the advice, hubby has drill bits and a jigsaw so will be ok with them - arghhhh I don't know what to do - I just don't want to pay nearly £2000 on getting a kitchen fitted :rotfl: How tight am I???

OK_Sauce

Not as tight as me, obviously!

Katie_Bell

He paid someone to fit it for us, but we removed our kitchen and disposed of it ourselves and saved quite a bit of money. Might be worth seeing how much of a discount they'll give you to do the same.

beefster

I fitted my own magnet supplied kitchen without much fuss but got a local fitter to do the cornice, pelmets and worktops. He also dropped the sink into place and all for £100!! Whats even better is he managed to complete the cornices and pelmets using just 1 length of each and I was able to return the surplus lengths incorperated in their designers estimate and get a £90 refund..........

Re - electrical stuff........ i think I am right (if not someone will shout.) in saying you can put any electrical stuff in but it has to be tested and certified by a qualified person. You may save some cash this way if it is legal and all that?

It really is not that hard a job but the finishing edges and joins etc mean everything. Even ripping the old one out, fixing the carcases together (if flat pack) and fixing the carcases to the wall will save some cash.

Tilly_XX

I am quite proud of the fact that I fitted our kitchen myself. We had an extension put on the original kitchen and I paid to have all the electrics and plumbing work done... but I was quoted £3,400 to have just the kitchen fitted without doing plumbing etc. I am a bit of a diy lover anyway and it was great getting stuck into a big project like that. I fitted all the units and did all the joinery including worktops without using the metal joining strips, so had a nice smooth finish even on the joins. I have 3 golden rules for diy

1) safety first
2) measure it twice and cut it once
3) know the level of your own ability

Mistakes can be costly, so patience is a virtue... and having the right tools for the job is paramount.

Tilly
2)

bobsa1

My husband, whose diy skill is limited fitted our kitchen, we still need the worktops doing but so far a good job

virgin_moneysaver

Our kitchen fitter made all the units up (had all the high techie tools) including the intergrated units, I didnt want the carousel in the corner unit so he made extra shelving to custom fit this corner unit, we ordered extra doors & an end piece & he made intergrated cupboards for my standard sized fridge, washing machine & tumble drier & he didn't use any joining strips on the worktops but mitred everything in, he also sorted out the internal doors in the kitchen as well & all for £500 - there was no way we could have got the finish by doing it ourselves

jamieforsx

Hi
Is the quote just for fitting the kitchen and doing the gas and plumbing ?
What about any aditional work like tiling and that ???
Because that quote is quite high