Pre drilling kitchen door quandry

sec79

Hi all

If I get the second nature kitchen I like from DIY Kitchens, the only way to get the doors pre-drilled is to pay for standard plus delivery, which is £75 for delivery and then for my order about another £170 just to get the doors and drawers pre-drilled. They do attach them to the carcasses aswell but I'm not bothered about that as Dad is fitting kitchen and is very competent at this.. I just need them to come pre-drilled, as he says he doesn't want to do this.

I have seen that withknobson have 33% off second nature doors and drawers (but pre-drilled). Is it a good idea to buy the carcasses from DIY Kitchens, the doors and rawer fronts from withknobs on and then ask local timber merchant to drill the holes in? I would like to buy the carcasses from DIY Kitchens as they are very good quality and well built (we got a tour of the factory). If I do this I'm a bit worried that holes might be drilled in wrong place etc.

I was thinking of ringing DIY kitchens and mentioning the withknobson discount, and asking if they would pre-drill the doors and drawer fronts, and waive the 15% surcharge for doing this if they didn't attach the doors and carcasses.

I am all for saving money but don't know if it is too risky what I propose. Any thoughts?

Many thanks

DVardysShadow

All very complicated, and you appear to be focussing on minimizing cost. I suggest you think about what could go wrong and focus on getting it right first time, because that will be cheapest. Given what your Dad says, if you don't get it drilled right, you might as well not bother getting it drilled at all.

Atelier

I have used both, they are good and very cheap so for minimal fuss buy from only one of them and get the doors pre-fitted. The carcase quality between the two companies is very comparible so go for the cheapest. Also one of them might also do a price match.

If you insist on buying the carcases and doors from seperate suppliers then do the drilling yourself. Axminster sell a "cabinet hinge installation jig and bit" that makes the job almost foolproof.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=22295&name=hinge+template&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=0

27col

I have just this afternoon drilled a new hinge hole in one of the doors from my son's kitchen. (Don't ask. It's a long story). I used a hinge cutter from Wolf, which I bought on the internet.£8 including postage. It says to use this in a drill press and not in a portable drill. Presumably because it is much easier to control the depth of cut. If you get this wrong you have a disaster on your hands. I would think that if you had to get a lot done it could be a lot of work to set it all up, so maybe what they are charging is not such a lot of money. If I was doing a lot of holes I would probably have gone for a higher quality cutter. But the one I just used did the job quite well.

cranford

I have also looked at DIY Kitchens and they have a professional hinge hire or buy service. Its £100 to buy and £30 to hire, but you need to factor in VAT and the cost of returning if you hire. There is a video of using it on their site. In my case the 15% would be £300 so I am thinking of buying. Also for them to drill, the doors have to be delivered to them rather than direct to you so there are costs in this. As with most things I buy online I have rung them a few times for advice etc to see what kind of service you get and found then very helpful.

cranford

Just as a follow up, I have just installed my kitchen from DIY-Kitchen and drilling the door holes was no problem. I purchased the hinge jig from DIY-Kitctens although it was £115 but I was sure of getting a good hole cut. My 15 doors were wood and it included a corner unit which required a pair of holes along the door edge. There was a setting on the jig for this (and a few others). You need to make sure that the hinges on the cabinets (preinstalled) are centred on 100mm before setting up the jig. One of my non standard units was at 95mm. You can always put the jig up on ebay and try your luck!

fto

Its beggars belief that they sell them not pre drilled........

cranford

There are good reasons they are not drilled. The same make of doors are supplied by different cabinet makers so who decides where on the door the holes need to be drilled and what size hinges are being used? The other point is that predrilled doors are drilled left and right and you put plugs in the unused holes.