new kitchen....confused

lorryw

We have decided to buy a new kitchen but the whole thing leaves me feeling defeated.
We went to MFI had had a quote of £9000 for units hob, double oven, fridge freezer and granite work tops including basic fitting. We were given a pricelist for extras including any electrical work and even fitting of hob and oven. I was also bothered by the fact that it was only guaranteed for 1 year and if we didnt take out extended warranties on appliances we wouldnt get the advertised discount.
We then went to Optiplan and were told they could fit a handmade kitchen with a 20 year guarantee for less than MFI.
Does anyone have any recent experience of having a new kitchen installed, I would love to hear some opinions.

Coolhandluke

I had a new kitchen fitted at Easter.

Its in a 'U' shape and measures approx 10' x 10' x 10'.

All the doors are solid oak and all the appliances are intergrated.
The cost of the kitchen came in at approx £4000 including fitting and all the integrated appliances came to £2000.
Hope that gives you something to go on.

PM me if you want any more info.

stamford

lorryw wrote:

We have decided to buy a new kitchen but the whole thing leaves me feeling defeated.
We went to MFI had had a quote of £9000 for units hob, double oven, fridge freezer and granite work tops including basic fitting. We were given a pricelist for extras including any electrical work and even fitting of hob and oven. I was also bothered by the fact that it was only guaranteed for 1 year and if we didnt take out extended warranties on appliances we wouldnt get the advertised discount.
We then went to Optiplan and were told they could fit a handmade kitchen with a 20 year guarantee for less than MFI.
Does anyone have any recent experience of having a new kitchen installed, I would love to hear some opinions.

Total rip off - I just posted this on another thread

Check out Grahams http://www.graham-group.co.uk/ - I got my kitchen there for c £500 and they deliver. Baumatic oven/hob from Currys online (they dont do anymore) for c £200, matching extractor from TLC Direct c £35. Wall tiles , Floor tiles, Paint B & Q. Polish guy to replaster and fit/install the lot £800

arnie&caseysma!

Do not get the suppplier of the kitchen to fit it for you as most of the £9k they have quoted will be fitting only. One guy at work priced a £2k kitchen from Currys (same stuff as MFI!) and asked for fitting, by the time they had finished the quote it had risen to £6500! These people think that they can charge anything they like as 'they will need to bring an electrician to wire up the hob/incase they need to move a socket/any old excuse they can think of to add any other tradesman.

If I was you I would price the kitchen without fitting - price the same one at Currys and also similar ones in other stores and then get a local joiner to fit it - you will save soooo much money in the long run (probably about £5k).

Enjoy your sparkly new kitchen when you get it!

robwend

what ever your quote is for the kitchen it will be the same again for fitting, look up a local carpenter, yourl save a bomb, i did it this way

covbaldy

I've just had a kitchen from Magnet - A Trade kitchen brought by a local chippy and fitted by him.

We already had the cooker & F/F. All the units cme to £1000 including round sinks and extractor hood.

Go look at the Magnet showroom and take your dimensions and they will draw you up a plan.

Alan_M_2

arnie&caseysma! wrote:

These people think that they can charge anything they like as 'they will need to bring an electrician to wire up the hob/incase they need to move a socket/any old excuse they can think of to add any other tradesman.

If I was you I would price the kitchen without fitting - price the same one at Currys and also similar ones in other stores and then get a local joiner to fit it - you will save soooo much money in the long run (probably about £5k).

Enjoy your sparkly new kitchen when you get it!

"These People" are required by law to provide safe certificated installations that comply with current Health and Safetly and Building Regulations, fundamentally so they don't get sued if anything goes wrong or anyone is hurt as a result of faulty installation, this costs money.

In this wonderful world that we live in you are free to choose whoever fits your kitchen/bathroom etc, and you're free to choose if you want to comply with the existing regulations that exist to protect you. If you want you can also be complicit in committing tax fraud and paying the guy entirely in cash and not getting a reciept for the work. Or indeed employ immigrant labour that probably desn't even know what the phrase "Building regulations" means.

All these wonderful savings are available to you in the free market economy that we live in. Just don't assume that everyone else who chooses to run a legal ligitimate business is "ripping you off", in most cases they are simply trying to run a profitable business while complying with the government legislation that's designed to protect you.

Part of our business used to be the complete installtion of bathrooms, we can no longer offer this service as we simply can't charge enough to make a profit for a fully compliant installation, all the time our customers wanted to pay "cash", wanted a discount, didn't want to pay for any profit margin, yet at the end they still wanted all thier certificates and guarantees. Can't have your cake and eat it I'm afraid, oh unless of course you're willing to pay a reasonable amount for it.

ScoobieGirl

Have you thought of buying a take-away one and assemblying it youself? It is SO easy! The larger DIY stores will even cut your work surfaces to size at no cost so practically no skill is required! (Not that I'm suggesting you are unskilled!)

arnie&caseysma!

Alan_M wrote:

"These People" are required by law to provide safe certificated installations that comply with current Health and Safetly and Building Regulations, fundamentally so they don't get sued if anything goes wrong or anyone is hurt as a result of faulty installation, this costs money.

Don't know what size your company is but I was referring to the larger companies (eg MFI etc) who simply won't take your word for it that sockets etc are not going to get in the way. If they did you can call your own sparkie to move them to allow the fitters to get on with their jobs. Health and Safety complied with at all times but the £4k they quoted my colleague just because they didn't trust him was pure extortion. They refused to lower the priceby reducing the tradesmen that weren't required so he went elsewhere and gave folk that charge a reasonable price the work - all above board, through the accounts and at a saving of over £3k (kitchen, appliances and local folk fitting).

Whits

I think a few people seem to be having trouble with MFI at the moment but this is down to the individual sales people.

I pointed this thread out to my OH last night and she uttered something abou a load of ********. She says that she has never been told to say a customer can't use their own tradespeople. You have to remember though, that if you're having an extractor fitted and the wiring was sorted by your own sparky and then damaged the extractor in some way, no guarantee would cover it.

It's quite sad to read that people are having problems as it reflects badly on all the sales people, even if they would never give the same advice.

lorryw

Thank you for all the replies.
I have decided to ditch the belfast/butler sink because it means we have to have granite worktops. That will knock a few thousand off the kitchen costs.