Perils of using a builder to fit a kitchen?

all_greek_to_me

I need to order our new kitchen from a particular company, because it's the only one that can supply the exact colour we want. (The doors are coloured at the time of manufacture, which means that they're much more durable than ones that have been spraypainted afterwards.) But we've not been particularly impressed with their customer service or design capabilities. For instance, it was only on the third time of asking that they bumped what were supposed to be eye level ovens up from the vicinity of my crotch.

I've had a quotation for fitting from a builder I've used before and, given that there's a lot of other work that needs doing in the kitchen around the time of installation (electrics, replastering etc), it probably would make more sense, and save a lot of money, for him to put the kitchen in as well.

Given their previous mistakes, I'm concerned that the kitchen company might mess up the design in some way and supply units that don't actually fit together properly. The builder has blithely advised me to withhold payment until he's finished the installation. But the kitchen company insist on 25% at the time of ordering, 70% on delivery, with a 5% retainer. And that's if they're doing the fitting. They'll probably demand 75% on delivery if my builder's fitting it.

What would be a reasonable retainer? The builder says the units won't take more than a week to fit, so the kitchen company won't have too long to wait for the rest of their money. But 5% doesn't seem enough. What if there's a huge problem with their design or what they've ordered?

Words of wisdom, please.

all_greek

jafsie

In short they want full payment by the time of delivery??

as you say suppose units don't fit, I wouldn't touch this with a barge pole,

shirlgirl2004

Been there, done that. There were problems such as damaged units. The units cam in blue covering to protect them, you couldn't see any damage with the covering on but when peeled off (after fitting as instructed) they were damaged. The company denied the damage was already present and we had to pay twice. The design service turned out to be rubbish which meant we were trying to get different units at last minute. Really go somewhere who can supply and fit.

phill99

I think you have answered your own question.

QTPie

Depends on the builder and their experience fitting kitchens really...

However if your supplier and fitter don't have a very close relationship, then you are asking for trouble: neither will take responsibility for any problems and it will be your headache... Ideally either you want your supplier to provide the fitter or your fitter to supply your kitchen....

Someone who specialises in fitting kitchens is likely to be better than most generalist builders.

We recently had our house gutted and put back together again: this included the kitchen, master en-suite, family bathroom and guest en-suite. Our (very good, very trusted) builder did all of the gutting and everything accept the kitchen, master en-suite and family bathroom: we got a very good, independent kitchen and bathroom specialist to do them. Our builder did the guest en-suite - perfectly good, but we didn't need the same high specification/finish for that. The kitchen/bathroom specialists provided their in-house fitters to dry fit the bathrooms and kitchen.

Definitely the right decision... Our builders would have done a good job of fitting any bathroom/kitchen, but not to the same level of detail, skill and innovation that the specialists did. I think that good specialist fitters have more of an aesthetic eye, whereas many builders have more of a practical "that'll do" eye. It is a bit like the difference between an architect and a builder: either can give you a very good end product, but one is likely to take more design aspects into consideration...

What kitchen are you after? Surely their must be a better supplier who can provide the same kitchen? Kitchens are not cheap - you want tonged it right...

QT