Ikea kitchens?

woodbutcher_2

Are they any good?

After years of working for other people and making them lots of money,i have just purchased a house to renovate and sell on.Obviously,the more money i spend on it,the less profit i will make.Been looking at ikea kitchens online and they are very cheap,cheaper even than Howdens where i have an account.Problem is,the nearest ikea to me is a 2 hr drive away and can't view them first hand.So has anyone got any opinions on them,good or bad?

Also looking for a decent (but cheapish) bathroom suite if anyone has any companies they can recommend.

plumb1_2

I would use my local howdens, as if you have any problems with missing parts/damaged etc, better than traveling 2hrs and having to quite for stock to arrive, half a day lost.

If you are doing the property up you will get better discount if you are buying kitchen, door casing, doors etc.

I have been using a local plumbers merchant just to buy radiators off, for the last 6 months and now get 76% off.

prettypennies

I bought an Ikea kitchen last year and have been really pleased with the quality. There was a good range of unit available. I particularly like the long wall units. The fitter said they are simple to assemble and fit. The only downside is that I had to wait several months for one of the corner unit doors to come into stock.

I have als heard good stuff about howdens especially if you get a trade discount.
I have recently purchased a new Bathroom suite and steam cabinet from Victorian Bathrooms. https://www.victorianbathrooms.com They have a well stocked showroom at Osset near Wakefield. They also sell online. (40% discount coupon emailed to you when you register with their site. They also sell some of their stuff on Ebay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/VB-Bathrooms.

I bought a trinity steam cabinet for £599 Whirlpool bath, Signal pedestal basin and toilet with soft closing seat and mixer taps for £450.

I am in the process of fitting it all at the moment.

bengraves38

plumb1 wrote:

if you have any problems with missing parts/damaged etc, better than traveling 2hrs and having to quite for stock to arrive, half a day lost.

I agree, i am an electrician and work as a sub contractor for a joiner fitting ikea kitchens. Now he deals with these people every week and normally fits 2 kitchens per week for them. Every job i do for him he ALWAYS has to go off site to fetch a missing end pannel or drawer front or the like. If it were a two hour drive away i'd be pretty wary of buying off them.
Please note i am not saying howdens are perfect in this matter however they are a damn sight closer to you. :j
P.S. I seem to remember reading a post on here a few weeks ago that mentioned they could get a cheaper like for like kitchen from howdens than ikea. Maby you could find a builder with more discount than yourself. Even if you have to slip him £50 for the privelage it will still be worth your while.

Hope i was of help.
Ben

never_enough

An architect I had round to discuss extensions to my place suggested an Ikea kitchen. Said she had just fitted one in her place which was exactly what I was after. As she'd be on 10% of works costs I was expecting her to suggest something more expensive. Or maybe she'd taken pity on me by that point (£110K/£120K before her fees & VAT!! :eek: ) Friend has one, is lovely but did have problems waiting for something to arrive. They also, I think I've read elsewhere, do not have pipespace at the back which can cause fitting issues.

Louise1521

We've just recently bought new kitchen units. After pricing up in a variety of places including Howdens, we've gone for an Ikea one. Quite a lot cheaper than Howdens. What swung it for us in the end was that Ikea had the size of cupboards that fitted our kitchen, whereas a number of other places didn't.

maryjane01

I can recommend the Victorian bathrooms ebay shop. I bought a suite for £500 including delivery, when the bath alone at RRP is £1199 (hadn't seen the bath cheaper than £899, it is a posh freestanding one). They deliver quite promptly too, although only during the week and somebody has to be there to sign for it.

Prices for other bathroom stuff eg taps is also really good on ebay.

woodbutcher_2

Thanks for the advice everyone.Despite doing up several houses for other people,never had to bother with the cost of materials before.I have already looked on ebay and it is definitely cheaper than anywhere else i have looked.Went to the recently opened local bathstore on saturday and despite there being a sale on,thought they were expensive.Will check out Howdens again before i make a decision.To my surprise,Homebase seemed to have some good offers with a lot of stuff half price plus a further 20% reduction.

yogi3

I found ikea had a good choice of kitchens and very easy to put together. There staff pick your order which you check off when you load or receive your order, so you should not miss any parts.

Ebay seems good for bathrooms got an good spa bath miles cheaper than any shop.

mikeywills

When it comes to it Ikea is the cheapest by far for a kitchen, cheapest in price and quality, but not to worry if you are only doing it up to sell on let the new vendors worry about it!!!!

If you are going to make a business of this think twice before choosing products, your name could be mud very quickly if price alone is the driving factor.

Where possible try and reuse what you have, but don't take out a reasonable kitchen to put a cheap tat one back.

mabenson1

We put in an ikea kitchen in our new place. The lack of pipe space at the back is an issue which requires a bit of planning. We also found that because the cabinets are 58cm and have a 2cm thick door that a standard 60cm deep worktop (as found in DIY sheds) doesn't have any overhang. We solved it by using adding an upstand between the worktop and the wall, but again another thing to bear in mind. Also the plumbing sizes are european, not UK standard so we got a plumber into sort it out (£90 for cash, bargain!)

Overall though we are extremely happy with the kitchen. The quality is easily on a par with the MFI kitchen (made by howdens I think, please correct me if I'm wrong) that our friends had installed recently. Biggest difference, the price. Our kitchen £2500 for materials, £90 for the plumber, and the DIY needed to install it. Our friends price £9000 for the kitchen all in (not including flooring!).

If you're confident with DIY definitely consider IKEA.

HTH

Matt