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B&Q Kitchen our experiance from start to finish!
dave82_2
Posts: 1,328 Forumite
The design
The guy in the design centre was a typical sales man he just wanted to get the deal done and the finance signed.
Some of his kitchen knowledge was poor. For example he sold us a ducting kit and installation of this kit for the washer dryer we had chosen. The washer dryer was a condensing type!
The kitchen surveyor
We had a couple of kitchen surveyors as they call them who are effectively ex fitters who come and check the design.
The first guy warned that we would need to remove the old plaster before replastering to fit the kitchen in. He was helpful and friendly.
The second guy who came to measure after the plastering was a prophet of doom and told us half of our electrics would need to be moved as the integrated appliances wouldn’t fit. I simply removed the plus and replaced with flex plates.
The delays
Not by B&Q by us! We had to delay by a month twice. 1st time the plaster wasn’t dry and the second the tiller was delayed. Both times B&Q were fine about it even though the second delay we already ha d delivery arranged and it was only a week before! They delayed the delivery and install without any argument
The delivery
The kitchen was delivered by 2 very polite and careful delivery drivers who spent the time with us afterwards running through the deliver ticking of each individual item. There was nothing missing.
The installation
This is the part I had been dreading. I have heard the stories, seen the watchdog program etc.
I was waiting for some young guy just out of college with his 5 days fast track kitchen fitting qualification but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Two highly experienced trades men who had been fitting kitchens for b&q for 8 and 11 years respectively arrived.
They were happy to discuss concerns and did a great job of creating custom corner posts and a tray store where the pre-fabbed ones didn’t quite fit as per the design.
The granite fitter was a qualified stone mason and has done joins that are 100 million times better than the ones in the show room that had us really worried!
We still need to have a really good check over everything this weekend but all in all they seem to have done a great job.
Everything is nice and level and tight.
Overall
I must say credit where credits due. B&Q seem to have done a good job! The contact centre were also really helpful and refunded lots of money without question when we chose to use our own tiller and plumber.
We are also on a fantastic 0% 5 year finance deal and B&Q price matched our appliances when we found them cheaper online!
I know there are horror stories but it seems they can do a good job as well! Thought it was fair to share my experience!
The guy in the design centre was a typical sales man he just wanted to get the deal done and the finance signed.
Some of his kitchen knowledge was poor. For example he sold us a ducting kit and installation of this kit for the washer dryer we had chosen. The washer dryer was a condensing type!
The kitchen surveyor
We had a couple of kitchen surveyors as they call them who are effectively ex fitters who come and check the design.
The first guy warned that we would need to remove the old plaster before replastering to fit the kitchen in. He was helpful and friendly.
The second guy who came to measure after the plastering was a prophet of doom and told us half of our electrics would need to be moved as the integrated appliances wouldn’t fit. I simply removed the plus and replaced with flex plates.
The delays
Not by B&Q by us! We had to delay by a month twice. 1st time the plaster wasn’t dry and the second the tiller was delayed. Both times B&Q were fine about it even though the second delay we already ha d delivery arranged and it was only a week before! They delayed the delivery and install without any argument
The delivery
The kitchen was delivered by 2 very polite and careful delivery drivers who spent the time with us afterwards running through the deliver ticking of each individual item. There was nothing missing.
The installation
This is the part I had been dreading. I have heard the stories, seen the watchdog program etc.
I was waiting for some young guy just out of college with his 5 days fast track kitchen fitting qualification but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Two highly experienced trades men who had been fitting kitchens for b&q for 8 and 11 years respectively arrived.
They were happy to discuss concerns and did a great job of creating custom corner posts and a tray store where the pre-fabbed ones didn’t quite fit as per the design.
The granite fitter was a qualified stone mason and has done joins that are 100 million times better than the ones in the show room that had us really worried!
We still need to have a really good check over everything this weekend but all in all they seem to have done a great job.
Everything is nice and level and tight.
Overall
I must say credit where credits due. B&Q seem to have done a good job! The contact centre were also really helpful and refunded lots of money without question when we chose to use our own tiller and plumber.
We are also on a fantastic 0% 5 year finance deal and B&Q price matched our appliances when we found them cheaper online!
I know there are horror stories but it seems they can do a good job as well! Thought it was fair to share my experience!
0
Comments
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I guess that there is a fair amount of luck involved its bascially like picking someone totally unknown out of the the yellow pages!
The only benifit of using b&q was that the install is guarenteed for 2 years and if anything had gone wrong they would have had to put it right unlike someone from the yellow pages who might just have dissapeared!
I agree though if you can get a good and trusted recommendation it would be best and probably cheapest to go with an independent.
We went with b&q for 2 reasons :-
1. They won't let anyone else fit their quartz.
2. The finance.
They also offer price matching so they might do this on the install as well? (Wish I had thought of this before now) LOL
I haven't taken any pictures of the finished product. But here was day 3 of 4.
Even now it is done we still need to tile and paint the walls. The paint on the walls is just undercoat at the moment.
Cheers for your advice along the way it is appreciated. Just glad it is over!! :j
Day 3 of the install :-
http://i51.tinypic.com/6zldvq.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/sbn5ly.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/2qm2hxi.jpg
How it used to look
http://i51.tinypic.com/beg3rd.jpg0 -
Looks like a big improvement from those pics. Seems smaller than i envisaged from the plan ..at least it all fitted in the end !
It is quite small about 1.8 * 2.9 meters.
It's not tiny though can fit 2 people no problem its hard to get a good overall picture :-)
But it is a vast improvement!0 -
Hi, your new kitchen looks lovely
Im intriqued by extra tap to left of the sink unit in your "before" pic
Why and what for?0 -
It's looks very nice so far!
Are we allowed to ask how much it cost you?Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
0 -
No idea what the random tap was for! It was just a feed from the cold that served the main sink tap! It was there when we bought the house.
I think I will keep quiet on the price if that's ok as I don't really want to hear how much cheaper I could have got it blah blah blah.
We are happy with what we paid and I think that's all that really matters.0 -
No idea what the random tap was for! It was just a feed from the cold that served the main sink tap! It was there when we bought the house.
I think I will keep quiet on the price if that's ok as I don't really want to hear how much cheaper I could have got it blah blah blah.
We are happy with what we paid and I think that's all that really matters.
Of course, I respect that.
It's about MoneySaving and we're looking for the best deal at the best value, so saying B&Q are great is fine, but we're not sure what we're comparing it to. If I'd have grabbed a bargain I'd be shouting from the rooftops, so are we safe to say it wasn't particularly cheap?!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Our plumber fits top of the range kitchens and when he was round today he couldn't belive it was b&q he said it looked like one of the 25k jobs that he put in. So in that respect it was no where near that! I suspect the look of quality is down to the fitting.
The thread was more about the fact that b&q did a good job of the fitting rather than about money saving in this instance but I get what you are saying!
The cabinates were in the 50% off sale and b&q price matched our appliances with the cheepest we could find online so some money saving there. We were heavily restriced by needing to take finance as all our liquid cash has gone into the other renovations
If you really want to know happy to pm you just don't want this thread to turn into one of those well you could have got it cheeper here etc!0 -
Certainly know how it feels to be tight for cash! I'm glad you got the deals you did and it does look lovely, even unfinished, very tasteful
. And you're totally right, it's as much, if not moreso about the fitting.
Happy Cooking!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Cheers,
All done...
Well almost need to tile and paint the walls but here it is at the end of B&Qs involvment!
http://i53.tinypic.com/2d9xv0l.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/9hs386.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/34jdsup.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/29q13lx.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/s127w1.jpg
D0 -
Kitchen looks fab,and judging by pics is installed well.I love your floor and wondered if you would share the details?0
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