Encore, Maia, Apollo, Earthstone etc worktops

Shaanbles

Had to have a rethink on how much I can afford for my worktops (insurance company paying out less than I hoped!).

Basically I want a white worktop with a sink in the same colour so you can't see any joins. I know I can do this with Corian, Hi-MACS but I can no longer afford these products so am now looking at alternatives.

Question is can you have an undermounted moulded sink with Encore, Maia or Apollo composite worktops that is the same colour? I've got different answers depending on who I talk to.

If I can't have the sink in the same material/colour then I'll for with quartz as coming in at almost half the price of HI-Macs.

TIA

Shaan

Shaanbles

Just found this company that seems a lot cheaper on Corian, Hi-MACS than any other I've found.

selectsurfaces.co.uk

Anyone used them?

Karins

I considered doing this and my kitchen guy recommended this company

http://simpleworktops.co.uk/

ended up going for granite in the end so didn't use them but he rated them

Shaanbles

Karins wrote: »

I considered doing this and my kitchen guy recommended this company

http://simpleworktops.co.uk/

ended up going for granite in the end so didn't use them but he rated them

Thanks but their quote isn't that cheap and never heard of the product.

Anyone come across http://selectsurfaces.co.uk

cddc

It is now possible certainly to get moulded sinks for earthstone and Apollo Slabtech worktops, even the sheds are now doing them.

Probably cheaper if you shop around though, no problem in obtaining them though and a significant price saving on Silestone, Quartz etc.

CKdesigner

Hi

Beware of fabricators that give cheap quotes on quartz, Hi-Macs, Corian and similar products. All fabricators purchase the materials at roughly the same price as the next, so the only way one company can be cheaper than another is because their labour costs are less, so therefore that cheaper company is prepared to spend less time on the project than the more expensive one so you get an inferior job.

Unless the more expensive company does an inferior job as well!!!

CK

Alan_M_2

CKdesigner wrote: »

Hi

Beware of fabricators that give cheap quotes on quartz, Hi-Macs, Corian and similar products. All fabricators purchase the materials at roughly the same price as the next, so the only way one company can be cheaper than another is because their labour costs are less, so therefore that cheaper company is prepared to spend less time on the project than the more expensive one so you get an inferior job.

Unless the more expensive company does an inferior job as well!!!

CK

It seems you've fallen for this misconception too.

We have a few customers that supply and fit all the products you mention above with quite a variety of price spreads.

Firstly your assumption that all companies buy at the same price from the same people is wrong, lets take silestone for instance, they have a sliding scale pricing structure between their top tier fabricators and the smaller one man band type operations.

The price is based purely on volume throughout a rolling 12 month period.

The difference between the highest and lowest discount is as much as 30%. If the high volume customers buy in full containers that could be close to 50% different in cost of materials for the same product.

The higher volume companies tend to be better equipped, one of my customers, based on a farm in the middle of kent has close to £500,000 of cutting, polishing and CNC equipment.

A firm close by has 12 Eastern European masons producing the same thing by hand.

Who is cheaper? The guy with all the equipment.

Why?

Because he buys huge amounts of product at a lower price, the equipment he has produces a kitchen in one third of time so he doesn't need to charge as much per unit - yet he's actually making more money through sheer volume.

Also due to the amount of machinery he has, he needs very few staff as so much of the processing is automated.

Automatically assuming something is lower quality because it's less expensive is nonsense and short sighted.

Visit the company in question, look at thier premises/showroom and get an dea of what you're paying for then base your decision on that.

You wouldn't spend £3000 to £4000 on a car/sofa/furniture without going to have a good look at all. Do the same with the firm fitting your worktops.

Shaanbles

Thanks Alan - As always good sound advice.

The guy on the phone seemed to know what he was talking about and was very honest when talking about Encore etc which is more than some of the suppliers of Corian have been.

Done some research and "Select Solid Surfaces" also have a sister company "Select Granite Surfaces" based in Leeds - have you come across them?

CKdesigner

Hi Alan

I am sorry but I don't agree with everything you have said, you make it sound like every fabricator does a good job. I have seen vastly different qualities of fabrication and to generalise whenever a customer has decided that we are 'too expensive' for their solid worktops and sourced the product elsewhere the job they have had done has always been inferior to the work the fabricators we work with produce.

For instance a year or so ago we did a kitchen and the customer got a cheaper quote from a fabricator online for Silestone worktops. The customer gave me the quote, I passed it on to our fabricator and they couldn't get anywhere near it, bearing in mind that our granite/quartz fabricator is now one of the largest in Europe has more than 40 teams of fitters that all work direct, non as sub contractors and are pretty much the main purchaser of Silestone in the country. The customer was initially pleased with the worktop, I went round to look at the finished kitchen and saw many areas where the fabrication was poor. After around 6 months I got a phone call from the customer, the under mounted sink we had supplied had fallen off! The customer wanted to know what we would do about it. Obviously I explained this was not a fault with the sink, he would need to contact the worktop company as they were the ones that stuck the sink to the work surface.

I absolutely agree with you that a customer needs to see the quality of work a fabricator produces. It is just ridiculous to be spending £3 or £4k with an online company without seeing what they produce first. When spending this kind of money on work surface so much of the value and quality is in the detail.

CK

Shaanbles

CK

Who's your fabricator? I'd be happy to get a quote from them as well. I'm not going purely for the cheapest but when the price range varies by £2000 you have to look at all the options.

Shaanbles

CKdesigner

Hi Shaanbles

Ah! That's the thing. Our fabricator only deals with the trade.

In my opinion quality fabricators shouldn't deal with the trade and then also retail. Technically it would put them in competition with their main customers.

I would always recommend that if you are having a new kitchen then get the work surface from your kitchen supplier with the fitting also, if you go to the right kitchen specialist you will not be paying over the odds for any part of it and you will have just one point of contact with responsibility for the whole job should anything not go quite right.

Good luck

CK