Howdens kitchen - first price

jlsh

Thanks. Did you need a trade account for Howdens? What were the prices like?

We are extending our kitchen into a large kitchen/breakfast room.

We were quoted £14,900 to supply, fix and decorate approximately 32 units + cornices and plinths in Burford Gloss White. No worktops, lighting, splashbacks or appliances included. Some of the units were to include pull out drawers/corner mechanisms. The kitchen would be already gutted and freshly plastered so there would be no removal or making good prep-work required. I am hoping we can find someone else with a trade account and get a price for just the units.

In case it is of use to anyone, Magnet quoted £18,115 to supply and fit a similar kitchen (Units etc = £14,275, Fitting = £3,840) this also included supply and fit unit lighting (which the Howdens quote did not) but did not include painting the walls and ceiling. This is their "Half-Price Sale" price. When we rang to cancel they indicated they would be able to negotiate the price.

It seems a lot of places will negotiate on price if you have a cheaper price elsewhere so the thing to do seems to be to get several quotes and then negotiate!

Leif

Are there any independent kitchen shops near you? I'd take a look at them. Some are first rate. For that price you should be getting very good units.

peediedj

very expensive price i sold a kitchen last week similar size with 3 x 4.1m long work tops,Zanussi fan oven,Zanussi hob and Zanussi chimney for £1400 inc vat

The_Deep

I am a landlord, and have used Howdens for three kitchens, supply only, but not for some years. They used to be part of MFI and their kitchens, fully assembled were only slightly more expensive than the identical MFI ones in flat packs. Their plinths, cornices, etc., were considerably cheaper.

They used to have a price list, but were prepared for to hugely discount it for trade customers. There customer service was also considerable better than MFI.

The last kitchen I bought was from B&Q, and have no complaints. You can probably find a kitchen fittier on here.

http://www.screwfix.com/community/community/kitchen_fitters_talk

deanos

To give you a rough idea on Howdens price look here> https://www.topclasscarpentry.com/kitchen/63/3/

Dont forget they are adding there markup on top so Howdens will be alot cheaper,

We got ours from Howdens the Waltham Oak Veneered units , it was £1433 inc vat, Howdens came around and designed the kitchen , the Joiner said we could use his account and we just completed the order and did the haggling direct with Howdens and paid the bill direct when it was fitted

We got a total of 8 units + worktops + plinths and winerack for that price fitting was £700

izzieprest

we were quoted £1800 for a B&Q kitchen with about 15 units including dishwsher and a larder cabintet and work tops this was for both kitchen and utility room sxx

jlsh

Our builder has now got us a quote from Howdens for the same kitchen for £8,076 inc. VAT. Assuming our kitchen fitter was able to get a similar quote, he was charging us £6,824 for fitting (estimated 3-4 weeks' work).

lisap4123

I got a maple kitchen with black marble effect worktops, including built in electric oven and gas hob and extractor for £2500. It was in the january sales and was advertised in the sunday papers - I cant remember which one - daily mail or something like that. this was a few years ago now. It lasted 5 years and looked great still. Then the pan draw started to fall apart - but everything else was fine. For the price I was really happy with it.

they also had cheaper offers for more basic kitchens. I remember when I phoned up to order the kitchen on the offer they did everything they could to convince me to buy their more expensive kitchens claiming the kitchen wouldnt last and was only designed for student houses. In the end i had to ask if she was refusing to make my order as she was so difficult. But in the end she allowed me to order the kitchen. Not one fault with the oven, hob or extractor fan in the 5 years. I wouldnt have paid the original price of £7500 for it though.

wii_man1

that sounds really expensive benchmarx supplied 25 units for 3.5k

some pics here

daggy

jlsh wrote: »

Hi,

Firstly I'm interested to know how you got Howden's to give you a price. As I understand it they only deal with trade. Do you have a trade account with them? We'd love to be able to go directly and get a price!

My second comment was about what happened to us today. We had a kitchen fitter all lined up and he recommended Howden's to us. He said they don't really have a price list because they offer big discounts to tradesmen and allow them to make a profit from the units. He said from the outset he wasn't interested in doing this, he was only interested in charging us for the fitting. We came up with a design together and he took it to Howden's and came back with the computer images and a price. The price was for supply, fit and decorate. I have to say we were a bit disappointed as we had heard that Howden's was such good value and it only came in a fraction cheaper than Magnet (with Magnet fitters). We wanted to make a fair comparison in case we decided to go with the Magnet kitchen but get our fitter to install it so we texted our fitter last night to ask how much of his quote was for supply and how much was fitting. He refused. Today he emailed to say he didn't want to work with us anymore! I must say I am rather bemused as we only asked a simple question. I did think as it it our house and our several thousand pounds we were being asked to part with, we did have the right to ask what the money was going on! Have we made some sort of majorly offensive error here?

Sounds like you just saved yourself from being the subject of a builders from hell episode. :P

I jest of course, but that fitter sounds like a con artist.