Howdens - is it worth using the fitter they recommend?

osian

Getting a quote from Howdens soon for a new kitchen. I asked about if they recommended any fitters and they gave me a card of a local fitter.

Is there an advantage to using the recommended fitter?

We did have a wonderful, reliable carpenter to do some work for us in the past but unfortunately he has been injured, so I have no other ideas on who to use.

Thanks.

evokit

fitters just hand cards in, non of the howdens people would have vetted the quality of there work, also if thet get friendly with the sales staff then they will give you the cards saying there work is great.

abankerbutnotafatcat

If you don't have anyone who's been recommended then why not try checkatrade, I think most kitchen fitters will use Howdens. Ours preferred Benchmarx but said he'd use Howdens if we wanted.

evokit

Where are you based???

osian

South Wales

evokit

i dont have any fitters that way nearest is somerset.
Wanna try like above - checkatrade, mybuilder, rated people

osian

Thanks - I've just tried Checkatrade and there doesn't seem to be any fitters or carpenters on the website in our area.

I'll try Rated People - we've got a plasterer coming next week that we found on there (luckily we kind of know him and have seen his work on neighbouring houses, so know he's good and not a cowboy). There seemed to be a lot of tradesmen on there in our local area.

May also try mybuilder too, just had a look and it seems like the same sort of premise as ratedpeople.

evokit

ive used mybuilder for 2 houses, 1 in somerset 1 in manchester.
had some good and some not so trades, just make sure they have enougth feed back, cheap quotes dont mean crap work and expensive dont mean good..

keystone

Ask your injured chippy to recommend one of his buddies. If you are only at the getting quotes stage then he might be fit when it comes to the install of course.

Cheers

keystone

evokit wrote: »

just make sure they have enougth feed back,

except that rave reviews on these sites don't mean squat unfortunately.

cheap quotes dont mean crap work and expensive dont mean good..

Absolutely and don't forget that a good fitter can make a cheap kitchen look a million dollars whilst a bad one can make an expensive one look total pants.

Cheers

osian

Thanks, unfortunately the carpenter has totally quit and is now doing something else. Such a shame as he was very talented.

My friend has recommended a tradesman. He's an electrician by trade but does other building type work including fitting of kitchens/tiling and flooring etc. He came around to quote for the plastering work but missed out by a small amount in price (£1700 vs £1600), so I guess he's relatively reasonably priced. Would a 'general' tradesman be ok for something like this, or would I be better off getting a proper carpenter/ fitter in?

I'm scared of buying a fairly expensive kitchen and then having the fitting messed up as Keystone mentions above.