New Kitchen - Where to buy?

mignon_2

I found homebase to be very VERY expensive (as in £150 for a 600 base unit in the sale! i'm sorry, p**S off!)

Ok, Ikea, (sorry I didn't response)

Two potential issues that people don't like with Ikea:

1. Yes, the units sit flush against the wall. Other units have a gap at the back (service space) for your pipes etc. Personally, I would never dream of not having all my pipes concealed so never thought about it. If it would involve a lot of work to conceal your pipes, you then have to take into consideration the price difference between having this work done, and then buying & fitting your own ikea kitchen. The sink unit has half a back on it, so the water paipes and waste pipes can stick out.

2. Non Ikea kitchen fitters do not like fitting ikea kitchens. apparently they are a pain in the backside. Ikea kitchen fitters are more expensive that the kitchen. We fitted it ourselves (me and my husband) It required a screwdriver, a hammer, and a n sds drill to drill into the wall to hang the cabinets. It was easy, and fun. If you are not handy, ask a friend or relative to help in return for a slap up meal. We did it on evenings after work, and honestly, really enjoyed it. Its not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than my brothers kitchen, who paid a lot of money to have it fitted! (plus, you can do it in your own time instead of waiting for fitters)

I was put off Howdens after going in there with my mum and (even though we have an account) they turned us away saying we don't have an account, and wouldn't listen to us. We are two quite small women (pathetic looking, but scary as hell) and I do NOT like that kind of behaviour towards me. I know what I am doing, so honestly, I will never shop there again!

I looked at B&Q, but it was not so easy to come up with a clear price as in Ikea.


We got our worksurface from Universal Granite, and all appliances from appliances online (cannot recommend them enough)

happy to answer any other questions!

samo8076

mignon wrote: »

I found homebase to be very VERY expensive (as in £150 for a 600 base unit in the sale! i'm sorry, p**S off!)

Ok, Ikea, (sorry I didn't response)

Two potential issues that people don't like with Ikea:

1. Yes, the units sit flush against the wall. Other units have a gap at the back (service space) for your pipes etc. Personally, I would never dream of not having all my pipes concealed so never thought about it. If it would involve a lot of work to conceal your pipes, you then have to take into consideration the price difference between having this work done, and then buying & fitting your own ikea kitchen. The sink unit has half a back on it, so the water paipes and waste pipes can stick out.

2. Non Ikea kitchen fitters do not like fitting ikea kitchens. apparently they are a pain in the backside. Ikea kitchen fitters are more expensive that the kitchen. We fitted it ourselves (me and my husband) It required a screwdriver, a hammer, and a n sds drill to drill into the wall to hang the cabinets. It was easy, and fun. If you are not handy, ask a friend or relative to help in return for a slap up meal. We did it on evenings after work, and honestly, really enjoyed it. Its not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than my brothers kitchen, who paid a lot of money to have it fitted! (plus, you can do it in your own time instead of waiting for fitters)

I was put off Howdens after going in there with my mum and (even though we have an account) they turned us away saying we don't have an account, and wouldn't listen to us. We are two quite small women (pathetic looking, but scary as hell) and I do NOT like that kind of behaviour towards me. I know what I am doing, so honestly, I will never shop there again!

I looked at B&Q, but it was not so easy to come up with a clear price as in Ikea.


We got our worksurface from Universal Granite, and all appliances from appliances online (cannot recommend them enough)

happy to answer any other questions!

I take it the ikea kitchen comes flat packed? The one thing i do like about diy-kitchens is the fact all units come pre built which will save a lot of time.

With regards to howdens, did they turn you away before you took a look around their shop? I dont have an account with them but my fitter does so planning to pop in on saturday to see what they have on offer.

keystone

mignon wrote: »

Two potential issues that people don't like with Ikea:

Neither of which are actually real issues.

1. Yes, the units sit flush against the wall.

So what. Its all about planning as you have found out. Its a non issue,

2. Non Ikea kitchen fitters do not like fitting ikea kitchens. apparently they are a pain in the backside.

I wish people would stop promoting this sweeping generalisation. Its not true.

Ikea kitchen fitters are more expensive that the kitchen.

Thats also a bit misleading if I may say so. The cost of fitting a 600 base unit is the cost of fitting a 600 base unit. It isn't relevant whether that base unit material cost is £ 50 or £ 1000 or somewhere in between.

Its not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than my brothers kitchen, who paid a lot of money to have it fitted! (plus, you can do it in your own time instead of waiting for fitters)

A good fitter can make a cheap kitchen look a million dollars. A bad one can make an expensive one look pants.

Cheers

mignon_2

keystone wrote: »

Neither of which are actually real issues.

So what. Its all about planning as you have found out. Its a non issue,

I wish people would stop promoting this sweeping generalisation. Its not true.

Thats also a bit misleading if I may say so. The cost of fitting a 600 base unit is the cost of fitting a 600 base unit. It isn't relevant whether that base unit material cost is £ 50 or £ 1000 or somewhere in between.

A good fitter can make a cheap kitchen look a million dollars. A bad one can make an expensive one look pants.

Cheers

Ok, to clarify:

Yes it is down to planning, not a problem for me as I had already had all the pipes hidden, and would anyway, but for someone replacing a kitchen and not wanting to do that it may be an issue. Just good for people to know the ins and outs.

The non-ikea kitchen fitters I spoke to did not want to fit an Ikea kitchen. I spoke to a few. they all said to me that they were a pain to fit because of the brackets, I didn't find this to be the case, but I wasn't going to hire someone who was making excuses before the started. turned out I didn't need to as we did a damn good job ourselves.

The Ikea fitters are more expensive than the units. My Ikea kitchen costing £2900 for the units would have cost roughly £3300 to fit by Ikea. I can't say about anyone else. Again, not an issue as they're P**s easy to fit.

I'm sure a good fitter can do a lot, or a good workman...show me one! i have struggled and struggled to find any good workmen! been through three plumbers, the only problems in the kitchen are because the plasterer didn't do the walls straight, and then the guys fitting the worktops released a cabinet from the wall to fir the worktop which has left a gap of about 9mm in a very obvious place. As far as the fitting goes, I am happy I didn't spend the moeny on getting it fitted, I think it looks great and it was a good experience!

I hope that clears those points up...

mignon_2

samo8076 wrote: »

I take it the ikea kitchen comes flat packed? The one thing i do like about diy-kitchens is the fact all units come pre built which will save a lot of time.

With regards to howdens, did they turn you away before you took a look around their shop? I dont have an account with them but my fitter does so planning to pop in on saturday to see what they have on offer.

yes Ikea are flat packed, super easy to put together. I'm happy to save the cash for a few minutes extra work per cabinet!

The conversation in Howdens went something like this:

me "Hello, I was looking at your kitchens"
Howdens" You don't have an account"
me "yes I do, its ABC Company, 123 street, we're actually next door to you"
Howdens "No you don't" (without checking the system)
me "my brother was here yesterday he bought...check the system"
Howdens "you're not on here" after a cursory glance

OK, goodbye!!

Don't ask me why, but that's how it happened!

samo8076

ah, hope they are not like that with me this Sat otherwise they will get a reply they wont like.

mignon_2

I'm sure they won't be. That was my experience of one guy in one branch. I'm sure it's not company policy

let us know how you get on!!

cddc

The only real issues with Ikea are the full depth cupboards and pipework. Easily solvable by buying deeper worktops. Even if you do choose to buy your kitchen from Ikea I would not, in my experience buy your worktop from them. I now sell kitchens for another company but inherited an Ikea kitchen which until now, I kept and just updated the doors and worktops (which were pants, qualitywise).

Worth pointing out that the 25 year carcasse warranty is highly optimistic in my experience (expect them to be shot in 10-15 in a well used kitchen). They are cheap though and are probably the best around at that price point.

Work for Wickes, and though you would pay more for one of our to order kitchens, you are getting a superior product. Better spec on absolutely everything, cabinetwise, hence the price difference. If I am honest though, I would have an Ikea kitchen over one of our takeaways at the real budget end of things for the same reason. Better spec for the price..

mignon_2

it's hard because without doing some serious digging, you don't know really what you are getting (quality wise) for your money.

You would hope higher price means better quality, but in some cases it's not true (not talking about Wickes here, i've never seens a Wickes kitchen and cannot comment!) Do you go for the cheaper option assuming they're all the same, or trust the higher price/better quality logic?

I wouldn't even think about the 25year guarantee, people offer idiotic guarantees that just aren't real. We used to sell to a company who offered ten year guarantees on our product and we said, you just can't! they went bust, taking us for thousands, and we still have their clients ringing US up, !!!!ed off because they think they have a ten year guarantee on a product which actually isn't true!

Anyway, as this is a budget project anyway, it really depends on how far the OP wants to take it.

Regarding worktops I have no idea, my brother used to have one of the wooden ones, I think he quite liked it, but also heard bad stories from others about the Ikea worktops, so you never can tell.

samo8076

All in for the entire kitchen, fitting, decorating etc i have a total of £4000 but cannot go more than this. Obviously the cheaper i get the kitchen the more i can spend on my lounge (will need new tv cabinets, coffee table etc).