how to find a good kitchen fitter on a low budget

Steve_the_fitter

If you are on a budget you really should be looking elsewhere to buy your kitchen. Wickes kitchens are not bad quality and with the 150% jan sales are prob not overpriced at the moment but Homebase is the last place to buy a kitchen IMO. not good quality at all.
Have a look at a couple of online kitchen supply companies. diy kitchens sell better quality kitchens than above 2 and prob cheaper than both. Then find a independent fitter to price up the fitting side. I do agree with above comments about a decent fitter can make a cheap kitchen look good and last a long time and a rubbish fitter can make an expensive kitchen look rubbish and not last as long as it should. But i would say that as im a kitchen fitter :rotfl:

bodmil wrote: »

I didn't say cheap, just on a strict budget! I want it done properly and all at once, although if I could I would break it down in stages. I've got a quote from Homebase/Wickes etc but I'm concerned that I won't get a decent quality installation.

Furts

Steve_the_fitter wrote: »

If you are on a budget you really should be looking elsewhere to buy your kitchen. Wickes kitchens are not bad quality and with the 150% jan sales are prob not overpriced at the moment but Homebase is the last place to buy a kitchen IMO. not good quality at all.
Have a look at a couple of online kitchen supply companies. diy kitchens sell better quality kitchens than above 2 and prob cheaper than both. Then find a independent fitter to price up the fitting side. I do agree with above comments about a decent fitter can make a cheap kitchen look good and last a long time and a rubbish fitter can make an expensive kitchen look rubbish and not last as long as it should. But i would say that as im a kitchen fitter :rotfl:

Plus it depends where you live. A top quality fitter is £80 per day where I live. Consequently I take labour on a day rate rather than price work. The fitter will not be tempted to rush and cut corners, and neither am I paying their profits/mark up. Yes the risk is with me, but with competent tradesmen this is not too onerous.

SailorSam

phill99 wrote: »

Sorry but there is no way I would let a 'good student' be let loose on a kitchen installation. A theoretical application of knowledge is not the same as time served experience.

The way i see it is lots of colleges need 'guinea pigs'.
People go regularly to get their hair done and have beauty treatments; eat in college restaurants; get cars repaired; even book their holidays.
Colleges never allow a beginner out loose on the public but towards the end of their training it benefits both the 'worker' and the customer.

southcoastrgi

but you can get your hair re-done, you can re-do your makeup, you don't go back to a restaurant if the food is crap, you can get your car repaired somewhere else, you don't go back or book with the same company if you have a bad holiday, but a kitchen will normally last 20 + yrs do you really want to live with that if it looks horrible or is falling to pieces

keystone

SailorSam wrote: »

The way i see it is lots of colleges need 'guinea pigs'.

but the OP doesn't need a makee learnee wood butcher.

Unless OP gives a clue as to the budget he has in mind and the size of the task requiring doing the thread will go round in circles.

Cheers

phill99

SailorSam wrote: »

The way i see it is lots of colleges need 'guinea pigs'.
People go regularly to get their hair done and have beauty treatments; eat in college restaurants; get cars repaired; even book their holidays.
Colleges never allow a beginner out loose on the public but towards the end of their training it benefits both the 'worker' and the customer.

I don't necessarily disagree with your comparison with hairdressing etc

But people go to the local college with the knowledge they will be guinea pigs and therefore accept the low price knowing they will get an inferior haircut.

However if someone is spending say £5k on kitchen units, they do not want to be a guinea pig for a trainee joiner. You want the fitting to be a proper job. You don't want it installed so that it looks like the bomb squad have had a go at it.

So quite frankly what you say is a load of rubbish.

SailorSam

So what you're saying is it Phil you wouldn't let this guy from College fix your kitchen this week even though he may have the instructor standing behind him making sure it's a good job. But come next week when he's left college and he's a fully qualified joiner he can have the job because next week he want need an instructor behind him, he'll have a certificate in his hand to show you how good he is.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
Goodnight.

keystone

Even if the instructor is standing right behind him if the instructor hasn't got a damned clue about fitting kitchens or any experience either of said task what is the point?

Just sayin'

Cheers

phill99

SailorSam wrote: »

So what you're saying is it Phil you wouldn't let this guy from College fix your kitchen this week even though he may have the instructor standing behind him making sure it's a good job. But come next week when he's left college and he's a fully qualified joiner he can have the job because next week he want need an instructor behind him, he'll have a certificate in his hand to show you how good he is.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
Goodnight.

So you are suggesting that a lad that las week was a student and still under the supervision, this week has left college and because he has a piece of paper in his hand showing he's 'qualified' he has suddenly accumulated all of the skills, experience and understanding to fit a kitchen competently and that is going to last the next 20 years?

You appear to have one of those special vocal rectums.

C_Mababejive

Furts wrote: »

Plus it depends where you live. A top quality fitter is £80 per day where I live. Consequently I take labour on a day rate rather than price work. The fitter will not be tempted to rush and cut corners, and neither am I paying their profits/mark up. Yes the risk is with me, but with competent tradesmen this is not too onerous.

I'd be more than happy to pay a decent person £80 a day to fit a kitchen. Heck,id pay him in cash..