howdens kitchen quote, shall we try elsewhere.......?

F_Bear

had a quote for a kitchen from Howdens, the kid who came was polite and helped us through the process. as with howdens ive a joinery friend whos account it is and will be fitting for us.

its a modest J shaped kitchen styled in howdens glendevon flint grey. with the 18mm solid door and cushion close. the quoted includes full Lamona appliances and the Pecan Floor. we'll be getting the Lamona Microwave but the rest of the appliances come in at £1300 and we will be having a look on line etc.

the breakdown is: £

2 glg wh nh 300 cc 3 dwr base 619
1 glg wh nh 600 cc hl base 150
1 glg wh nh 100 hl cnr base - 450dr 210
1 glg wh nh 500 cc full ht wall 86
2 glg wh nh 900 cc full ht wall 324
1 glg wh nh 631 cc full ht cnr wall 105
1 glg wh nh 600 cc int mw housing 168
1 glg wh nh 600 buoh dwr base 198
4 glg nh 600 hl app door 224
4 glg wh 30mm sqr profile cornice 3m 55
3 glg wh continous plinth 58
5 glg 910 base decor end 90
2 glg 752 full ht wall decor end 29
1 lamona elec oven, gas hob, extrat 199
1 lamona built in microwave 205
21 strap handle 182
4 interlink t5 380 8w 75
10 led plinth lights 41
2 high perforance underlay 21
8 Pecan 2.22 sq meter v grove 143
1 lamona 1.5 bwl sink 45
1 lomona chrome lever tap 122
3 pecan sq edge 3m 616 38 w/top 350
1 lomona built under fridge 176
1 lomana 1600 spin w/machine 292
1 lomona under counter freezer 248
1 lomona dishwasher 296

total 4796
vat 959
total bill 5756

what do people think? ta

cddc

Price looks a decent one to me..on the face of it, if you have a Bernchmarx in your area, try them as well..however..

Design wise...., and of course site unseen...

Not sure about the following:

Why have you got 2X 300 drawer units? One 600 would be way better and cheaper..

What do you use your microwave for? If you want it to heat full size plates of food, then the ones that fit into wall cabinets (especially Howdens ones which are shallower than most!) are useless.

Lamona appliances (Howdens own brand) are notoriously poor...buy your apps. elsewhere..

HTH

F_Bear

thanks for the reply.

we need the 2 300's as theres no space for a 600. the designer explained this to us as we dont want a tower fridge/frezzer, we want them under the counter due to the layout of the kitchen.

shes got her heart set on an intergratted microwave, even though we can save £500 off the price by not having one! :-(

we're going to shop for the appliances today hopefully

Annie1960

Howdens used to give the installer a very large discount (around 80%). Is at least some of this being passed on to you?

leveller2911

Annie1960 wrote: »

Howdens used to give the installer a very large discount (around 80%). Is at least some of this being passed on to you?

80% Discount off their list price is just smoke and mirrors.

Howdens are not that cheap even after their discount. I have a quote from them for my parents kicthen which I thought seemed expensive.

Discounted items ranged from 60% -80% but when I did a comparison with diy kitchens online they came out £1400 cheaper than Howdens on a £4,900 kitchen. The online quote was for a solid Oak door (Howdens Burford Light Oak "effect" overlay chipboard) and colour matched carcases (Howdens off white carcases) and also Duropol laminate worktops where Howdens I think use Axiom worktops which are pants.

Howdens are falling in quality and service and are paying for their mantra of "A customer being no further than 30 minutes away from a Howdens branch", they are becoming a very poor quality shed.

cyclonebri1

leveller2911 wrote: »

80% Discount off their list price is just smoke and mirrors.

Howdens are not that cheap even after their discount. I have a quote from them for my parents kicthen which I thought seemed expensive.

Discounted items ranged from 60% -80% but when I did a comparison with diy kitchens online they came out £1400 cheaper than Howdens on a £4,900 kitchen. The online quote was for a solid Oak door (Howdens Burford Light Oak "effect" overlay chipboard) and colour matched carcases (Howdens off white carcases) and also Duropol laminate worktops where Howdens I think use Axiom worktops which are pants.

Howdens are falling in quality and service and are paying for their mantra of "A customer being no further than 30 minutes away from a Howdens branch", they are becoming a very poor quality shed.

I think it's in their MFI genes, ;)

lackingwedge

I was in Magnet Express over the weekend.

The designer came to my property in the week and measured up.

As we sat there on sat, he gave us the price of the kitchen. It was four tall(2300mm) larder cupboards for Oven\Steam\Microwave\Coffee Maker) as well as floor units to go in the Island.

All without appliences or worktops came up to 27k, he then started typing in various discount codes of 50-60% slowly increasing them depending on the look on my face.

The final prices with around 70% off was around 9k including vat. He then tried to convivce me that it was on par with the really good German kitchens.

The charade with the massive "discounts" and sales patter really put me off.
Are Ikea kitchens good quality and what of Diy Kitchens?

cyclonebri1

lackingwedge wrote: »

I was in Magnet Express over the weekend.

The designer came to my property in the week and measured up.

As we sat there on sat, he gave us the price of the kitchen. It was four tall(2300mm) larder cupboards for Oven\Steam\Microwave\Coffee Maker) as well as floor units to go in the Island.

All without appliences or worktops came up to 27k, he then started typing in various discount codes of 50-60% slowly increasing them depending on the look on my face.

The final prices with around 70% off was around 9k including vat. He then tried to convivce me that it was on par with the really good German kitchens.

The charade with the massive "discounts" and sales patter really put me off.
Are Ikea kitchens good quality and what of Diy Kitchens?

Spit and sawdust the lot, I honestly don't know where they pull the prices from, it's certainly not cost related.

Are bargain basement kitchens, Ikea etc inferior to the best, well yes they are, but they are still fit for purpose and if the style fits why not?

The top end in relation certainly doesn't deserve the 5x price tag

DirectDebacle

The chipboard in an Ikea kitchen carcass comes with a 25 yr guarantee. It will be of no worse quality than virtually any other EU manufactured chipboard carcass, German or wherever.

leveller2911

DirectDebacle wrote: »

The chipboard in an Ikea kitchen carcass comes with a 25 yr guarantee. It will be of no worse quality than virtually any other EU manufactured chipboard carcass, German or wherever.

Pretty much all of the big companies in Europe use Egger board. I expect IKEA are the same.

Its about £40-00 for a 10' x 5' sheet which can make 5-6 x 600mm units.

cddc

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Spit and sawdust the lot, I honestly don't know where they pull the prices from, it's certainly not cost related.

Are bargain basement kitchens, Ikea etc inferior to the best, well yes they are, but they are still fit for purpose and if the style fits why not?

The top end in relation certainly doesn't deserve the 5x price tag

Whilst agreeing with some of that, look at it this way, how often does someone buy a kitchen?

If you are expecting the same margin as a pint of milk, you are always going to be disappointed!

Yes, there are still a few rip off merchants out there, but some of the worst (Moben etc.) have thankfully fallen in the last few years...