Clever kitchen people! Any thoughts on this Howdens quote?

suisidevw

Hi Adam,

What are your thoughts on Howdens 1.5 undermounted Lamona sinks? Any good in quality or should I go for Franke etc?!

1 SNK0302 1.5 Bowl Ceramic Sink & Waste 74.10 £137.00

adamg

Quality is fine, its probaly nothing to do with Lamona and just brought it, I would not want a Lamona stamp in it though. For the price you would not get a Franke, Blanco or Caple, but its over discounted I would think, which means there is something under discounted on your order.

suisidevw

Hi Adam, I've done some serious haggling getting like for like etc as the original price was horrific and I have a lot of 80/85%'ers......

I can get Franke Kubus KBG160 1.5 for £250 so not 'MUCH' more for the name.... Are you aware of it being stamped as Lamona?!

adamg

No i have never seen it in person. I doubt it is, as its probably made for another dozen companies across Europe so just a generic one. What worktop are you having and from where?

suisidevw

A light coloured Quartz. My Howdens quote has decreased massively. It shows that it pays to shop around....

jenfa

suisidevw wrote: »

Jenfa - Tewkesbury Skye will be SUPER expensive - probably the most expensive. We wanted thsi, then saw a sample and you see the wood grain in it! We are now probably going for the Burford Gray

Blame the husband, he wants wood doors but we want to lighten the kitchen so a lighter colour painted seems the way forward. Seeing the wood grain would prob be important to him to show it is real wood, we are keeping some handmade oak built in larder cupboards which we are going to paint and change the knobs to match.

He hand made some cupboards for my utility in a shaker style but inframe if I'm not careful he will want to build the kitchen but seeing as he works very long hours it could take a very long time and with it being the kitchen I don't really want this.

Sorry OP for highjacking your thread it wasn't my intention :beer:

adamg

You can get 5 piece MDF doors with a wood grain effect for a lot less

jenfa

you are so right BUT he has quite an issue with mdf especially as he recently he had to replace a customised window sill that has bubbled because water go into it. Having said that our bathroom cabinets are by utopia and I don't think they are wood. We also did want the flexibility to repaint at a later date if we wanted to rather than replacing doors.

If it wasn't for the oven and hob not working the fridge being too small and the layout being totally wrong I don't think I'd put myself through all this trauma!

I hate spending money at the best of times but have learnt that you get what you pay for but I also don't like to feel ripped off - like most people I suppose. I think I'm just going to hide in a dark cave.

DBee1

hi,

Just starting the painful process of a new kitchen myself. Can I ask you - did Howdens just give you that detailed quote list? They've only just emailed me the kitchen design pictures after me having to ask again after a second visit to the depot for 'the presentation' (and the sales guy nearly had a meltdown when he thought I was asking for the actual plans - he had a little rant about folk going off to B&Q with them, which was kind of offensive really). He said the fitter can go in and look at the plans and discuss with them! - how they think I will sign up to something based on a few sketchy pictures (that still dont match what I've asked for) and a very speedy run through of a list to amounting to the current quote has puzzled me to the point that I'm seriously reconsidering using Howdens. But now I can see a few posts where folk obviously have the detailed quote in their hands before buying and I'm now wondering if the salesman thinks I can be bamboozled into this (woman on my own - would he talk to a man the same, type of scenario?).

Thanks.

zcrat41

Thanks guys some really helpful advice here.

We don't want a 'double oven' I.e one big oven and one small oven. We want two full size ovens in a tower - cda is the only one I've found that does that. I might look into two single full size of better quality based in these comments. The other option is a range cooker but not a fan of their quality and feel there's not as much usable oven space as 2 full size.

I will probably source the tap and sink myself as buildbase seem to dough better prices on better quality. Good to have that confirmed.

We were given the plans from howdens plus the detailed quote. Magnet tried to do the same to is of not giving us plans and I walked out. To be fair, we do actually have a commercial property business so they probably think there's future sales in me.