Howdens quote £4400

Rooferdave

howdens sales men are on commission haggle them to death and you'll end up saving more!

oaprut

I have just had Howden's kitchen fitted and my builder passed on the whole discount - 70-80%. I checked this with my brother, who also has Howden's account. He said Howden's ask builder how much of the discount does he want to pass on to his customer; obviously a great way for him to make extra cash while seeming to be generous giving you 40%. Get another quote.
All these so called discounts/half price offers etc are just a con. Goods are never sold at full price.

greenface

Try imperial kitchens in Wallasey . trevor will often fit better quality ,offer different ideas and include solid timber worktops as standard . even if you don't use them it will give you a better idea of what your paying for . howden's are decent product but prices shouldn't depend on who you talk to in there .

McKneff

You all make it sound like a criminal offence that the builder isn't passing on ALL his discount.


He is in business for goodness sake....

greenface

I am the opposite with discount . I have a cash account at eurocell and gap . Other workmates and family builder friends all know my account ref code and the more they use it to buy plastics and get my discount the more i spend at the end of the year and gets me a bigger discount . ( and a bottle at xmas ) think its about 40% on everything and more on the odd stuff .but my discount is my profit when it comes to pricing a job .or my price is down and my discount is the difference i make as an extra

MissWhitehouse

You could of course try Leaveitasitis.com they are currently giving 100% discount, run a by now pay now offer, and they don't charge for fitting..... but the offer ends on Sunday.

It's all cobblers. Marketing hype. Inflated pricing and kidology.....

---

MFI was Marketing For Idiots.

MissWhitehouse

McKneff wrote: »

You all make it sound like a criminal offence that the builder isn't passing on ALL his discount.


He is in business for goodness sake....

Well Said !!!


If you expect the builder / contractor or supplier to to give it away, you are a fool and deserve all you get when the shoddy job turns into a nightmare and they have gone out of business..

lauh88

MissWhitehouse wrote: »

Well Said !!!


If you expect the builder / contractor or supplier to to give it away, you are a fool and deserve all you get when the shoddy job turns into a nightmare and they have gone out of business..

Considering we have just paid the same builder £5k for new windows and £3k on other various jobs throughout the house plus he's an old family friend I thought he might pass on at least some of his discount. Nevermind, we've gone to Ikea instead!

Xeorix

We're in the same situation, however we're doing all the work ourselves since family are in the trade.

In all honesty, I would get your builder to continue with the building works, however don't give him 100% commitment that he will be fitting your kitchen.

Everyone here recommends places like Howdens or Benchmarx, and whilst they're better than the likes of B&Q, there isn't much in it.
Go an find a local kitchen fitter - http://www.kitchenfittersforum.com/ is a good place to start.
You will get a much better deal out of it, as they will probably be a tad cheaper and you may very well end up with a better quality kitchen.

Ikea, Benchmarx, Howdens etc all use foil wrapped kitchens. Think of it as the MDF going through a machine which essentially vacuum wraps different colour plastics on it.

We are going independent and are getting a lacquered kitchen for not much more!

As an example:
Benchmarx Quote: £9,000 all in
Howdens Quote: £9,000 all in
Magnet Quote: £15,000 all in <- Magnet kitchens are the same quality as above
Independent Quote: £10,000 all in <- Crown Kitchens, very very good quality kitchen for the price range.

You can also save a fortune by sourcing the internal wireworks indirectly. Look on Hafele and then take a look around the internet for those products. If we had all the cupboard inards as part of the kitchen, you'd be adding on another £2k

Benchmarx charge £450 for a magic corner unit. You can get their base unit without the magic corner for under £200, and the wireworks can be had online for around £150. Saving yourself £100+ on one unit for example


Some other options to consider though:
Are the units in good condition, could you get away with new doors and appliances?
Have you looked in eBay for kitchens. Plenty of places sell ex display kitchens on eBay and you can get a good deal!

Conrad

Hi all, my first time in this part of the forum.


I have a 'trade' account with Selco (DIY / Trade chain) which I set up when I started buying buy to let flats for myself.
I am not a builder, however I am handy enough and wish to sort my own kitchen on a flat I've just bought.


I was planning to just change the doors and work tops as I do not want to be spending £4k on new full fitout, can anyone tell me if this has any particular pitfalls they might have experienced as I know from many other DIY jobs that 'there's always a problem'?


Cheers




EDIT;


The price for a door at Selco is £35+vat, seems pretty good.