Fitting Kitchen in our new house

RainbowLily

Hi All,
We have bought a house off plan, and its in the process of being built. We've had quotes from the house builder for Granite worktops, and they are about £3,000. I know Granite is an expensive material, but was wondering if anyone had any recommended suppliers/fitters that they have used.
I'm happy to look at quartz or another high gloss finished product too, if anyone has any suggestions there too?

Finally, the housebuilder has said that they HAVE to fit a worktop for the kitchen to pass safety tests, but the day we get the keys, we can rip them out and replace with ours. Is it worth talking to the site manager to see if we can have ours fitted straight away, or will they just refuse?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Steph

AnotherJoe

If you mean, the onsite builders fitting someone else's worktop, a few seconds thought would tell you why that's not going to happen.

exiled_red

Have you considered a hybrid product such as 'earthstone' counter tops? They are solid surface materials that look similar to stone type tops such as quartz but have wood/laminate undersides which make them easier (and cheaper) to install than solid stone or quartz, and the materials themselves are cheaper. My wife and I are considering these as we don't wnat to pay for the more expensive quartz.

RainbowLily

AnotherJoe wrote: »

If you mean, the onsite builders fitting someone else's worktop, a few seconds thought would tell you why that's not going to happen.

No reply would have been nicer than implying I'm too stupid to think about it.
I don't particularly want to pay for 2 worktops - them fit it and for me to rip it out the next day - its a waste of materials and I could end up damaging my brand new kitchen.
I was simply wondering if anyone else had any experience in it - and if there is anything we can do rather than waste money.
A lot of fitters fit another company's worktops - it just has to be agreed beforehand - could I pay a premium and get them to fit the other worktop that I buy?

eddddy

RainbowLily wrote: »

Hi All,
We have bought a house off plan, and its in the process of being built. We've had quotes from the house builder for Granite worktops, and they are about £3,000.

<snip>

Is it worth talking to the site manager to see if we can have ours fitted straight away, or will they just refuse?

As a house builder (and bulk buyer), they will be able to buy granite worktops cheaper than you can. It's their mark-up (profit margin) that makes them expensive.


If they agree to fit worktops provided by you, they will still want to make their profit (i.e. they would make their profit from the fitting charge). So it's unlikely to end up any cheaper.

But it's very likely that they'll just refuse anyway.

AnotherJoe

RainbowLily wrote: »

No reply would have been nicer than implying I'm too stupid to think about it.
I don't particularly want to pay for 2 worktops - them fit it and for me to rip it out the next day - its a waste of materials and I could end up damaging my brand new kitchen.
I was simply wondering if anyone else had any experience in it - and if there is anything we can do rather than waste money.
A lot of fitters fit another company's worktops - it just has to be agreed beforehand - could I pay a premium and get them to fit the other worktop that I buy?

Stupid? No. Maybe it just didn't occur to you..it's a liability issue. Supplier supplies granite worktop at £3k, Barrats fitter messes it up, whose going to be to blame? Answer, neither or lure to the point, you. Barrats fitter says the granite was faulty, granite supplier says the fitter messed it up.
It needs to be one company supplying and fitting.
Are there less expensive products than granite in the options that the builder can fit ?

AlexMac

How about just accepting the builder's cheapest laminate then retrofitting a thin granite "overlay" or "transformations" top?

We took quotes online from a local company website...
( henderstone.co.uk but there are many others)
and it came out at under £1,500 to supply and fit a large U-shaped worktop totalling almost 6 metres which seemed reasonable.

We went for a simple replacement in laminate in the end, as we also had to rip out a few base units and we were on a budget, but it seemed a good deal and their customer follow up sounded impressive.

kerri_gt

I might be missing something but you've had quotes for granite from the builders so you can have the granite you want but you're not sure about the £3k cost?

Tbh, if that's what you really want, in proportion to the cost of buying a house, why not just go with the builders quote? Although as a new build you should have little / nothing to do when you move in, do you really want the hassle / stress of having to replace the worktop when you move if you can avoid it?