Redrow Kitchen Extras

Elizabeth2102

We've been to choose our kitchen today and after having every intention of picking one from the standard range we are now looking at granite worktops (£2190).
My boyfriend also wants to revisit us having an island (£1835 with granite top).
Has anyone paid for these as extras? Are they worth the £4000 price tag?

Davesnave

Elizabeth2102 wrote: »

Has anyone paid for these as extras? Are they worth the £4000 price tag?

It's impossible to answer this because the item is a non-essential and the 'value' someone derives from it is highly personal.

In the past year I've chosen not to have granite worktops or a granite hearth for practical and cost reasons.

If I did want a granite item made, I wouldn't buy it via an intermediary who'll take their chunk, I'd go direct to the people who do this and save a shed-load of money.

But there's a whole thread on the subject of granite, so if you think my post is confusing, just wait till you've read that!:rotfl:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1742805

AlexMac

You've asked the wrong person if you want an opinion about
i) granite tops - which I think can look great; but,can look cheap and shiny, nightmarish to clean and prone to scratching. Given the range of quality surfaces around I'm more interested in colour and texture; with a presumption for matt
ii) island units - which, in my old fashioned way, I consider to be a waste of space! Literally; in that they can kill a large room (unless it's a vast room) and reduce future flexibility.

Having installed about a dozen kitchens (in my own and the kids homes, and in a few second homes and BTLs over the years) I'm much interested in functional design and the inter-relationship of appliances, ovens, prep-areas, storage, etc (e.g. dishwashers near sinks for slops and close to glass and crockery storage for ease of unloading).

But its a free country! Happy choosing

Vampgirl

Worktop: we found the cheapest way was to just have the basic worktop from the developer and replace it later. Difficult to say if £2.2k for granite worktops is reasonable or not – it depends on the size of your kitchen. It’s a fairly simple job to have the worktops replaced – we paid £3.5k to have ours replaced with quartz (approx. 9 linear meters). You should have a kitchen plan from the developer which you can use to get some online quotes to have the worktops replaced later so you can make a comparison.

Island: we didn’t get a quote from the developer for an island as we didn’t realise how big our kitchen was until we walked into it - we had the measurements but couldn’t visualise the space. It cost us £1.3k for a 1300x900 island including wine rack and wide pan drawers. The only disadvantage to having the island put in afterwards is that we don’t have power to it (because the floor was already tiled).

Elizabeth2102

Thanks all, we went back and re-picked the kitchen yesterday. We've decided against granite for now and gone for one of the laminates (natural ash), and stuck with the white gloss cupboards. We've also decided to go for the island - this is £1285 with power to it so seems reasonable with the price you had quoted Vampgirl