Dear MSE, Would like to fit a new kitchen, no idea where to start. Please help :-)

LiveOnce

Hello MSE friends,

Forgive my lack of knowledge in this domain which is why I seek your advice.

I would like to re-fit my kitchen (ideally by someone skilled) but I have no idea where to start.

The kitchen is not big, about the size of a box room but slightly bigger and it is in London.

I am looking to get something functional and modern-ish with longevity, nothing too costly or fancy.

How do I proceed in finding good value for money quotes? And picking the right person / company to fit it?

Thank you in advance for helping

alumende27

Budget?

I've had great success ordering kitchen cabinets from diy-kitchens.com quality is better than the sheds, howdens, ikea, etc., but it requires a bit of skill with the planning because they won't design it for you. Find a local carpenter/joiner who has experience of fitting kitchens preferably one that is recommended to you, they (should) be miles cheaper than going to any of the usual places.

LiveOnce

Can it be done under £3,000?

Thanks dsdhall.

I don't know what is the average budget in London. Again I want to stress I am going for something functional rather than fancy.

Floydr92

Hi LiveOnce. I'm a joiner up north in Scotland so can hopefully give you some pointers.

I have never used the kitchen units from diy-kitchens.com as dsdhall suggested, however i do find howdens to be the best in terms of value for money and will recommend them to anyone. They are easy to assemble, and hence fast. This is an important factor as it reduces labour cost.

Besdides that, units are the cheap part. The espense comes in the doors, ironmongery, appliances and whatever you do with flooring/tiling/splashback. As a rule of thumb, labour/materials ratio on a low end job will be about 50/50 (up north). In london, joiners are far more expensive (i'm doing a big job in london from mid april for 3 months, and its still cheaper for my customer to put me up in a travelodge for 3 months and fly me home every 2 weeks! But then i have done work for him before and he trusts me and my work).

Anyway as a guide price, £3k all in for a mid sized kitchen with appliances and a ceramic tile or wetwall splashback, exculding new flooring is a reasonable estimate, but i is very hard to price without spec. To give you an idea, i've often installed worktops worth double your budget, at the same time i've installed melamine worktops that cost £40.

If you want sonething that will stand the test of time, avoid melamine worktops like the plague and go for solid wood (though these do require maintenance, they age well). Source taps and fittings on ebay (they're actually really good quality from what i've found, often better than retail shops, at a fraction of the price).

Its also common practice (infact almost certain) tgat your joiner will take a commission on the materials. I do, around 10%, but the customer will always pay less than retail price, 10% over trade price. If you can get trade accounts, source everything yourself.

Feel free to ask any specific questions, its quite hard to give advice on a broad subject.

Robert

LiveOnce

Hi Floyd,

Thank you for the useful reply!

So how do you suggest I go about making this economical?

In order to order from say howdens or other sellers, what do I need to do? As kitchens come in different sizes I imagine what I want to buy needs to be thought out first?

If you were to give a step by step guide of how I should do this what is your advice?

Thank you in advance!

phill99

LiveOnce wrote: »

Can it be done under £3,000?

If that is your total budget, no chance.

alumende27

For what it's worth the carpenter I use for various jobs also speaks highly of Howdens for kitchens, but I have no experience of their kitchens myself.

As far as I'm aware you can visit a howdens, and even have them assist with the design, but as they're trade only you'll need a tradesman to actually buy the kitchen from them.

The last time I had a kitchen professionally fitted, it cost *roughly* £3K for the units, £3K for the appliances (fridge/freezer, hob, oven, dishwasher)and £3K for the labour (which involved stripping the old one, new ceiling, new floor, new tiles, electrical work, etc.,). Since then we've done two ourselves, although had a carpenter in to do the worktops and other intricate work beyond my abilities).

Appliances can cost a little or a lot depending on what you want. (extractor fans go up from under £50 to over £5000!).

I think £3K is pushing it, but you really need to find a a good tradesman that is *recommended* to you by someone you know who has used them, not from one of those find-a-trader websites, and discuss your requirements with them. Without seeing what the existing kitchen is and how much work is required it's hard to give more specific advice.

A useful step would be to draw a plan of your existing kitchen noting the lengths of the various walls and placement of windows and doors and other non-movable features. You can then get some kitchen planners to give you some idea of what can be done. You can try asking in howdens, B&Q, Magnet, etc., you're under no obligation to buy just because they've done a design.

GDB2222

My experience:

Ikea units are very good. You can wander around looking at their units, and they'll help you plan the kitchen then cost it up.

A dozen units for a small kitchen will be a few hundred pounds. It's all the other stuff that mounts up. All new appliances? Worktops, melamine or granite? Even simple stuff like cornice on top of the units and lighting pelmets. New tiles and tiling. Plumbing. Electrics. New flooring.

Putting the units together is very straightforward, but quite time-consuming. So, you could save money by doing that yourself.

It makes a difference to the installation cost whether you are living in the place at the time and need some sort of kitchen facility during the installation period.

Howdens are trade only, so you are in the hands of the tradesman who orders it for you from them, how much mark-up he gets, and how much discount he's entitled to. I'm not a big fan.

If I can give one tip, it's to get a decent quality sink that is deep enough to wash up in properly. Not just the dishes, but baking trays and so forth.

Also, unless your cooker hood vents outside, I wouldn't bother with one.

Floydr92

First step would be to go to B&Q, sit down with a planner and get your kitchen drawn up as you plan. Units are standard sizes and can be found from other sources once you have and list of all the parts you need from B&Q. Dont do this in Ikea because for one, you're 3k wont get you an ikea kitchen anyway, and secondly they use non standard sizes and features, some of which are really neat, but since you wont be buying an ikea kitchen, the plan doesnt help much.

Once you have this list, you can then start sourcing.

If you are self employed, you can get an account with howdens, you dont need to be in a trade specifically i dont think. Otherwise, if you are struggling, drop me a pm with your list and i'll drop it into howdens for a quote to see if their products are within your budget.

B&Q will rip you off royally if you actually buy the kitchen from them. Quality is terrible, amd overpriced. Same doors (gloss white fully wrapped) are £12 in howdens and £39 in B&Q from my last experience.

As for base units, what do you currently have? Can they be re-used and you can give the kitchen a spruce up with new worktops, doors, handles and appliances? This may be the best way to go on a budget.

nicholaish

Personally i think £3k is enough for a small kitchen.

I am having my kitchen ripped out and a new one installed for just over £3k.

My installer uses Howdens, from the catalogues and going into their showroom, the quality looks great, and im going with the cheaper cabinets, etcs, as im selling my house towards the start of next year. However i can see how the costs can get huge, as i originally wanted a specific sink, but my kitchen istaller said it was £100 more than a basic one that looked exactly the same!!!

My advice, get some kitchen installer people in to provide you with some quotes so you can see how much it will actually cost, if your not sure what you want exactly, they can always advise.

SoJo

My new kitchen is being fitted next week and I used magnet. It's costing just over £5000 and doesn't include fitting. The designer came out, measured and discussed what I wanted. Then you go in to look at the design, change anything and add in appliances.! It took me 4 months before i agreed with the design because i just wasnt happy with it as i dont have much space.! For that amount I'm getting a slimline dishwasher, oven, induction hob, basic hood, integrated microwave, single sink. I'm also getting 8 cupboards (3 of them are only 30cm).! I've gone for mid range on appliances but you can go cheaper.

If you go for somewhere like howdens/magnet wait for the sale. I looked at wicks, they were ok but felt I had a better service from magnet.

For my previous place I bought 2 white standard units from Ikea and I would never touch them with barge pole again. Their staff helped me on what i needed to buy but got it wrong and of course i didnt realise until I started to put it together and then they didnt have what i wanted in stock.! The instructions were awful and! it took me and my dad 1.5 days to put them up. Then after 3! months the inside of the drawer unit was badly marked by my pots which I've never had in any other unit I've used.

My brother in law also got some money off his magnet kitchen by haggling and saying it was what he wanted but slightly out of their price range. I get a 25yr guarantee and the designer will come out after, check I'm happy and sign off on it. It's also on finance through magnet, no interest for a yr so although I have the money I get the interest on saving it for a yr and then pay it off. I'm sure howdens would be the same for what magnet do but you do need a trade acct.

Try going to a kitchen design place, you'll get an idea on cost to base other options against but if anything you'll get an idea of what you want, what will fit and what it may look like. Good luck.