Kitchen Renovation

Ed_Zep

Hi,

when renovating a kitchen to a reasonable standard would you always put new carcasses in or just replace doors, assuming they're in good condition?
It always seems daft to replace the units if they're in good condition but just wondered what expectation someone would have if it looked like a new kitchen and found the carcasses were maybe a lot older.

Everything else will be new. I.e. appliances, tiles, etc.

Thanks,
Ed.

anselld

Ed_Zep wrote: »

Hi,

when renovating a kitchen to a reasonable standard would you always put new carcasses in or just replace doors, assuming they're in good condition?
It always seems daft to replace the units if they're in good condition but just wondered what expectation someone would have if it looked like a new kitchen and found the carcasses were maybe a lot older.

Everything else will be new. I.e. appliances, tiles, etc.

Thanks,
Ed.

They are rarely in good condition though. Usually significant deterioration particularly under the sink unit, the backs are usually flimsy and distorted, wear on the hinge mountings, drawer runners, etc, etc.

It is probably false economy unless you have better-than-average quality of carcasses.

PField

Carcasses are pretty cheap. If your going to be changing everything else including tiles then I would go the little extra and get a new kitchen.

Doozergirl

Replacement doors don't tend to fit that well.

The in-laws did it. No idea how much they spent on it, but you can see a couple of mm gap all the way around every doors that enable you to see the front edge of the carcasses behind. Where they've come across challenges they've sort of bodged it. To a lay person it might have looked okay, but to me it didn't look great on day one.

After a couple of years, it just looks like the 20 year old kitchen it is.

The units are really the flimsiest part of a kitchen. I would paint or wrap doors to give them a bit of a longer life, but replacement doors are a false economy.

AdrianC

I'm about to replace our kitchen, not least because the carcasses are knackered. The doors and worktop still look fine, but...

KiKi

I'm replacing doors and trim only. Carcasses in my kitchen are 6 years old and I'm replacing with the same manufacturer. They're in good condition, though, and the difference in price was quite significant.

glasgowdan

Is this your own home to live in, or sell? If the former then who cares, you only see the doors and if the units are in good condition then they're fine. If selling as a newly renovated house the buyers won't like it.

phoebe1989seb

The units in two out of our last three kitchens - the other house had no kitchen units :eek: - were on their last legs so were destined for the skip from the get go. Even if they hadn't been, we wouldn't have considered replacing the doors only as the carcasses were of cheap, shoddy quality.

For example, one kitchen had 1980s solid pine doors - that the PO had painted - but the carcasses were all carp plastic drawers and chipboard that was falling apart.

We replaced the lot with rigid timber/mdf free-standing units. Price worked out cheaper than the usual suspects

Guess it depends on the quality of the original carcasses though......

Ed_Zep

glasgowdan wrote: »

Is this your own home to live in, or sell? If the former then who cares, you only see the doors and if the units are in good condition then they're fine. If selling as a newly renovated house the buyers won't like it.

It's a renovation of the whole house and whilst I want to keep costs down, I really want it to look good for selling. As it's a good area (which is why I bought it) I'm veering towards buying all new units.

Ed_Zep

AFF8879 wrote: »

Outside of structural projects (extensions, loft conversions etc) the kitchen is likely to be the biggest expense you'll ever make in a home. Personally if I was going to spend that much (and I am actually planning a new kitchen myself!) I would always want to do it to the highest quality I could afford- why spend thousands of pounds on a half-baked job? Plus the fact you call it "renovation" in your post makes me think you'd want it done to a pretty high standard. If I couldn't afford it at the time I'd rather save until I could get it perfect.

You're right, I do want to do it to a pretty high standard. I suppose my thinking was that we never get the money back on a new kitchen but absolutely it's best to wait until there's a good plan and on reflection, replacement doors could look shoddy!

madbrifman

Will get a new kitchen.