New German Kitchen Recommendations

Silvertabby

Have a look at Second Nature.

Our kitchen is over 12 years old and still looks as good as the day it was fitted.

We went for the solid oak shaker style door fronts, which will never date.

Richard_Overton_2911

SuzieSue wrote: »

Do a search on DIY-kitchens on this forum.

Lots of people have used them (including me because of the recommendations on here).

They are a great company to deal with and their kitchens are very good quality.

I second this as I have used DIY Kitchens a few times and even fitted one for my parents ... I think they also use doors from various suppliers including Second Nature..

Their units have a 2.5mm ABS edgings which will put up with bashing whereas most companies including many of the German ones only use 1mm edgings. If you pay a little extra they will factory fit all the pullouts,drawers etc which can save time and money.

BananaRepublic

Richard_Overton_2911 wrote: »

There are no doubt different grades of Chipboard as there are with any particle board.MDF is a good example where you can get the cheap ,nasty,poor quality Chinese MDF which is not very dense and the flip side is MEDITE which is excellent quality.

German units are made from chipboard from either EGGER or Kronospan and the same goes for UK kitchens.

One of the jobs I have (when I have time) is to make a new kitchen in our house as our current one was the cheapest Howdens 600 kitchen put in when the house was built in 1993, my point being even the cheapest,most basic kitchen will last decades if looked after and the only part of a kitchen which may at some point come into contact with water are the plinths and end stadards and even the best chipboard will expand and fall apart a very short time in contact with water. The question should be asked why ,if German kitchens are such good quality why aren't they build with waterproof MDF ? if water ingress is such an issue. Even the most vulnerable parts like the plinths and end standards are made of "water resistant"chipboard.


Agreed but German kitchens don't have a monopoly on decent melamine or Formica (trade name). If you look at say a Poggenpohl kitchen the melamine on their worktops is wafer thin and their unit carcase is only 15mm thick .I buy sheets of Formica which can be anything up to 3mm thick but 99% of laminate worktops are less than 1mm.

Thats my point though . MRMDF is a better product than any chipboard but I don't know a single company which uses it for their carcases and the only reaso is Chipboard is cheap. Kitchens are all about marketing fluff with each company trying to appear different to the rest but the simple fact is they aren't.

Kitchens are very simpley chipboard boxes on plastic legs with a worktop on..:)

I was not saying German is better, but indicating that quality varies quite a bit. The cheap kitchen I saw had shelves under the sink expanding and delaminating, despite no particular spills. It also had worktop ends falling off. My kitchen has plinths that contact the ground, and despite wet mopping the floor, they are like new after 7 years. I have some offcuts in my damp cold garage which show no degradation.

That said, compare the price of a kitchen unit to a similar sized piece of furniture, and often it is outrageous. It’s hard to see how the sellers aren’t minted.

FWIW mine is Optiplan, 7 years old and like new, ignoring a mucky oven. They handled installation and did it well.

LandyAndy

I actually have a German kitchen. It's made by Beeck, which I think is a mid-range producer, and has been in nearly two years. I am impressed by the quality and feel of it. I would recommend them.

curtis122

We used In-toto last year. We only changed our worktops to a white silestone and new sinks and taps which we are very happy with. They were very helpful non pushy and even advised things which may suit better given what we said we wanted even when they were the cheaper option.


The fabricators did a great in coming out measuring advising and fitting. We had a thicker than normal worktop and it came to around 5k with 2 sinks as we did our utility also and a boiling water tap.


All In-toto are franchisees so you can find you get a more personal service and advice rather than just some typical big company sell.

Ramona123

I think the one benefit of German kitchens is that they will make the units fit in to the space that you have, so 1 of the units will be cut to size so that you have minimal fillers in your kitchen, except ones that you do need, so handles don't hit walls etc. Diy kitchens sell online and their units for the price and quality are second to none.