New kitchen: where to compromise?

jellybean400

Hi all
We are having our kitchen in our Edwardian flat completely refurbished and with the building work required for the installation along with some extensive rewiring required, the work is coming to a bit more than we had hoped, so we are trying to save money on the materials.

Our builders are being quite helpful and trying to negotiate with the supplier. They have quoted 4.6K for our preferred range, and are prepared to knock off 1.2K if we make some adjustments. This includes swapping out the MDF cabinets for chipboard.

My initial reaction is to try and cut costs elsewhere, as I get the impression chipboard is much poorer quality, but there seems to be disagreement on this point. Can anyone say definitively what is the main difference to appearance and wear between the two materials?

If we do decide to stick with the MDF and cough up the extra grand-and-a-bit can anyone suggest another good way to cut costs down a bit?

Are there any big no-nos on where you should and shouldn't cut costs with a kitchen? Or any tricks we might not have known to explore?

Sorry for the newbie questions, we are first time buyers trying to make the most o our ancient pad

cranford

Does your price quote include appliances, sink and taps? If you want to see if you are getting value for money take a look at
http://www.diy-kitchens.com/about-diy-kitchens/price-and-quality-comparison/ and price up a similar kitchen.

Ithaca

Think about what sort of cooking you do most and adjust the budget of those appliances accordingly.

For example, we cook mostly on the hob (lots of pasta, rice, new potatoes etc) and use the oven mainly for cooking frozen chips and the occasional casserole or lasagna. So for us the hob needed to be a decent-spec induction with enough power to cope with 2-3 pans at once. The oven, on the other hand, doesn't need lots of features (timers, steam function, slide-under doors etc) and the temperature control just needs to be good enough to slow-cook a casserole (rather than super-precise if you bake a lot of cakes).

My wife insisted on a full-length freezer as she had visions of making a lot of home-made meals for bulk freezing. Reality is that most of the food we eat can be cooked from scratch in 30 mins, we never remember to take stuff out to defrost, and we have two supermarkets open till 9pm / 11pm within a 5 min drive so we're never stuck for something to eat. So I would have rather had a smaller freezer and a bit more cupboard space (plus saving a few £100s).

We also compromised on worktops. Rather than solid wood (or even real wood laminate) we chose a nice-looking wood-effect laminate. By the time we've put microwave, chopping boards, biscuits tins, kettle etc there's not a great deal of the work-top showing, and while our children are small a cheaper easy-maintenance option made more sense (we might replace in 10 years time when there's less chance of daily spilled ribena and schoolbag zips).

missile

Don't skimp, you will only regret it later.
Chip board is Low Density Fibre engineered board.
MDF board is Medium Density Fibre engineered board.
See here http://www.hse.gov.uk/woodworking/faq-mdf.htm

If money is tight and you really must economise, make sure you go and compare before agreeing to the cheaper alternative.

pinkshoes

Could you not get yourself a second hand kitchen then fit new cupboard doors to it?

We are going with diy-kitchens and fitting it ourselves, thus saving £3000 fitting cost which then means we can have quartz worktops and other features we like.

Our old kitchen (solid wood doors and decent units) is just not to our taste, so we will be selling it very cheap on Facebook.

Heedtheadvice

Do not compromise on work that, should it need improving, requires other items to be taken out of damaged. As an example if wiring or plumbing runs behind units, splashbacks or tiles skimping here just makes for potential future problems.

Plenty of sockets etc at the outset is a good idea. Will not Dave much at all but singles can fairly easily be converted to doubles.

Do review what you want and go for what you need instead. Get rid of non essential items (such as a dishwasher), built in appliances (go for cheaper free standing ones) consider second hand (of same size as you would buy new).

For units go for quality carcase not cheap poor quality. Chipboard will potentially not last as long as denser board (especially if wet!) and becomes relatively expensive to replace. Poorer quality & cheap doors will not last either ..... But....they are easy to replace in a few years when you can afford it with quality ones-providing the carcase is still sound!

Do investigate getting more quotes for the units. Even identical ones can be at variable prices.

How many carcase units are you having installed. A £1.2k material cost seems quite a lot but that might suggests the MDF ones are overpriced? 10 units means they are £120 more EACH!

Many (including my OH and me) these days go for high quality worktops in granite, slate, composites etc. for finish and longevity. But these are fairly expensive and standard high density worktops save money, have good wide range of finish and are durable.
Our worktops should last out or lifetime. Would really expect standard ones to be more than acceptable for the next ten to fifteen years. Ones from Wickes (damaged seconds) fitted well once damage was cut off into a utility room five years ago and still look well. Would not say the same for the lightweight carcases and doors.