New kitchen - sense check!

VX_Foxy

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

Friend have used Wren and had a terrible experience.

As have I and thousands of others. We have been in battle with them for 5 years.

DO NOT TOUCH WREN KITCHENS WITH A BARGE POLE!

Belladonna14

Avoid CDA! We had the appliances in our old kitchen. Within the first year I needed repairs on the hob, oven and dishwasher.
In all, the oven went through 5 elements in 4 years.
We have just had a new kitchen fitted and I have replaced the appliances with neff and Bosch appliances for not much more than I paid for the CDA ones.
Oh and we had a CDA Tap too, which sprung leaks in about 6 different places. It was like it had corroded from the inside out.
Our new kitchen cost us £4000 for the units, it has 11 wall/floor units, and 4 full height units (larder/fridge/freezer housing etc.)
Quartz worktops £2300, kitchen fitting £1600. Appliances (7 of them) £2200.
We saved a massive amount on the kitchen by shopping around and getting places to price match.

Belladonna14

Oh and I forgot, DIY kitchens is really fab. We did a lot of research there, but in the end bought from Howdens as the style was slightly different and more in keeping with what we wanted.
They are very good quality.

robatwork

Belladonna14 wrote: »

Oh and I forgot, DIY kitchens is really fab. We did a lot of research there, but in the end bought from Howdens as the style was slightly different and more in keeping with what we wanted.
They are very good quality.

Really don't get this post.

Belladonna14

Apologies that you didn't understand.
We are local to DIY kitchens and used their showroom to do a lot of research for styles that we liked and didn't like.
The quality from DIY kitchens is comparable to Howdens kitchens, as is the cost.
We had originally planned and picked our kitchen from DIY kitchens. In the end however, we preferred a style from Howdens (mainly as the colour was more what we were looking for). I would not have picked our kitchen from Howdens had we not done this research, as the Howdens showroom isn't very good.
The DIY kitchens showroom is massive, the staff are very helpful, and it helped us to clear up a lot of confusion about what we did and didn't want in our kitchen.
We then took these ideas to Howdens to compare prices, to ensure we got what we wanted.
We also looked at local independent companies but they generally came in at double the cost.

robatwork

Belladonna14 wrote: »

Apologies that you didn't understand.
We are local to DIY kitchens and used their showroom to do a lot of research for styles that we liked and didn't like.
The quality from DIY kitchens is comparable to Howdens kitchens, as is the cost.
We had originally planned and picked our kitchen from DIY kitchens. In the end however, we preferred a style from Howdens (mainly as the colour was more what we were looking for). I would not have picked our kitchen from Howdens had we not done this research, as the Howdens showroom isn't very good.
The DIY kitchens showroom is massive, the staff are very helpful, and it helped us to clear up a lot of confusion about what we did and didn't want in our kitchen.
We then took these ideas to Howdens to compare prices, to ensure we got what we wanted.
We also looked at local independent companies but they generally came in at double the cost.

OK now I understand - plenty of bad reviews on this forum and elsewhere for Howdens, and nothing but praise for DIY Kitchens.

Anyway I hope your kitchen stands the test of time, and thanks for clarifying.

PS - are you getting your own independent installers or using Howdens' own?

Belladonna14

PS - are you getting your own independent installers or using Howdens' own?

we used our own fitter as we had a lot of work done all at once so they were able to co-ordinate it to run more smoothly (we had an extension built as well as the kitchen fit).
We did have some difficulties with Howdens in that they sent a lot of wrong parts, but I think that was down to the incompetent kitchen designer. My builder said he had never had issues before. The good thing was the issues were resolved that same day, as they keep items in stock.
DIY kitchens needed a 3 week order window, so had that been the case it may have taken longer to resolve.
Also, avoid Howdens appliances, I did a lot of research and read a lot of bad reviews about them, and the quote we got with their appliances showed that they were almost as much as Bosch etc.
I think overall I researched for a good 3 months before I made the final decisions and I am very pleased with the final result.
Good luck with your new kitchen!

scumboss

We’ve just had our DIY Kitchen installed. DIY have been fantastic in responding to issues. Had a few damages and they were sent within a week. My advice if you do go with DIY have it delivered around 10 days before your install and throughly check each item. Anything missing or damaged report it straight away and you’ll be fine. Kitchen installer said the kitchen was easiest he had installed. I have nothing but praise for DIY.