Kitchen and utility incl layout change

huzzer84

Hi,
We've been rather around in circles with this project but finally found a firm that we like and have a quote to do a layout change moving a utility room and downstairs loo to allow a large kitchen/diner with flow through to living room. We're really happy with the proposed design, just want to make sure price is reasonable. 4 bed detached property, 11 years old, outside London.

Knock down 2 walls, including one with RSJ. Creation of doorway into living room.
Build new stud wall around side and front of new downstairs loo.
Brick in former downstairs loo window.
Remove kitchen window at back, widen, replace with french doors, including resolving brickwork above.
Remove back door, brick up to replace with window.
Kitchen circa 5.8m x 3.2m - full set of units. Keeping existing Range cooker. Keeping existing washing machine and tumble drier in new utility.
Oak worktop along most of one length (apart from gap for Range), cupboards MDF but 18mm backs. Breakfast bar seating 4 (potentially able to squeeze 6), with some under counter storage.
3 full height, half width larder cupboards, 3 full height full width larder cupboards, one of which taken up by 70/30 fridge/freezer. Additional under counter freezer in utility.
These full height cupboards to go round a corner, in bespoke stud wall surrounds to give seamless appearance against existing brickwork.
Oak workspace and under counter small cupboards under rear window, approx 2m length.
Composite worktop, around 2.5m, in utility, one full height cupboard.
All requires moving incoming water source, moving 2 radiators and removing one.
Decorating, making good, etc.

Quote of ~£70k incl VAT. In the right ballpark?

Doozergirl

That includes the kitchen?

A kitchen can be £7k or £70k in itself. It's all dependent on that.

It doesn't look like a cheap kitchen, put it that way. Do you know how much the kitchen is? Any further breakdown than the headline number?

huzzer84

Yes, includes the kitchen. But no, no breakdown, all same firm handling design and all of the trades.

TELLIT01

We recently spend around £12k on our kitchen, including all installation works, electrics etc and that is only about 3 metres square. We could have spent a lot more. It's impossible to say whether the cost is reasonable without a lot more detail of the work to be done.

FreeBear

huzzer84 wrote: »

Oak worktop along most of one length (apart from gap for Range), cupboards MDF but 18mm backs.

Kitchens are a damp environment. MDF swells and turns to mush if it gets too damp. Melamine faced chipboard (MCF) is a slightly better material for base units & cupboards (MDF is OK for most back panels). Better still are solid wood base units, nut these are generally only found in bespoke kitchens with a price tag to suit.

Solid wood worktops require regular maintenance and oiling every year or two. They also stain & mark quite easily. Some damage can be sanded out, but not always.

Clive_Woody

We recently had our kitchen replaced, which involved knocking down the wall between the utility and opening it up into the kitchen as well as creating a doorway through into the dinning room (with sliding door so it can closed off when required).

We had a Howdens kitchen fitted with quartz work surfaces, but most appliances were reused. Fixtures and fittings were decent (Hansgrohe taps etc) and we did get a new American style fridge/freezer. Oh and under floor heating which is really nice when wandering around in the morning barefoot.

Total budget was under £25k. I appreciate you are having more work done than us, but it does sound expensive (for reference we are in Sussex). You really need a better breakdown of what you are getting for your money.

I would also caution against solid wood worktops unless you have the time and motivation to maintain them and keep them looking nice. Friends of our had oak worktops which looks amazing when first fitted, but with water marks and efforts to restore them soon did not look great.

Doozergirl

I really think you should know how much your kitchen is at the very least.

There's quite a lot of building work, but it's a new house, so not too many surprises.

We've just put a modest extension on and knocked about a similar aged house and they didn't spend that much. The kitchen was huge.

But I've also managed the installation of kitchens that were £70k PLUS building work.

You have quite a lot of building work but then you're also keeping some appliances and only having wooden tops.

At £70k I feel it's only reasonable to give more than a headline figure.