Cost of kitchen installation?

SDavies84

Hi! I'm looking at quotes online of getting a fitted kitchen at B&Q/Wren/Magnet and the installation is coming out at around £3000-£4000! So it's about £7000-£8000 total. Does this seem like a normal amount to pay for installation? It's not a massive kitchen, I think about 12 cabinets and a worktop to put in. I would need the old one taking out though... If I don't get the installation it's so much cheaper, so I'm wondering if a carpenter or someone would do it cheaper than the quote in people's experience? Thank you!

DE_612183

In addition to the cabinets do you need any electricians, plumbers etc?

the quotes you have had - have they given you a breakdown - ie 7 days at £500 a day?

DullGreyGuy

SDavies84 said:

Hi! I'm looking at quotes online of getting a fitted kitchen at B&Q/Wren/Magnet and the installation is coming out at around £3000-£4000! So it's about £7000-£8000 total. Does this seem like a normal amount to pay for installation? It's not a massive kitchen, I think about 12 cabinets and a worktop to put in. I would need the old one taking out though... If I don't get the installation it's so much cheaper, so I'm wondering if a carpenter or someone would do it cheaper than the quote in people's experience? Thank you!

its roughly proportionate to what we were quoted for a larger number of cabinets, worth noting that our quotes were based on giving them a clean canvas with electrics/water etc in the right place and wouldn't include tiled splash backs etc. 

We certainly found other fitters were cheaper and were able to quote for the whole job but inevitably having two companies working on things then leaves you exposed to an argument between supplier and fitter on why something isn't working. 

Albermarle

If you look through this sub forum, you will see a lot of threads regarding Kitchen quotes.
Is this quote fair? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

travis-powers

Honestly do not use the big shed fitters, you just don’t know what you’re going to get!
 A local carpenter who can show examples and give references would be cheaper and better aftercare.
 

BarelySentientAI

A local carpenter who can't fit you in for months, could be far too busy for small fixes after they think the job is done, may well have multiple jobs on at the same time and shuffle times around between them, couldn't offer finance, is unlikely to actively track and inform about product recalls.....

"Use the local guy" is not the be all and end all of advice.

MysteryMe

I recently paid £3300 for rip out and install.  In addition there was tiling, electrics, plumbing, flooring, decorating and new white goods. So a Wickes flat pack kitchen which cost just under £4000 totalled just under £10,000 all in. The fitter I used was recommended by my builder and who had recently done his own (Wickes) kitchen. He was very good and I am delighted with the result.

Not all carpenters are good at installing kitchens, get someone who knows what they are doing. Recommendation from people you know is always best. There are decent installers working for the large stores, but of course you don't know if you are getting someone really good or someone who is not so good. 

When you see people complaining about kitchens it is more often than not the installation that is the issue rather than the actual hard goods.

TELLIT01

We had our kitchen installed by family members in the building trade.  We didn't want 'mate's rates' as we didn't want them just fitting in the work when they had time.  Nonetheless, the costs ended up being much higher than we, or they, expected.  When they took the old cabinets down much of the plaster came with it, so much replastering.  A number of new power sockets were required and our nephew who is an electrician refused to touch the existing kitchen mains as it had been so badly bodged.  That means a complete new mains ring for the kitchen.  It goes on.  I'm simply making the point, in a very round about way, that cost for anything more than removing cabinets and replacing just them can quickly escalate if hidden problems appear.

FreeBear

travis-powers said:

Honestly do not use the big shed fitters, you just don’t know what you’re going to get!
 A local carpenter who can show examples and give references would be cheaper and better aftercare.

Or pay a visit to a local independent kitchen/bathroom place - I have one not far from here, and they were undercutting Magnet by quite a bit. Also came up with a few suggestions where as Magnet were trying to squeeze in as many base/wall units as possible (and with all the trim panels, the units wouldn't have fitted in the available space).

Not that I will ever use Magnet - Told the designer salesman not to spam my email address with "offers". After two weeks of continuous spam, I went in and tore a strip off him in front of several customers.

Edit to add - Had an email this morning from Benchmarx (part of Travis Perkins who also own Wickes) claiming that they will do a like-for-like quotation and beat the price of any quote. Might be worth giving them a look.

onomatopoeia99

The money saving way to install a kitchen is by doing it yourself.  You may need to pay an electrician if you need new circuits and a plasterer if that's not something you can do yourself (I can't, at least not to a standard acceptable to me), but with a handful of tools and enough time everything else is well within the capabilities of a competent adult.

I removed my old kitchen which I think was the original units from the 1950s and installed the new and probably saved thousands as a result, but in the course of that I also installed wet UFH and tiled the whole floor, including under where the units sit, with slate.  It took a long time with just me doing it at weekends and then only when I had the energy (I have MS so some of the time I only have enough energy for work and the weekends have to be spent doing absolutely nothing except resting), meaning I lived with a kitchen in various dismantled states for 18 months and a handful of days with no cooker or sink, but I saved thousands. 

The only mistake I made was with the worktop, should have paid for someone to install corian rather than DIYing beech.  Experience has taught me that I don't like wooden worktops.

searchlight123

Our recent Howdens kitchen and utility room was installed by a specific Howdens fitter that had done my daughter's and step daughter's kitchens. He was superb and did the rip out and disposal, organised the plumber and electrician and completed it all within6 full working days (excluding tiling). His bill was around £2k and he was paid separately from the Howdens bill. Delighted with the results. 

The quality of the fitter will determine the end result far more than the quality of the units IMHO.