£6k to fit a kitchen?

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Urgh. We've designed an IKEA kitchen we love and are at the ordering stage. We arranged for the IKEA installers to give us a quote which is our preferred option as we can add it to the 0% finance option. We were told to expect this to be about £1500.

We got an additional quote for 'extras' - but they really aren't additional, they are necessary for the kitchen to be functional. Includes things like tiling, moving plug sockets, some electrical tidying up, plumbing bits. This part of the quote is £4700!!

If I've understood right, that means that the install will be over £6k - more than the kitchen and appliances combined!

It's taken the wind right out our sails.

Does this sound right for a kitchen fitting? We've never done one before.

How big is the kitchen?
It sounds broadly right to me and the fitting is what makes the kitchen. I've seen people cut corners and there are always angles that look slightly out, tiles that aren't so perfect they don't irk. It's highly skilled work.
Sadly, the trades cost as much as the kitchen at the economy end and seem proportionately v expensive.

So you need electrical and plumbing work too? That’s never cheap.

Sounds about right unless it’s a tiny kitchen

Any idea how long they are suggesting the job will take.
Your ' extras ' are qualified trades people i.e. plumber electrician and tiler it's not just a job of building bits of furniture and sticking them to the wall.

I would guess any / all of them will easily be on £500 a day if self employed ?

That sounds right to me I’m afraid. I’d get 2-3 quotes though.

It’s the electrics and plumbing - moving sockets means getting wires run in the right place ( perhaps through the ceiling for example ) and then making good the remaining holes which all takes time and skill

Okay, thanks all.

I will go and look at our numbers and see what / if we can make happen.

Good to get a reality check!

We got our kitchen 6 years ago.
We have 12 cupboards and 3 drawers.
a quartz U shaped worktop
built in gas's stove and oven changed to electric.
supplied and fitted was 10k.
we had to do the tiller separate.

We paid roughly that to have a Wren kitchen fitted recently. That included ripping out the old one, an electrician (moving sockets, new connections for oven/microwave/hob, a new circuit for the microwave), a plumber (dis/connecting sink and taps) and a gas engineer to cap off the old
supply.

I think the price we’re paying is higher than it should be, but getting anyone to quote us at all was a nightmare. PP is right to suggest 2-3 quotes but we couldn’t even manage that!

Would the fitter not do it as a private job not through his work for a cheaper price.

When you’re doing the checks on numbers, make sure you clarify who supplies the tiles, grout, etc for the tiling. Are those things included in the price or will you need to supply these on top of the £6k quoted. Best to be fully aware while budgeting

Does he want the job? I’ve heard Ikea kitchens are annoying to fit so perhaps he’s trying to price himself out or charge more for the hassle.

Kitchen fitters in my area (north Derbyshire) charge between £250-£300 per day, same for plumbers and electricians. One exception to this is my BIL, he’s a plumber and charges £150 a day 🤗

Yes, we're to supply the grout and tiles. He provides the adhesive. It's a very comprehensive quote tbf, although there's a couple of items that are baffling and I think an error.

Yes, he prefers working for IKEA over Howdens etc. Prioritises those jobs over others. He's been fitting IKEA kitchens for 15 years (or so he says!). I think he finds them best to work with from a contractor POV. Says Wren are a disaster!

I have to be honest £1500 to fit a kitchen sounds to good to be true. I even think £6k sounds pretty good. How long does he expect it to take?

We did our kitchen 7 years ago so appreciate that prices have gone up, but I had a few quotes and found the ikea installation to be one of the most expensive. If we’d gone with Ikea I would have hired an independent installer. Maybe try to get some more quotes.

6k sounds about right, all those things you describe as extras are things you need to be properly qualified and trained to do. They’re also physically knackering and can take ages to get right.

Got my new fitted kitchen in 2019, it was around 10k all in from a local reputatable company. You'll easily pay more than that now. Materials are very expensive now. The trades are having to put up their prices too. The tiler I had to recently install a wet room in my property had 4 sons (and a daughter) and not one of his sons is interested in the trade. Its a dying trade. Very worrying for the future and the very reason they'll be able to charge extortionate quotes because there's hardly any taking up the trade. Sorry I digress!

Good luck with your new kitchen install. It will look amazing once complete 😊

Yup, that’s what ours cost. The kitchen sales companies always give a price literally just for fitting the cupboards, everything else classed as “extras”. I guess because there’s no way of knowing how much plumbing/electrical/tilingzwork will be needed.

Yes ours cost several thousand in 2021, can't remember exactly but we had about three weeks in total to gut the whole kitchen, re-configure plumbing and electrics including ceiling lights, re-plastering, tiling, flooring so that sounds about right.

In which case it’s prob reasonable enough. My last kitchen (not IKEA) was fitted for £1800 but it was over 20 years ago! If you’ve not currently got an IKEA kitchen I think there’s quite a bit of extra work required as my memory is that they don’t come built and also there’s some additional carpentry required at the back.

I find it bizarre that people don't want to learn a trade, that could easily pay £300 a day. but would rather go to University, amass a huge debt and end up delivering pizza's.

Gosh we paid £27,000 for ours. Local firm all designed and made to order including new ceiling, plastering decoration, backsplashes love it but it was very expensive !

Someone very skilled did mine at mates rates last year for £1000. But I had a separate electrician and plasterer.