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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To refuse to spend £25k on a bloody kitchen!!!

143 replies

smeerf · 22/08/2019 20:26

I've finally totted up all the quotes for my tiny kitchen and hallway refurb in my little 2 up 2 down terrace. I think it's important to note that I'm not doing any building work other than removing an old door/door frame in the hall to make it open plan, so nothing structural.

Units: Howdens, 7 base units, 4 wall, 2 full height larder (yeah there's a few pull outs in there but only 3).

Worktop: Quartz from local stone cutter.

Appliances: Siemens, sourced myself, nothing fancy except £500 for a boiling water tap.

Floor and wall tiles: Online, not super expensive.

Fitting: includes a new ceiling in kitchen area, plastering, retiling walls and floors, supplying and fitting a new boiler and all the electrics and plumbing for the room (no appliances are changing position though and we ran a new ring in preparation last year).

£25k. How. How is this possible. AIBU to tell everyone to shove their quotes somewhere uncomfortable?

OP posts:

Mileysmiley · 22/08/2019 23:11

Wicks do very good kitchens and I know that a lot of house builders use them for their fitted kitchens. I think they have a sale on this weeked as well.

maddening · 22/08/2019 23:27

£10k Labour? Is it taking 4 months to do or something?

Iggity · 22/08/2019 23:27

Benchmarx- trade arm of Wickes.

RachelEllenR · 22/08/2019 23:28

IKEA used a local firm to fit ours and they would do extras. We used our own electrician and plumber though.

RubyViolet · 22/08/2019 23:28

The labour cost is crackers. If you are in North London look on Facebook at a group.. Little Black Book Of Interiors. Join up and you will get lots of recommendations for fitters and builders if you ask there.

Ellapaella · 22/08/2019 23:31

We've not long had our kitchen done and it's quite a bit bigger than yours - also had karndean flooring throughout the kitchen and into the hallway and downstairs toilet. No walls knocked out but ours was nowhere near £25k. We paid £13K in total for everything including the range cooker and all appliances . I think you are being ripped off and need to find other quotes. Who is doing the work? We found an independent project manager/kitchen fitter who was highly recommended locally and subcontracted the floorers, electricians and plumbers.

LambBeefandHedgehog · 22/08/2019 23:39

Wow we paid about £13k for the kitchen in our extension which includes Neff appliances, double oven and an island. So yours being £25k is mind boggling! We don’t have a quartz worktop or a hot water tap thing.

hellenbackagen · 22/08/2019 23:54

Shop
Your boiling water tap too....we have one at a fraction of your price.

DishingOutDone · 22/08/2019 23:56

How many days work is the estimate for? Skilled trades (electrician/plumber) £300 a day, painting and decorating £150 and a basic man that shifts £100. How many men, how many days, what trade and what rate does each man get, including the man that shifts. Ask the builder to write it out for you.

I recently fell foul of of this when I got a quote for a job overall that seemed ok, then found it was ALL labour - a general builder not skilled was paying himself £500 a day - how stupid was I.

kateandme · 23/08/2019 00:11

do you have a local plumber,or can yo uask friends.we had a lovely chap my mum grew up with.he then could source deals.and brought in his own plumber and plasterer and fitter he trusted to work with. he was about a third the price of the brands(though that might double with the mount of biscuit we gave them everyday!).and also got discounts for being in the business and being able to source from the inside.
it was also much nicer to have hi in the house for so long

Original poster

smeerf · 23/08/2019 06:54

Who is doing the work? We found an independent project manager/kitchen fitter who was highly recommended locally and subcontracted the floorers, electricians and plumbers.
That's who has been quoting - I thought it would work out much better than me trying to organise individual trades like we did last time.

OP posts:

PullingMySocksUp · 23/08/2019 07:01

You need to get the Howden’s quite through a builder. They’ll get a massive discount which they should pass on to you. We got about 16 units of the 2nd most expensive for about £8k.

ticking · 23/08/2019 07:10

I think the two bits to look at here are kitchen / hall labour and Kitchen cost.

Everything else seems reasonable.

DIY kitchens would be my guess at best value. How much discount with howdens? Most builders get 80% off list - I'm guessing you got 50% off?

Get a couple more builders quotes

oh and don't ditch the hot water tap - its so small in the scheme of things and a nice luxury!

eeksville · 23/08/2019 07:12

MissB83 · 23/08/2019 07:17

That seems crazy. I have a small kitchen (2.5 x 2.5), I went to Wickes and paid £8k for the fully designed service including fitting. This was the cheapest units and there were some promotions on buying the units but seems a lot cheaper than your quote! Definitely shop around.

Branster · 23/08/2019 07:22

I haven’t read all comments so apologies if this has been already mentioned.
With Howdens, try and get the quote through a builder as they often get good discounts. On top of this, they usually have a really big price reduction around October.

Ginnymweasley · 23/08/2019 07:27

I would look at more quotes tbh. We recently got our kitchen done. It cost 6k. That included the old kitchen being removed, new gas pipe work fitted, new kitchen fitted,tiling, appliances and new flooring. We got our kitchen from magnet. This is our kitchen.

To refuse to spend £25k on a bloody kitchen!!!

Newyearnewunicorn · 23/08/2019 07:46

An ideal boiler with a 7 year guarantee is £820 for inc vat. It’s a day job just to replace the boiler and plumbers are on about £30 per hour. I recently had central heating put in it was £2k for boiler radiators etc and £1.5k for fitting.
New kitchen units paid £3k for some of it with a granite top. You can buy your kitchen from somewhere such as mkm ans then your builder won’t get the discount but make you pay list price.
If you get the individual trades in yourself it will be cheaper but more hassle and it does take longer.

helloyou123 · 23/08/2019 07:50

@smeerf regarding Howdens def try a different place. We went Howdens and they actually ring up your builder beforehand and ask them how much money they're looking to get from your order so they add the builders bit on top aswell as the salesperson.

Idontwanttotalk · 23/08/2019 07:55

It costs more to install the boiler than the cost of the boiler itself. Ridiculous.

Labour looks high. How many hours/days is that for?

The80sweregreat · 23/08/2019 07:58

This thread is interesting as we had the Howdens man in yesterday and waiting for a quote..
we have to have walls pulled down first so I'm expecting it to be a huge quote all round..
Might have a trip to B and Q coming up

The80sweregreat · 23/08/2019 07:59

Our new boiler was 2 k last year.
The new rads were a grand on top
They are not cheap.

JohnWolfenstein · 23/08/2019 08:07

Just FYI (haven't RTFT, sorry) but Wrennhave got a 50% off sale going on until this weekend I believe. We've just ordered a kitchen and appliances, looks about the same size as OPs. Original quote was £19k. With all the offers, and me insisting on certain things, it's now down to 9k. Which is still a lot, but manageable.

Gobbolinocat · 23/08/2019 08:11

Gin, lovely kitchen did mGnet also fit it

Ginnymweasley · 23/08/2019 08:19

We got a local trademan to fit the kitchen. Which cost £2500 including new electrics and the new gas pipe. It took them 4 days. They were brilliant.

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