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

[smeerf]

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?

Don't buy that design, the micro is too high and the FF won't open properly!

Labour sounds a little pricey at first but that includes plumbers, electricians and carpenters so several subcontractors to pay. Get three quotes from different companies and you'll have a better idea. London will always be more expensive.

Ask your build company about sourcing through Howdens as they get trade price.

666 I also had an awful design experience with Howdens, so I didn't get as far as getting a price anyway. Kitchen designer a young man who had probably never used a kitchen in his entire life.

He ignored all my requests for what went where, spent ages lining up cupboards so the units on one side of the kitchen exactly matched those at the other side, even though I said it didn't matter and it all fell apart anyway when it came to light that they couldn't supply a piece of worktop big enough for the island I wanted and could only suggest that I had a smaller island.

That's ridiculous my handmade solid oak kitchen (local bespoke joinery company) quartz worktops, porcelain tiles and German appliances plus skim plastering and floor levelling cost £30k not sure how big your kitchen is but mines not small
Get more quotes!

We also put a new central heating system in at the same time which was another 8k - the boiler was in the kitchen but it's a much bigger house (8up, 10down) and there was a lot of pipe work moved and it was an expensive house to do anything like that in just due to having to size everything up.
I've had quite a few clients put in kitchens and from that wouldn't recommend magnet (overpriced, terrible planner, medium quality)
IKEA much better but get appliances from AO and get a recommended local fitter
But mainly they end up with small local companies

There's also companies I have seen that do bespoke doors for Ikea kitchens. I'm looking at a new kitchen so this thread is very helpful.

Ours was £15,000 from an outfit called Marvellous Interiors based in Colindale in north London. It was a Miton fitted kitchen, high gloss laminate cupboards. They have already bubbled at the bottom and it has been fitted only a year. So we were ripped off and I would not recommend Miton, therefore. Or Marvellous Interiors, for that matter.

We have an ikea kitchen. Its 13 years old, still looks good.
Lots of builders have dome of desl with Howdens so recommend them. I'd look again.

Yeah get more quotes. We went expensive independent and ours is massive and it cost about that. Shop around, you’ll get it cheaper.

And yy to IKEA too! It’s not crap - certainly no crapper than most other standard suppliers. My sister had one for years which looked fab.

IKEA kitchens are great, builders hate them though because they're harder to fit - they don't have the gaps at the back for cabling etc.

Howdens is such a rip off - try Wickes. I had a Wickes bathroom fitted recently and really rated their fitters.

I've never met a boiling water tap I actually get on with, but keep your stone and your lovely sink, you need to get some pleasure out of this - and actually your stone is not badly priced at all. You'd only save a few hundred if you got wood and maintaining wood is such a pita.

A smaller kitchen doesn't necessarily mean less labour though does it. In fact, it may be harder to fit > take longer > cost more.

TBH. If you like this tradesman and he's been recommended then that's worth a few ££. But I expect him to work with Howden's to reduce that figure down.

Another vote for diy kitchens. We got quoted 20k by magnet after 60% builder discount when we didn't have any fancy larder or corner units so Basic drawers n shelves. We went on diy kitchens site and even visited their showroom And with more expensive units, larders, magic, corner units etc it came down to 11k.

Sorry for the long link

www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchens/allstyles/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnf7qBRAtEiwAseBO_HOZpMUKUxM1w2qrQ7bUtOGkzfE5EnqtnFH6hArkYONWlzKSRRp_2hoCqsMQAvD_BwE

Builders hate ikea because they have to install service pipes under the units rather than round the back. Ikea units are better use of space-they go all the way to the back wall and are taller.

Things we paid for: IKEA units (2xcorner base, drawers, sink unit, 4 large wall units, cooker hood, laminate worktop (was crap to be fair and needs replacing). 800 on cooker, 200 on sink, everything else we had already. Didn’t pay for installation (my dad did it).

Room back to brick and plastered. Moved the boiler and rewired the whole room. Put ply down ourselves and had someone come and lay vinyl flooring (£700, bombproof, looks like polished concrete, forgiving and warm underfoot...we had to be practical and I’m glad we were). Cheap tiles and did the whole splashback ourselves. Paid someone to paint though.

Reckon we spent 8k all in, maybe 8.5.

Also I got a new boiler Worcester greenstar £2.2k including fitting

We paid £2.3k for a big Worcester fitted in a large 4 bed detached. Figures quoted seem nuts to me.

Kitchen/hall labour: £10,775

Builder price seems very high. How long will it take? We are building out 4m by 7m (3 months work) and it's £36k excluding kitchen and flooring.

Kitchen dry fitting is £1200 for bigger than yours. 40m2 of karndean floor is £1600 for fitting. The whole of the rest of our internal stuff (8m by 7m total area with new toilet and utility room being built, lots of new lighting, rewire and lots of plumbing) is £6600.

Littlemissdaredevil "Kitchen: £5,800. This is expensive. I have just ordered a new kitchen from Wren Kitchens for about £7.5k"

I take it you didn't read the tons of horrific reviews of Wren then

(I've no skin in the game with them at all, but I would steer clear of them just based on friends, family, places like MN reviews, when there are so many other options)

Get a quote just for the units and then get them fitted by a local tradesman. Might be able to save your 10k.

Ours is an IKEA kitchen and was here when we moved in. It's not my colour scheme AT ALL but is very well made and carefully designed. I might freshen it up by changing door colours and handles soon but it's pretty good.