Kitchens!

[TheOneandOnlyPrincessFiona84]

Help! Advice needed.

I recently inherited £20000. I've never had this amount of money just land in my account.

I decided to use this for a new kitchen. I got a quote and found a kitchen I love, for £17500.

DH agreed we need a kitchen but thinks this is excessive. It's a full fit out. Keeping our washing appliances but new cooker etc. he think we should more get more quotes but I know I will just become overwhelmed.

The kitchen is not an expensive brand but appears solid and reviews are good.

whats the going rate for a mid sized kitchen?
am I out of touch? Is he out of touch?

Yeah that's ridiculously pricey for a medium sized kitchen.

Get a range of quotes! Why pay more then you have to?

Two friends just had complete kitchen refits recently and theirs were around £10000 for a Howdens kitchen and around £5k for an IKEA one, both very similar sizes.

This seems too cheap. Is this including fitting?

I think that’s fine if it includes actually fitting it.

What is the spec of the kitchen? Real wood or mdf? Any upgrades? For that price I’d be expecting decent quality or you are getting shafted. Some of the high street chains are grossly overpriced and you should be wary. Howdens better quality than Wren (steer clear)

Watching with interest. Our existing kitchen has been in 20 years but it’s solid good quality timeless shaker style doors (some bashed around a bit) and cupboards but a cheap work surface and awful dated handles. They have stopped doing are doors now. No help
but watching with interest as we have been quoted about 13K with a new cooker and hob but (cheap work surface as we have a lot of it) ours is a strange shape and big to mid size we will probably tweak the layout. We will also need a new fridge freezer. Is 20K for granite/quartz type work surface OP and all
fittings?

A friend got a new kitchen from Wickes two years ago but she said there was a lot of price add on’s.

Have you looked into DIY Kitchens? I think we paid about £4.5k for the units, for a small-mid size kitchen (real wood doors, bespoke paint colour). The fitters were pleased with the quality. They can send samples of the door fronts.
We had to organise getting the units installed - I can't remember exact cost, but think it was in region of £3k+ (we moved the boiler so on the expensive side).
Spent a good chunk of my budget on real stone worktop - approx £4k for taj mahal quartzite - very happy with it.
Also spent on a good quality tap (Perrin & Rowe), nice cabinet handles (Rowen & Wren), and hand painted but not too expensive tiles (Milagros, mexican tiles). The little details make a big difference.
Also, we have our washing machine in the kitchen and I recently upgraded to a very very quiet one and I'm so happy, definitely worth it - much less disturbance!

I’ve not started looking properly, but our first quote was £8k including quartz surfaces but not appliances (hadn’t decided what I wanted).

It's a lot even with fitting. It's worth waiting for the sales (Wickes do 50% off) or going yo a smaller kitchen place and sourcing your own fitter/joiner. The kitchen place fitters are extortionate- £5k for 2 days work??

Have just paid around £12000 for a complete refit. New dishwasher, hob, oven and cooker hood. Excellent workmanship from a local family company. It's not a huge kitchen but not the smallest.

You are not comparing like for like on here op unless you give more details. Mid sized is what? How many units? What is the worktop? Massive difference between granite and laminate. Are they doing any plumbing or electrical work? Any tilling or alterations to the floor? What brand are the appliances?
A “mid sized” kitchen could be anything from £2k to £200k….

I think that’s cheap. We’ve just done ours on a budget and spent more than that when you add in literally everything.Things to consider and add in on top of actual cupboards :-

-quartz worktops ( you’ll regret laminate or wood) and they are around £3K
-get the best induction hob and ovens you can afford( read reviews)
-electrics are a lot and you may well have to replace the refuse box for said hob, good lighting is key
-plumbing ( moving things like radiators adds to the cost)
-painting and decent kitchen paint( if you’re not doing it yoursel)
-plastering
-get decent appliances( Neff and yes a built in dishwasher)
-decent cupboards ( you can repaint solid wood)
-flooring and fitting
-decent sink and taps
-splashback
-think about cupboards carefully, anything extra like drawers(a must) or pull out larder cupboard are extra ££££
-handles

We went for a local company for the cupboards as we got better quality cheaper. They got us a deal on Quartz.

Magnet is ££ for no good reason, Wren reviews are awful and our neighbour had an awful time with them, our fitters said they have form for sending mismatching items, Howdens aren’t transparent and it’s almost impossible to get an accurate quote so I’d look at local companies.

I’d look at drawers, pull out larders but to save money I’d ignore pull out bins( lots of free standing double bin options now), kidney cupboards etc as ££££, look for deals on white goods, Quartz,handles etc. A quartz backsplash actually saved us a little bit of money as did a quartz upstand and really good paint as no need for tiling. We put a cheaper sink and tap in utility which we use less. Pay more for things you use a lot.

Thanks everyone.

No marble or anything fancy. Decent brand appliances. Full fit with everything included.

I am so bamboozled. I might leave it and have a think.

Definitely get more quotes. You’d be gutted to spend more than you needed. You could have a nice holiday as well if you shop around.

Howdens recently quoted me £15k for an entirely new kitchen, took the design elsewhere for a quote, miraculously Howdens knocked £5k off - which shows how vast their margin is!

Shop around for sure

It’s not worth it if that means you are using old appliances and means you have to deplete the resources at once and not enjoying some nice holidays or even have a safety net.

What size is your kitchen and how many cupboards/units are included with all internal fittings?
Does it include eg new electric rings/powerpoints/lights, moving any radiators, all plumbing changes, any replastering of walls required etc?

The killer on kitchen company quotes is usually the “extras”. Its always worth getting a local builder to quote as well as they will often be willing to run through the most likely extras as well as advise on getting best price on the units.