How easy is it to fit your own kitchen!?

[Badvoc]

I really like the ikea varde freestanding units and wall units.
Our current kitchen is very tired and bits of it are falling apart :(
Trouble is we would need new wall tiles, flooring and probably re skimming too.
We already have a freestanding fridge freezer, are getting a freestanding dishwasher (soon) and could get a freestanding oven.
How much of a nightmare is it to lay a new floor (dont mind what type...tiles, Lino, whatever...)?
Know a good plasterer and that shouldn't cost too much.
In fact I would be tempted not to bother with wall tiles at all!
Thoughts?

Are you a good DIYer generally?

I have fitted 2 kitchens - not massively difficult, provided you have some basic skills. Worktops are a bit tricky though... My wall tiles look slightly amateur, but I feel they add character! Have done floor tiles and they were easy - although it was on a good, solid, flat base, if it hadn't been I would have been stuck

I don't have wall tiles - I have a glass splashback tho - measured and bought online, one piece, fitted easily with silicon glue. We fitted the kitchen ourselves, It takes time and patience. Get Howdens or someone to measure and plan it, and buy ready-made units (getting them square is a bugger).
If you want tiles you can tile over tiles, It's actually a good surface for tiling onto. You can get longer screws for sockets faces etc. You don't have to pull them all off.

Flooring - depends what you want. Lino I'd get done professionally. Ditto tiles, and wood. In fact I'd get professionals in for that job, fullstop.

Also worktops - definitely a professional job. You can buy it yourself,(lots of options online) just get a chippy for router it to fit. Or go for stone/quartz etc and get it measured and fitted by the professionals. We fitted all our cupboards and electrics, go plumbers/plasters (was a new extension anyway) and went for a reasonable range from Howdens. WIth a good-quality worktop, it looks great. The whole thing cost me about £3000, inc appliances. If i'd got a kitchen fitter, it would have been more like £10000.

Its doable if you are reasonably ok with DIY and do not require absolutely perfect results.

Certainly not worth the thousands a kitchen fitter charges in my opinion.

If you break it down into individual jobs and research how to do them then it helps.

You can just put a cut piece of stainless steel to rear of cooker and not have tiles.

I think wood is easy to fit as a floor and know lots of people that have fitted wood in lounges etc. I think lino is difficult.

We did our own worktops - it looks fine. But it was a bit tricky to get a perfect result as they are heavy!!.

Our freestanding range dtyle cooker in our old kitchen had a glass lid that tipped up to be a splashback. We didn't tile anywhere except behind the sink.

Our freestanding range dtyle cooker in our old kitchen had a glass lid that tipped up to be a splashback. We didn't tile anywhere except behind the sink.

Our freestanding range dtyle cooker in our old kitchen had a glass lid that tipped up to be a splashback. We didn't tile anywhere except behind the sink.

Hi all
Have been on the ikea website and measured up and units come in at £1300 which I think is great.
I would get the floor done professionally I think. But then again floor tiles dont look that hard....
I reckon if you factor in everything I could do it for £2k!!

13.... I have seen cookers like that!
I would only want to tile behind the sink tbh.
My dh is pretty good at DIY...he is an engineer.

The Ikea free standing kitchen units are great, a friend of mine has them. She said they were very easy to assemble. If I remember correctly she hasn't got tiles anywhere just a stainless steel sheet behind the hob.
One thing she has, which I think is a fab idea is one of those butcher block trolley things, when not in use it lives under the counter top. It is great to pull out to do prep work etc.

I already have one moo! :)
Our kitchen will really need replacing in the next couple,of years and a fully fitted one would cost £££
I have always loved the idea of being able to clean under and behind the units easily...
Need to convince dh!

DIY only works imo if your house is fairly new and has straight walls.
We bought a new kitchen from Wren and had a local joiner fit it (as well as putting in a whole new floor including replacing a couple of joists). The joiner cost us £950 including the materials for the floor and he was really quick. I did watch him having to jigsaw pieces off the back of some of the units to get them straight and we would never have made a fairly cheap kitchen look so good.

Freestanding does make her kitchen more open, she doesn't have any high wall cupboards, but a very large floor to ceiling one with pull out baskets.
DH replaced the doors on our kitchen units, replaced the work tops, tiled over the original tiles and replumbed a sink a few years ago, as we couldn't afford a totally new kitchen. It looks ok, but by no means a professional job!

Thing is with freestanding units it doesn't matter if the walls are straight!
(They aren't)

I wonder how long it would take?
I.e: how log I would be without a kitchen...

Dh did ours piecemeal, so actually still had a usuable kitchen.
I suppose it could be done in a couple of days if one was to really get stuck in and work flat out.

Took the broken dishwasher out and now can't drain the sink!! It just needs ripping out and starting again...