Howdens kitchen costs again...

[scubagoose]

Hi
I am getting an extention built and will put a new kitchen in.. I really like the Howdens Howarth kitchen but it is so hard without prices to work out anything.. does anyone know roughly how much the kitchens are? Also does anyone have Howdens laminate woodeffect worktop and does it look good. not sure my housework/parenting skills are up to really wood!

Yes I have Howden's laminate worktop and no it doesn't look good ! Our builder got our kitchen but it was about 5 years now. Cost about £1700 for units and worktop. Quite a few units as a reasonable size.

If you get a price for Howdens kitchens you have to take into account that although they are more expensive then, say, B&Q, the carcasses of the cupboards are delivered already assembled so you save on labour costs.

B&Q etc arrive all flatpacked so although cheaper to buy will cost more in labour.

Why don't you get someone in to give you a price?

we had biggish kitchen done- units and worktops cost around £3500. we had wood effect laminate- does it look good? it looks like wood laminate tbh! but in a house with 2 teenagers i could not face the stress of having anything else. they were cheap as chips. i invested in a couple of black marble worktop savers and the eye is drawn to them ifyswim rather than the worktops. i figure that we can replace them easily it they get damaged. I also decided that i wanted to spend the serious money on decent flooring that is bomb proof( karndean) really liked howdens- their designer came up with a design that really made the most of the space and actually listened to what i wanted- unlike the ones from Wickes etc.

the one word of warning is that if they give you a costing make sure YOU check that everything is on it - they forgot to put door handles and plinths on ours. I bought all our appliances from John Lewis- standard sizes so no problem for them to be combined. The builder had told me that he had trouble with an oven that didnt work and Howdens dragged their feet, so decided that JL the way to go with that. The builder charged £3k to fit it- needed a bit of building/replastering/all the electrics etc.

hth

thanks for that. thats about what i was thinking. I have Howdens coming on Thurs to measure and design. Did you get a John Lewis range just out of interest? was looking at them today.

i went for neff appliances but have heard good things about jl appliances. i ordered the appliances on line and they held onto them until we were ready for them to be fitted.

actually, if i were to do it all again i would also get John Lewis to quote for the kitchen. a friend was going to follow us but the builder went out of business. She went at looked at the more basic/cheaper end of John Lewis fitted kitchen and it looks really good, doesnt sound like she paid much more overall than us and the whole thing was project managed for her.

food for thought!