any advise on buying new kitchens

[Rrex]

whats better ikea; b&q; wickes; selco; homebase?
its a small kitchen ( 2.13m*2.55m) and was hoping to spend no more than £1.5k-£2k.
also how much would it cost to remove existing kitchen and replace (its almost like for like).

An independant. With the exception of maybe Ikea, they all stock the same kitchens and kill you with the fitting costs.

IME local independant kitchen companies will give you the best price. They stock the same kitchens and while they may not have them all on site like they do in B&Q, they still have the catalogues.

They are also the most negotiable on price, and don't have targets for add ons like the big companies do.

where are you?
To remove and fit a kitchen all depends where you are in the country for cost.
p north trade work seems alot less than down south.

I agree with oreocrumbs (fab name btw!), we got quotes from wickes etc, & almost for a laugh went to a posh independent kitchen supplier and was at the price in a good way! They weren't any cheaper but for the same price we got a much better quality kitchen.

Saying that I've heard really good things about ikea, we didn't look there as not one locally.

Why thank you slightlycrumpled .

I'm putting a kitchen in my rental house and the best price from B&Q was £5k.

I'm paying £2442 from and independant. He is throwing in loads of bits for me as well, and when I was in his show room I asked about some taps and plugs for the bathrooms and he is going to fix the ones I have with some spare parts he has for free !!

I'm up north so yes cheaper than you will have to pay if you are in the south - and if you are up north I'll send you the name of the company I'm using if you want because they are fab!

have to disagree a little with oreocrumbs
As my dh supplies kitchens and doesn't offer anything they supply in BnQ.
Alot of DIY stores offer foil doors (prone to orange peel) and flat pack, the independents will tend to supply ridged with a high quality door, either lacquered or veneered.
but yes there alot more easier for cost due to lack of overheads.
you should try someone like that and then get fitted form a local

I would go with Ikea and save by having open shelves instead of top units. That's what I'm doing anyway

What was the name of the company up north?

Ikea.

Ellwoods kitchen and bathrooms. They are in the north east. Hope I'm allowed to say on here - I'm nothing to do with them just a customer

I'm in the north east so will look at them - that's a great price you got!

Ikea kitchens may be cheap but you will add to that cost by your fitter having a shite time because they a cheap and nasty. B&q are fine for a rental.

The show room is in Newbottle but if you google ellwood kitchens sunderland it lists their address asbeing in sunderland!

thanks you all, am not feeling well so only managing to logon intermittently.
defo discounting the b&q, wickes etc. am in the south so any independent kitchen co names appreciated (1st timer).

Excuse me Greggs. They are not cheap and nasty. And my very good fitter did it in 2 days (he does a lot of Ikea), that's a huge 30m kitchen plus 4 appliances. They are definitely good value, but B & Q are well overpriced imo.

Ikea is very durable for teh price

Have a look at Howdens (trade suppliers of kitchen/bathroom fitted furniture)+ independent fitter option, if you have a Howdens near you. We bought an MFI kitchen, then later I looked around Howdens showroom and they had exactly the same thing! Would have been a lot cheaper.

Another ikea fan here. DH fits kitchens for a living - ikea by far the best

I have gone with Howdens as I am getting alot of kitchen for my money (well I think I am). However Ikea are very good from what I saw (DO NOT USE THEIR DESIGN SERVICE FOR £100 WASTE OF MONEY), would get someone else to fit though because their fitting quote came in only £500 cheaper than the actual kitchen.

There are issues with the fitting but a fitter who has done ikea before will know the issues.

I would say from your list I would personally go with Ikea.

Definitely Wickes I'd say.

I was really into the idea of an IKEA kitchen (despite the customer service in their kitchens department being the worst I have experienced anywhere!).
However we found out at the last minute that IKEA kitchens don't leave space for pipes behind them. This meant the kitchen would have ended up pretty expensive as we'd have had to pay our kitchen fitter more money to do the work - which would have been basically putting holes in brand new cupboards, which seems a shame! And would have looked ugly too.

I'm pretty sure all other UK suppliers have a small back recess as standard.

B&Q just feel cheaply made to me.

We had a Wickes take away kitchen in the end (their cheap range) and two years later it's still going strong! It's decent quality, very reasonable and they customer service was great.

Hello,

I spent 10 years saving for a new kitchen, 5 kids later I was ready to get my dream kitchen. I made the awful mistake of going to SELCO to buy one. It all started out so well, but they delivered units in such poor quality that my builders weren't able to fit them.

I've spoken to the manager and kitchen designer everyday for two weeks trying to get this resolved. I was promised brand new units from their factory in Milton Keynes after their first delivery of substandard units but what they eventually delivered was even worse than the off the shelf units!

I'm still trying to sort this out now. They were going to deliver more units today - but didn't turn up. The manager isn't working and there's no one who can sort this out for me.

My advice is, don't buy a kitchen from SELCO. They might be able to sell building supplies - but not a kitchen.

This is the video of what they delivered (not sure if I'm allowed to post this, if not I can upload photos!)