got the howden's quote in...HOW MUCH?

[gussiegrips]

Have been trawling the board for months, am doing an extension...

including, giant kitchen. Smashing. Only, choosing taps and whatnot bores the pants off me - so, I took a top 3 from MN's advice, decided on Howdens. Builder likes them, gets a good discount, job done.

Very boring, cream, gloss units with integral handles. Inoffensive, easy to clean - sold.

Until...the quote came in. Now, allegedly, we are being given 75% discount. Which, on closer examination, is actually 25%.

unit doors are about £100, pan drawer unit is about £300. Really? Am I being totally naive - I hoped thought that it'd be about £200 all in, including the door.

I spoke to JL in the sales, and, oh, how we laughed when I realised the unit I was playing with was £300, without a door..."I'm not paying that for something to keep tins of beans in!"

Seriously? £400 a unit? In which I will house tins?

I fear I may have missed a point somewhere.

We have a Howdens kitchen, its been great I have to say. Our quote priced each cupboard individually so we could see how much each one cost and doors definitely were included in the price of each item (!). They should give you the cost broken down like that surely?

My builder refused to fit an IKEA kitchen as they are non standard. We got a discount through him with Magnet trade. Showroom prices were more than double. We have 8 double units, one set of drawers and 2 tall larders, one pan drawer and one overhead cupboard. Plus all our appliances. Cost about £8k and doors/fronts are solid wood. £400 a cupboard sounds a bargain by comparison!

The tall larders are amazing - one has pull out drawers which only cost a few quid and they make finding everything a doodle.

I always fit ikea in developments they do need either a deeper worktop or some cut outs at the rear for pipes but they do last and builders who refuse to fit them are just daft!

Are Ikea wall units not really hard to fit on stud walls?

Any units on stud walls would need to be well fixed

I have a howden kitchen.
It was £4800 which included
3 tall units, one with the pull out wire insert (actually, it sticks a lot), wide pan drawers, two Cormer units one with the swing out metal thingy, 3 normal base units, dishwasher front, drawer stack with quiet close and 1 cutlery tray and work tops, about 5m. Plus plinth, cornice, and decorative panels galore as its all floor no walls.

It may be a discount but your builder is taking a cut. Hence the total lack of transparency.

Noddy, What is the best way to do it, I know some other makes have a gap so you can secure batons then fix to that, I am worried they will fall off the wall. Though Ikea do lovely kitchens and I would love one.

We are very pleased with the quality and price of our Howden's kitchen, but our fitter is also a friend and all the discount was passed on to us - hence there was total transparency with everyone re price. Also he fitted a lot of their kitchens so was a valued customer. I suspect the reason for lack of transparency in your case is because your fitter is taking a cut which they don't want to be open about.
Ours has beeen in for about 15 months now and there have been no issues with it so far, we have a big island with rounded corner units - they are lovely and I didn't find them anywhere else. Similarly the pull out corner unit is very useful.

Your builder will know but what I do is use metal screw in plasterboard fixings and screws and for extra strength use l shaped brackets at the top and hide these with the cornicing at the end. I am a stickler for finish and strength and this does work well.

We were hoping to fit ourselves to save some money.

L shaped that should say. You can buy extra strong plasterboard fixings in diy stores. I have fixed a sink to a plasterboard wall with them

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure only base units are supplied with a service gap from Homebase, B&Q etc. No service gap on the wall units

We had the same experience. We took a plan that we had a friend draw up (kitchen designer in Germany) and had it priced. Almost fell off my chair - and NO WAY did that ever ever cost full price. The 75% discounted price was ridiculously dear.

We went through all the options of B&Q, Ikea, etc and have finally (I hope) settled on an independent company who have beautiful German kitchens - not sure of the final price yet but will be similar to Howdens, but better quality, fully installed and much better planning service.

You don't get homemade cheese scones in Howdens that is for sure. I have PMed you, Gussie - if you want the name of them let me know.

Say what you like but my Howdens kitchen is still immaculate after 8 years of very heavy use and abuse

It's interesting, this. I have read only praise for Howdens on MN previously.

I see that the units are grand - but the business structure is very odd. I get that they supply to trade, but trade are supplying me - so making the pricing obscure seems peculiar, given that it's only getting my (and other's) hackles up.

And, I asked about the 75% discount on the £650 Bosch dishwasher... "oh, that means 25%, the %discount is what you actually pay" Eh? You mean, the opposite of what you are stating the discount is, then?

and, that makes a bosch dw cost about a grand... don't think so.

Dunno. I'll speak to them on Monday and decide - unfortunately, we need to get it sorted Mon/Tue as the thing needs to go in ASAP.

I thought Howdens were pretty good.

If your builder/fitter is willing, Howdens will give you the prices for everything but they have to clear it with him first. And if your fitter is just charging to install rather than also taking a cut from the price of the units then he shouldn't have any problem with this.

I used Howdens for a kitchen for a rental flat. After checking out my fitter's account number and speaking to him to make sure he was OK with me having the prices, they created CAD drawings and helped me plan the whole room (tiny shoebox so it was all about shoe-horning in as much storage as possible). It was a great service and completely painless, unlike a trip to Ikea! The gloss cabinets with integral handles and curved base units are lovely but they are one of their most expensive ranges.

In the end, my builder ended up ordering all the units from his local branch and they gave him even more of a discount. The doors were approx. £55 each. All the units together came to £2000 (4 x wall cupboards, 2 of them extra high, extractor fan, integrated washing machine door, 3 x drawer unit, corner unit, under sink unit, sink and fake granite worktop plus extra laminate to make a cupboard to house the boiler).

The v convenient thing about Howdens is that the carcasses are ready made and also they will do next day delivery.

OP, I think the style you like at Howdens is the one I liked - with the lovely curved cupboards and high gloss, I wanted it in Flint grey - BUT it is the most expensive design they do . If you get a copy of the catalogue, they start off with the most expensive designs (the version with integrated handles is even more £££) and get cheaper the further back you go. We ended up with the Saponetta in grey. The equivalent units in the high gloss curve would have cost more than double.

It's odd that you didn't get an itemised quote - ours was fully itemised. Maybe as another poster says it's down to the builder/joiner who's got the trade account whether they will give you itemised details etc.

Builders love Howdens. They're much easier to install as the units are already assembled and they have a void at the back for pipes and cables. It's much more work to fit an IKEA kitchen.

How do you know you got 75% off from Howdens if the quote was sent to your builder? We went to Howdens but the designer said the builder wants the quote to go through him, which I can't understand why we can't see it as well. Hoping it's not so the builder can make a profit. Why should they?

Why have you posted on such an old thread?