Howdens kitchens.. cost and quality?

[goodgrief54]

Hi. Anyone had a Howdens kitchen installed? How much did it cost, what did that include and would you recommend? any hints/tips? Thanks.. hoping to get new kitchen soon.. just need to convince dh to get loan out!

I've found Howdens quotes to be quite high although I hear the trick is to negotiate - and then negotiate some more. I've just bought some units for a utility room from Benchmarx and am impressed with the quality, so they may be worth a visit if only to get a competitive quote. HTH.

Can't help you with opinion re price since the kitchen was already here when we moved in , but i was quite impressed with the quality of the units.

The worktop is crap though, but i assume its one of the cheapest and they do better ones.

Small kitchen, £5000 inc fitting. 9 cupboards of various sizes.

Have had for 7 years now and still looking fine.

Friends of ours have one, it looks good and they are very pleased with it. Don't know about the cost though I think it was reasonably priced and it is only a couple of years old so not sure about how long it'll last either but it is bearing up better than one our other friends got from one of the DIY chains

Smallish kitchen, lots of replastering and rewiring included in the price of £900 labour, 3.5k on units etc and oak work surface.

Had it over 5 years now, and it looks fine. I'm a heavy kitchen user - SAHM and cook a lot - and nothing has broken other than the fridge door.

TBH I wouldn't mind a bit of wear and tear showing as I quite fancy a new kitchen!

I've used Howdens 3 times and am about to use them again on a renovation project, so I' clearly happy with them.

Very happy with ours. Have seen it sneered at on other MN threads.

Just had ours fitted (Burford Grey) and I love it - looks wonderful so far! Found them fab to deal with and decent price - nearly half the Wickes equivalent. Medium sized kitchen with lots of extra units as we did a peninsula thing with cupboards on both sides. It was £6k excluding dishwasher, washing machine and range cooker but included full height larder fridge and full height larder freezer, plus wooden worktop. Recommend the special coating that makes wooden worktop water and heat proof.

howdens only sell to trade so whatever you are paying its whatever the fitter you are using is charging - that may be double the price he is buying it at.

we have a howdens kitchen, it was just fitted as we bought the house and hadn't been used when we moved in, I don't rate it tbh and if we could change it I would - I find the doors don't line up properly with bottom of units or the units next to them, drawers don't line up properly either. we have also had our fridge freezer replaced twice but it was their own make not a brand - the original one would have only been 4yrs old now. the doors on the fitted fridge/freezer don't seem to sit properly and we think that might be why we are having problems with the fridge/freezer but they have looked and cant find anything.

I have a howden kitchen - it was fitted in 2001 and I am still very pleased with it. All the doors line up, I have adjusted one with a screw driver last year, the draws are fine. I didn't have integral appliances

Ours is ok - get a decent fitter! I would say avoid the integrated dishwasher, ours is ridiculously poor, always at least 2 things which require a hand wash.

We did our kitchen with howdens units which have been great. Used a good builder who got us a discount. Didnt get worktop, sink or any appliances though so can't comment on that.

Had Burford Oak fitted two years ago. Handles, worktop, appliances, sink and fancy spray tap all from Howdens too. Our builder passed entire discount on to us (he was friend of friend) so ridiculously cheap for the amount of cupboards and appliances we got.
One door edge was faulty as within two weeks of being fitted - the oak trip on the edge peeled off. Howdens replaced immediately.
Dishwasher developed a fault within a few days - turns out this was due to incorrect fitting, diagnosed and rectified by Howdens recommended plumber free of charge (cost picked up by Howdens)

Since then no problems whatsoever, everything works, everything still looks good. I am very very happy with it.

thanks all..

I didn't like the way they don't deal with the public and only go through your trades person, feels like two bites of the cherry to me. We got a quote and it was exactly the same as a (IMO) much nicer Wickes kitchen. The trick with wickes is to wait for the sale, then pop in and ask the sales rep when the 70% weekend is :) They will be quite open and tell you. Then book your quotation appt for then.

DO NOT USE this firm . My kitchen fell apart and the worktop bubbled up and went brown when I put a warm plate on it - horrendous. They take no responsibility