Kitchen quote advice - Homebase

[LandOfCakes]

We've decided to do our kitchen and I'm very excited! Our budget is £10k but ideally less. I've just been for a design appointment with Homebase and am a little scared by the prices.

The kitchen is about 3m2 with units in a U shape minus an exterior door. The quote for a Schreiber Audley Kitchen was about £9k with appliances (though not dishwasher and washing machine) and £14k installed. We have already had a rough quote from a builder who said he could install for about £1.5k (including plastering the ceiling which is not included in the HB quote) but excluding electrics.

HomeBase are currently offering 50% + 20% off which ends tomorrow. The designer said that they no longer have as much discretion in reducing prices but that he thinks there will be an offer at the end of November which could bring the price down to £8k.

If you're still reading my questions are:

Is my budget realistic?
Do you think there really isn't room to haggle?
How do HomeBase compare to other companies? I have Howdens coming next week - which other companies should I get quotes from.
I'm planning to price match the appliances - they come to about £1500 at the moment for double oven, extractor, gas hob and fridge freezer
Where can I save money on the design? I could save a grand by ditching the integrated fridge freezer. There are 2 pricey corner carousel units. The double oven tall unit is quite pricey too. I actually like the look of open shelves but worry they would be a PITA.

Thanks for reading!

£5000 to install it??? seriously?? I'm looking at £7600 for new kitchen including island and quartz worktops. £1500 fitting.

The installation costs are silly - we just got it priced up out of interest but I was expecting it to be much more than our builder. I've just been trying to price a similar kitchen on DIY kitchens and it would be less than half for the units. I'm not very confident about how to work out what plinths and panels I need though.....

If you are looking at DIY kitchens you can see what the more expensive extras are: end panels, curved units, feature units, but then you can choose the ones that are important to you.

Also has your design just got too many units? My kitchen is about 3m wide and I have an L plus a separate 800mm wide drawer unit and a larder, I worked out I had just as much useful space that way as having 2 corners. Have they stacked it out with fiddly but expensive wall units?

You could talk through the design with your fitter before finalising the order with DIY - they will confirm you have the right panels etc.

A halfway house might be a local independent kitchen company, they normally do Second Nature doors or similar so you can get the same look. They will have a lot more options and flexibility and hopefully more transparent pricing without the pressure sales, they might improve the design.

My friend had a solid wood Devol kitchen for £12K - you shouldn't have to pay that for Homebase!

Don't get an integrated fridge. It's a PITA if it goes wrong or needs replacing, and often they are fitted badly/don't vent well/doors don't close properly.

Don't pay Homebase for installing it. They just subcontract it anyway, so you'd be better off using someone you've chosen and have some control over.

I had a B&Q kitchen fitted earlier this year and it cost about £10k (no appliances, only hob and hood). Probably about half of that was fitting plus flooring, plastering, decorating. I got to the point where I had to stop looking at and querying the itemised fitting costs because it made me feel ill.

But we wanted to have the fitting done by the people selling the kitchen so that if there were any problems there would be no argument about who should put it right (in previous kitchen we had problems with worktops which ikea said hadn't been fitted properly and fitter said was down to poor quality worktops). I have to say the quality of fitting and finish is magnificent.

That's far too much. Get a recommended local joiner and get him to price your kitchen at Howdens or similar. You'll save a fortune.

Doesn't seem unreasonable but I would try other "local" companies who will provide you with a much better quality of kitchen, design and installation for the same price. I would never buy a kitchen from a national chain.

I would use 1 company to supply and fit. Otherwise each will blame the other for any problems (which there will inevitably be).

We bought a Schueller kitchen but it was £30k so probably not what you're after.

Try benchmarx, similar quality to howdens but a bit cheaper. I haven't heard good things about homebase from anybody who's had one of their kitchens or bathrooms fitted.

We have huge kitchen island with storage, Belfast sink unit with cupboard underneath sink and 2 full height cupboards beside, wooden dog cage with oak top to fit awkward hole, dresser top/wall mounted shelving thing with drawers, with solid oak worktops on all made by local furniture maker exactly to our measurments and drawings for under £4.5k. I can bet it will last longer and stand the test of time better than anything homebase could sell for much more

gemma I don't suppose you are in the SE (of England) are you?

LandOfCakes Homebase are expensive for the quality. I wouldn't do it if I were you. If you have someone you trust to fit it, ask how they feel about fitting an Ikea kitchen.

My advice - go elsewhere than Homebase

they were thousands of pounds more expensive than my other quotes and charged separately for cabinet handles and for soft closing.

Thanks for all the advice. I went to Homebase to get the ball rolling as it was relatively easy to get an appointment. I wasn't really expecting to like it so much! I think I'm just getting very excited at the prospect of a new kitchen.

I think I assumed local companies would be much more expensive and be more along the bespoke lines. I will have to investigate further.

I am a bit torn as to whether we should have the same company to supply and fit. Our kitchen needs quite a bit of tlc first once it's stripped back so I feel better getting a builder I know to do this. I guess this might make Howdens a good compromise as they are essentially supplying the builder rather than me. I imagined they would be more expensive than Homebase though but maybe I'm wrong.

I think I will ditch the integrated freezer whatever we do. I think an L might not quite work although if we did it maybe we could have a tall pull out larder in the corner and the fridge freezer opposite - so larder would open into gap and fridge freezer would open into the room IFYSWIM.

I'm not even going to look at what Schueller kitchens are - I'm sure it's lovely though. We're not quite at dream kitchen stage but anything is going to be better than what we have now - field mice getting into our cleaning cupboard and horrible tiled worktops being a couple of choice examples!

Thanks for all the replies.

My kitchen is 3x4m, I got ikea to supply and fit it including all the appliances for 9000.

I had roughly the same budget as you and found that local independent kitchen companies with a showroom were only interested if your budget was at least £20000.
Homebase, B&Q etc didn't have what I wanted so I used a 1 man kitchen man as he was much better value, unfortunately although he seems to have done a good job overall he ended up being the most vile, rude and laziest kitchen fitter known to man.
5 weeks later it is finished even though he said it would take 2 weeks, I have never known stress like it.

I'm sure Homebase have recently said they'll be shutting a quarter of their stores. If you go with them, make sure you pay on your credit card so you're protected if they go bust.