IKEA KITCHENS - Opinions pls

[cheshirecat777]

Hello

Grateful for any feedback!

So - we are planning a major extension to our house to include a kitchen diner. We have a preferred builder (although nothing is confirmed).

He was recommending a Howdens kitchen - but we coukdnt really find one we liked plus they seemed expensive.

We saw an Ikea kitchen (BOBDYN white) and wanted to proceed with this and a bq utility

we informed the builder of this and that we were considering bq for the utility units.

his response was they had had horrendous problems before trying to fit ikea kitchens and were not prepared to fit them or b&q kitchens. We could have ikea if we wished but would have to find a separate fitter.

This has left us confused we have used a bq kitchen in a different property in a different part of the country and that builders opinion was bq cabinets are ok but get a quality worktop from jewsons. The bq kitchen in that kitchen is 8 years old and in v good nick!

My questions

1. is there a general issue with either bq or ikea kitchens? whats your experiences?

2. is howdens really better
   3)is howdens v expensive

3. WWYD if you were me?

Thanks for listening 😄

Imo:
Howdens are rubbish BUT the builder gets an easy job becuase they come mostly pre built. They just need to put the doors on.
I've had both...howdens and IKEA and ikea is so much better.
It does take more work as you usually need to move sink pipes lower to skirting as the cupboards are very deep (which is great for storage)
Our howdens kitchen was nasty. Looked really cheap and it really wasnt!
Have you had a quote from ikea for fitting?

Builders get a massive cut on Howdens and you can only get it through your builder. They won't make £££ if they fit an Ikea kitchen.

And Ikea kitchens are very good value for money. They're very cheap but pretty decent and do last.

I got an Ikea kitchen, (bodbyn grey, thank you) and it's shamazing. I love all the drawers and it looks lush. BUT the builder bitched and moaned about it from the start, always going on about how hard the plinths were to put on.
Saying that, I used kitchen stuff from howdens in my bathroom (at their advice) and they fussed about that too, and it turned out expensive as I had no control over what they were buying and no one was clear about what was available (unlike lovely Ikea) so when they wanted me to get a howdens kitchen I wasn't interested.

I would say it would have been tricky to get Ikea to fit the kitchen as the builder bastards weren't easy to work with, didn't communicate etc, so I wouldn't have been able to book fitting until I could see the builders were done. Which took longer than they said.
I got a beautiful and bargainous worktop from woodworktops.com - better quality than the Ikea veneer one, and cheaper than this or the "trade price" builder offered. £660 including an island 2.6m x 1m (custom size basically)
I'd recommend trying to get a fitter/builder who won't balk at the Ikea

I would never have B&Q anything!
Our old kitchen was b&Q fitted by previous owners and it - literally - fell apart.
Our bathroom is B&Q too and as soon as we can afford to replace it, we will.
Very cheap looking and fittings are poor

Thats gorgeous first!
I can't post a pic of mine as mn app doesn't like my phone 😡

We have a IKEA bodbyn in our new extension and are very pleased with it. The builder did grumble about it and charged us for the extra time it took but it was worth it

My IKEA kitchen sold my first home it was so lovely.

They’re only a pain to fit if you have pipes that need moving. Now that your man has said he won’t fit anything but Howdens (ready built) I wouldn’t trust him with doing my kitchen.

This is mine

We have an Ikea kitchen. It’s completely fab, 4 years in and still pristine. No one else came close to the number of options that Ikea did, or the price. We used their fitters, who also fit kitchens for John Lewis.

The main complaint about fitting Ikea kitchens is the lack of service gap behind the units.
If I end up with an Ikea kitchen my plan is to buy deeper worktops to allow a gap behind. The worktops will be slightly more expensive but to me it seems a pretty easy fix rather than rerouting all pipework.

Bloody ridiculous if you ask me. You’re paying him to fit your kitchen, not a kitchen of his choice.

I’ve fitted an Ikea kitchen. I’m only a vaguely competent DIYer. It was great BTW!

Stick to your guns I would.

I've got an Ikea kitchen, it's less than 2 years old and I bloody love it!

We had the fitting arranged and paid for through Ikea, so everything except some extra electrical work and the plastering was on interest free credit.

Ikea sub-contract the fitters, so if you have the fitting through them they will have built hundreds of Ikea kitchens and will know what they are doing.