Confused about kitchen fitting quote - to replace high gloss with shaker units

[babylou344]

We have recently bought a house and once moved in we want to replace the high gloss kitchen with shaker style units.

We would provide the pre-assembled kitchen units and countertops ourselves, everything is going in exactly the same place except perhaps adding a dishwasher next to the sink. I have attached photos of the current kitchen.

I have gone on mybuilder and so far to remove the old units and fit new ones the quotes are coming up between £2000-£3000. This seems very steep to basically just take out old units and put new units in the exact same spot. Surely there won't be any excessive time/effort required to do this? Or am I being very ignorant and missing something completely?

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Also we are based in north Yorkshire if that helps!

yes, definitely too expensive. we had quotes from £1000 to £3000 to fit our kitchen, north Yorkshire too. kitchen already removed, no worktop as had separate company for granite but more units. word of month recommendations are best.

People make money on selling the kitchen, so if you're buying units yourself then they'll make the money back on the fitting.
If you're supplying your own appliances the same stands, and unknown appliances can be a bugger to fit.
Ask how many days they're planning on, £150 a day up north is fair I think.

2k is about right if you think
skip hire or disposal = £300 ish
1 or 2 man weeks work plus own materials.
We supply and fit kitchens and our fitters all over want around £1800 - 2k as a start- 3 is too much for a straight swap.
North york may be less but then London is a different ball game

Same sized kitchen as yours, we just paid £1500. Lancashire. Not the cheapest quote. Took 3 days but we were not removing old ones. Start looking on line for carpenters and fitters and just cast a wide net.

If the units are ok I'd be tempted to just replace the doors. DIY kitchens are fantastic.

No input... other than I love your kitchen!

Can’t you just replace the doors?

the quote we got from wickes if we went with them was £2000 for the fitting element alone luckily my son in law is a kitchen fitter so I have got him to do it for us for family price of half that, this is in Yorkshire going with DIy so units will be preassembled

Thanks for all your comments folks! The sellers have clearly done a lovely job on this kitchen but unfortunately it's just not my style.

I'm not sure if I can just change the doors as there will still be high gloss parts visible if I do? I don't mean just the end panels but when I zoom in on the pics of the current kitchen there appears to be glossy framework around the doors currently, on the wall units and the tall units etc? or can these all be replaced cheaply somehow too?

Obviously not the same layout but this is the style of kitchen units and colour scheme we want to achieve: ibb.co/n6SDK62

Any thoughts if this can be achieved by modding certain parts or do you think it would be easier/cheaper to just rip it all out and start from scratch?

I really don't have a clue when it comes to this stuff so I do appreciate any advice :)

could you ebay the old kitchen to offset some costs?

@Arnoldthecat I hadn't thought of that, sounds like a good idea though. Could it be on the condition they dismantle and take it away themselves though? Not sure how it works :/

Have you thought about getting it professionally re-painted? It wouldn't be shaker effect but would get the colour you wanted on doors and exterior carcasses? Friends have had this done and it looks great - though that was not a gloss kitchen in the first place. If it is a decent quality kitchen, might be worth considering.

If you like the layout just change the doors there are multiple companies that will just sell you doors and end panels.

If you know what make the kitchen is you should be able to buy new doors, end panels, kick boards and all other trims as base units as the same. Ask the previous owners if necessary. A good joiner is then your best option to swap the parts.
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Just change the doors. I used a company to do this once and they did the doors, kick strips, end panels. Etc. Everything visible was changed. It took a couple of hours to fit them so the labour costs were cheap. And there was no need for new carcasses. We even had weird sized cupboards and they made them to measure. I had a choice of about 30 different styles and about 70 different colours. It was 20 years ago so no idea of a firm to recommend sorry.

It’s difficult to say 100% based on just the photos, but I can’t see anything on the photos that suggestions you couldn’t strip it back to the carcasses and replace the doors, end panels, moulding and plinths. And as long as they’re standard size kitchen units then replacements should be easy to find

This company is one I’ve heard of, advertises nationally so may not be the cheapest but the photos show what can be done.

www.kitchen-magic.com/kitchen-refurbishment

do you think it would be easier/cheaper to just rip it all out and start from scratch?

You can replace any wood (so plinths, filler and decor panels) easily. I think it would be hard to replace the white stripe on the edge of the cabinets themselves. It might be possible to paint it, not sure about high gloss.

The kitchen you want is about £5-6k (units and wood, not worktops) from DIY kitchens. I suspect it would be easier to buy that rather than renovate.

I think the sort of colour you want would need to be ordered bespoke, so add another few weeks onto the lead time.

You could take detailed photos as is, then maybe get the installer to carefully remove it for collection and put it to one side or maybe the buyer could de-install it the day before the new fix? Seems a shame to just rip it out and skip it..

PS There is a healthy market for used kitchens on ebay,,even better if you have a garage to store it thus giving you plenty of time to market it properly