Kitchens - money saving

[WelshMoth]

Two builders that I've spoken to in the past have said not to ever bother getting a kitchen with the larger companies (won't name them - don't want to slander anyone) as you will end up paying top prices for something that can be done a lot cheaper - getting carcasses made up in the factory, sourcing counter tops independently etc.

Has anyone done this type of kitchen build? I'm keen to plan for as much saving as possible without compromising on quality and I need as much advice as possible. Thanks!

There's a website called DIY kitchens that is meant to be a lot cheaper and you can arrange your own fitting.

Yes you can absolutely do this.
The question for me is how much do you want to manage trades yourself, do yourself, and how long can you go without a kitchen?
People pay extra for the convenience.

I used an i dependent kitchen firm. Carcasses from one place. Doors from another. Worktops and splash backs again from separate companies. I still had a single point of contact though.

We bought kitchen units from DIY and sourced everything else ourselves. Magnet wanted £30k for the same kitchen. We achieved the same for less than half that and in fact the finished design has some extra base units. Which meant we could have the floor we wanted and have work done in another room which we would not have been able to do had we paid Magnet's inflated prices. People pay for the convenience and the fact they can pay one company by credit card, etc. which you can't always do with individual trades, etc. DP acted as project manager and the whole job took a while, partly because we had to order some extra units and wait for them to be ready.

@Toomanycats99 How did you have a single point of contact? Curious as I'm in the process of finalising kitchen too

I used DIY Kitchens at the recommendation of my fitter and every single person on Mumsnet and can't recommend them highly enough.

Fitter also recommended to get my worktop from Worktop Express instead of DIY Kitchens as it would be cheaper - also true except I promptly chose a higher spec one and the worktop is lovely.

Tiled everything instead of splashbacks - even with fancy tiles I think it was cheaper than splashbacks.

@Smallgoon

It was independent kitchen firm so I did everything through them but they went to different places.

Kitchen fitter was independent but one they use - he had recently completed a small development near me so I went to see that.

So kitchen firm coordinated fitting of kitchen, worktops, glass etc as was all by different companies. It was a really smooth process. Sink taps etc again all came from different suppliers but organised through them.

Also ordered white gods through them and they were competitively priced when I looked online to price compare.

Only think I didn't get though them was the range cooker as they told me they were limited on deals on that due to not ordering many - I managed to get a great deal from currys on Boxing Day so ordered that myself.

@TiddleTaddleTat thanks. Do they help coordinate things like electrics and rewiring, or is that a step too far?

in my experience:

• buy the appliances yourself from AO or similar
• don't have the daft internal fittings for cupboards
• drawers are good but are pricey, think about design
• go through the design and cross out all the vertical panels, £50 a go and just waste space. Go through the second version and cross them out again as the designer will put them back, easy money for them. We still missed a couple and unless they are on the end of a run into a space, they are utterly pointless.
• tiles not splashbacks, saves a fortune especially if you can fit yourself
• don't let kitchen fitters do floors. Get a flooring company

@Smallgoon the local independent kitchen company in dealing with does the lot - coordinates waste removal, plastering, wiring, plumbing, tiling as well as fitting and flooring. Although we have very limited funds we are intending to get it done this way as it will be so much smoother and we don't have the capacity to project manage. Ours is only a tiny space.

Really glad I started this thread. This is so helpful - thanks everyone!

@mencken what do you mean by vertical panels? Not sure about this but keen to save costs - any pics?

Oh and another suggestion. I dismantled 90% of the kitchen with the help of my dad. (All except cooker and boiler units) I removed tiles and took existing flooring up myself.

I freecycled the units and they took everything! Dishwasher given to local charity furniture place. Sold washing machine and gave tumbler to family member. Stuck cooker and extractor outside for skip men.

I did 5 tip runs to take the flooring and tiles and the packaging from the new kitchen.

It was motivated as much my not wanting to lose my drive to a skip for 3 weeks as much as saving money but it was really easy.

we had a quote from wickes which was £4700 just for the units we have to have electrics done, plastering done, fitter ,flooring ,tiling to pay on top of that, we have gone with DIY kitchens worth going to the showroom in Pontefract if you can as they have proper mini kitchens in situ we have gone with everything from them units, worktops, sink, taps, and it has come to £3000, so the £1700 we saved on the units more or less covers all the other stuff probably have to add £3-400

Also agree worth going to the showroom in Pontefract. Yes you still have to plan it yourself but they will help you out if you get stuck so we did 99% of the planning there, and chose an entirely different kitchen to the one I thought I wanted once I saw them in reality.

Have just got rid of the last of our old kitchen at the tip - forced to as no builder due to lockdown. 4 tip trips + £30 to the council to pick up the old appliances as bulky waste. Much better than a skip or the builder charging us.

Not exactly budget but I bought my £7000 dream cooker for less than half by going to a company that specialises in refurbishing old ones.

Over all I have still paid less for my kitchen than going to Magnet or the like, even with the ridiculous cooker.

I used DIY kitchens and designed it myself about twelve or thirteen yers ago and I am just in process of selling the house, everyone loves the kitchen! And it has been rented out for a number of those years so I am impressed.

one thing I found easier when doing the plan was not to put doors and windows in the plan it made it complicated as I know where the windows and doors in my house are, and micro manage your measurements we tried two or three diferent configurations for sizes of base units and sink unit to get exactly what we wanted for us, when we went into the showroom to finalise the bits the lady at the shop clarified bits we didn't understand and suggested bits we hadn't thought of which didn't add costs but were efficient my kitchen is arriving on june 19th we paid extra for a specific day delivery

We got our units from DIY kitchens along with worktops. Ovens from a shop that we emailed and asked if they could do us a deal because we were buying 2, they knocked 10% off, sink was sourced on ebay. Wickes quoted me for less units and was an extra £3k nearly.

I'm so glad I've found this thread, I've been trying to design my kitchen and the prices have been scary! Going to have a look at DIY kitchens I think!

I've had a go with designing using DIY kitchens online planner and it's a total pain. We have a very small compromised space that currently has a lot of boxing in, we don't know if any of this can be removed.

@TiddleTaddleTat I gave up after about ten minutes but my other half is more patient than me and he did a fab job I will take a pic of the plan might help you or someone else, helps to measure your kitchen first look at the sizes of units in the buy section before you start gives you an idea of what you want before you start planning

this is ours the gap in the centre is where the washing machine will go

Can I jump in and ask a question?

Do you always have to buy new white goods/ oven? Why is that? Or is it not necessary to buy new ones? Completely green about this whole idea of a new kitchen!

@GorgeousLadyofWrestling

I kept my American fridge freezer as it still worked fine and couldn't justify a new one however I wanted dishwasher etc integrated so got new.

Also for the range cooker I had been yearning for for about 10 years!

We bought from DIY kitchens abpout 12 years ago. A local independent kitchen showroom priced up a kitchen we loved but was a lot over budget. We got the same one for about 1/3 of the price and then got tiles and worktops separately. We already had a freestanding fridge which we kept (and have since replaced) and microwave, and bought a cooker from appliance direct. In hindsight I would have chosen different tiles but DH did the tiling and found it such a pig to do, I daren't tell him!

Of course you don't. We inherited the appliances when we moved into the house. We kept the fridge freezer, sold the 15 year old freestanding dishwasher as we were getting an integrated one, sold the oven because it was a single one with the grill inside it and we wanted a range cooker. I got good money for the things we sold and paid for the tiling with it. We took the view that a new kitchen is an expensive purchase and we didn't want to compromise on certain things.