Are Howdens OK?

[MaryIsA]

Our kitchen fitter, who is a good egg and I trust, has suggested howdens. We’d be buying through the builder not him. The builder seems to have no interest where we get the kitchen from but he would like us to order one fairly quickly please.

No access to DIY kitchens or IKEA. Could probably get a local independent.

It’ll be about £20k of kitchen.

MNers are a bit funny about them but we’re very pleased with ours. We have a Fairford shaker.

We’ve had two different kitchens from them and several family members also used them.
All very happy with them.
They’re not the cheapest option but the aero was good and the quality has been great.
Never had any issues and would recommend!

Great. What’s their design team like?

We have one. It's ok. Ours was part of an insurance claim.

Yes although our fitter was amazing and I’d trust him to fit any kitchen brilliantly.
Not the cheapest, but good quality.
Watch out though as howden’s will only use fitters/builders off an approved list.

@MaryIsA

Great. What’s their design team like?

Our design man was Vg and very patient and had excellent graphics.

My partner is a joiner and he has fitted loads of Howdens kitchens. We also have one. They are good kitchens and the company are reasonable if there is a problem

@MaryIsA

Great. What’s their design team like?

Different in every location but ours was v good.

What I would say was massively good about howdens was despite sending the wrong stuff and making some mistakes (some their fault some ours) they rectified it and turned it into a non-issue extremely quickly.

@Frazzled2207

What I would say was massively good about howdens was despite sending the wrong stuff and making some mistakes (some their fault some ours) they rectified it and turned it into a non-issue extremely quickly.

Yes, same - we had a missing tap. Their fault but we also hadn’t noticed. They literally brought one round within the hour so that it could be fitted while the plumber was here.

We had kitchen and appliances installed 2 years ago, very pleased with the results. Designer was very good, worked out just as we wanted.
Dishwasher (lamona) conked out just within warranty, was replaced no hassle with new model.
Watch out though as howden’s will only use fitters/builders off an approved list. Think it's more the fitter has to have an account with Howdens. Worked in our favour since original fitter disappeared when asked to open one and hasn't been seen since.

We have a lovely kitchen from Howdens. I designed it myself using the Ikea kitchen planner then they put it into their design software and suggested a few tweaks.

We've had it for 3 years now, no issues with the units or appliances, it's easy to clean etc.

The Howdens units are a bit more pricey, but come fully made so are cheaper to fit (which is why a lot of fitters prefer them to Ikea). Also our builder said that if they needed any spare parts or adjustments it was a lot easier for them to pop to Howdens in the same town than organise a replacement from ikea.

DH and now DS (builders) have used them for years. Good quality- not flat pack. I have had several kitchens myself and had no issues. My DD had an oak kitchen from them that still looked good after 10 years.

They are a trade only supplier- the customer goes in and chooses, (they do have designers to help) then they send the price to the builder who has the account with them. Take no notice of the "list price" - there is always big discounts off that. The builder can then tell you how much it is.
He may keep a % of the discount so say the list price is £1000, price to builder 50% discount = £500, price to customer 40% discount = £600.
There is then vat on top of that price.

Their appliances are also pretty good, they have fitted loads over the years and never had a problem.

Another point is that they keep pretty much everything in stock, so no waiting for ages while your kitchen is made.

I don’t believe they are as good quality as DIY, and are more expensive (but you don’t have DIY as an option - are you not on the mainland?).

One of the biggest benefits of Howdens is that if you mess up (which I have done on every kitchen order I’ve done), it’s usually pretty simple to get a replacement item because the branch carries stock. With other suppliers, DIY, Wren, this causes a delay and is more stressful.

I would be careful with the appliances most have the brand Lamona which is basically a cheap Chinese manufacturer. We weren’t very happy with the reviews or the warranty. However we sourced our own which was totally fine.

My experience of Howdens is that their units are good but the designer I had was awful. He had stupid ideas about layout and an awful attitude. I did not like their system of being given a design with no details of prices, just the total from the builder and their excessive charges to collect items over-ordered by them. Their own brand appliances, Lamona, does not have very good reviews.

DP is a builder and uses Howdens a lot.

The designer depends on the branch, so might be worth asking your fitter or local FB page of experiences with designers at different branches. I know DP always reccomends the designer at branch A over branch B, for example. Then he can order from whichever branch is most convenient once the design is done.

We've had their Lamona appliances and had no issues. DF had an oven that went wrong in the warranty period and it was replaced same day as the local branch had one in stock. Our local staff are really helpful.

The reason people (me included) dislike howdens is the complete lack of transparency re pricing. The reason fitters like them even if they pass their entire discount onto you is that they can supply extra or change wrong items very quickly so they don’t get held up.

I had my kitchen done about 18 months ago ( DIY which is no use to you I see but they were great) and my friend had almost identical howdens units at the same time. Hers are literally falling apart mine are pristine and she’s the type who really looks after things so I don’t think the quality is very good either.

If units are falling apart after 18 months they’re faulty and that needs to be raised with Howdens. For balance, our kitchen is three years old and looks new. The only problems we’ve had in the whole kitchen were with a seal on the quartz worktop and with an AEG oven, neither of which were anything to do with Howdens.

Howdens do have different quality levels of carcasses. Both pre built and flat pack.

The pricing thing is annoying, as you can't sort of guesstimate, but it's because everyone gets different discount. You might be able to get your fitter to give you an annotated brochure to give you a rough idea, DP has done that for customers before. He's also given Howens permission to just tell his customers the actual price before too. Depends on your fitter and if they're intending to pass on all the 'discount' or not.

We got a medium priced Howdens kitchen and are really pleased with it. We didn't get any of their appliances though. We had a sink from them and the worktop though, and next time we wouldn't bother with that either. But the units are great