Does this quote seem reasonable?

[Onceuponamidnight]

Just that really- I have an old galley kitchen that was fitted by this company 15 years ago. There are some snags and fixes: plinth at the bottom needs to be replaced and dishwasher removed to put shelves in as a cupboard, and an extra large cupboard door to go over the fridge freezer I replaced.

Ultimately I'd like to replace the doors as they are very 'nineties' but the fitter suggested correcting them then painting, and the same for the worktop which she said would be a couple of thousand to replace (it's that old fake granite printed plastic laminate).

I've never bought a kitchen so would appreciate any advice on whether this is what I need to pay, or if I should look elsewhere to replace fronts and plinth?

I think it's reasonable. But is she suggesting you paint the worktop?? And I assume the couple thousand to replace it is for a new stone or granite one, as a new laminate would surely be in the hundreds?

Thanks for your reply, Living. She's suggesting a company to spray the worktop and doors.

She said replacing with laminate would be about two thousand because of needing to take it off around the sink etc. and the work involved in taking the sink off and back on. The problem is I really don't know how difficult things like that are.

Looks fine to me. Materials and labour are expensive at the moment there's a lot of demand.
I'd be reluctant to have a sprayed worktop tbh I think I'd splash out on a new one.

When I'm home I'll take a photo to help visualise what needs doing and see if anyone can suggest the cheapest way to fix.

I feel like I'd be paying a lot of money to have a fully restored 90s kitchen that I don't particularly like... It's not an era due a revival yet!

Thanks MrDarcys. It's good to hear it's reasonable. Just not sure now if it makes sense to repair/spray rather than replace, like you say.

Yes, it's a lot of money, but I think it is the going rate.

The only thing is I'd be concerned about the quality if the advice. I know people who've had kitchens sprayed and the finish doesn't last forever, I can't imagine it being

very successful on a worktop.

Seems reasonable to cheap to me to be honest.

OP, if it's an old 90s kitchen, I personally wouldn't be paying to have them sprayed professionally. I'd only spend money like that on a old be very decent solid wood type kitchen.
Have a look at some of the kitchen cupboard paints or even something like frenchic and do it yourself. I don't for one minute think it would cost a handy man thousands to replace your laminate worktop with another laminate worktop. Nowadays you can get some nicer looking ones with a square edge.

Well, it’s really do you want to pay £3-4K for new worktops and refinished cabinets (sprayed) to refresh this kitchen, or do you want to spend 3-4 times as much on a whole new fitted kitchen?

How long is the worktop? I'd just replace with new laminate. It's not that expensive and modern stuff looks pretty good. I certainly wouldn't paint a worktop but I'm clear if that's what this quote includes.

Is that quote including painting the doors?

A couple of thousand for replacing a worktop? With a laminate worktop? That's extortionate.

We paid a few hundred for our worktop and about £200 for it fitted and ours went round corners so unless it's the worlds longest galley I think that's expensive.

Thanks everyone. The cabinet doors are not a classic style I'd especially want to keep so I'd really asked the fitter here to quote for just replacing the doors. The handles are nineties style so spraying won't fix that. I'd be interested to know how much replacing the doors with a sort of DIYKitchens package would cost. I'll ask for a second opinion on replacing the worktop too- I was a bit alarmed by 2000 just to put a new cheap one in.

I've just had my kitchen vinyl wrapped (like they do for cars) I kept the handles but they could have changed them as part of the process. It's a large kitchen and it cost £3500, looks like a brand new kitchen, but the "old" one was very good quality and still solid, plus I had granite work tops that were far too good to chuck out.

In your shoes, I wouldn't spend money tarting up a kitchen that won't be good when it's done.

OP, I changed the doors in my first house. A galley kitchen actually. I got them in the sale in B&Q and it literally cost a couple of hundred quid. I did it myself and was about 22 at the time I didn't know how to use a screw driver! It was that easy. You really don't need someone to do this for you. I wouldn't tackle the worktop on my won, but like PP said, they are really cheap to buy and someone will charge no more than about £200 to fit. Even if the sink is difficult! Which I can't imagine it is a fancy Belfast type on a laminate top. I also fabloned to sides of the units to match. It looked great for what it was. When I sold it a few years later, I had lots of compliments on the kitchen so it can't of looked as crap as it sounds .

Thanks so much everyone for your thoughts. I wrote a proper reply to some earlier but it disappeared and it's been non-stop at home ever since. That sounds very encouraging user14. I will measure them up and see if I can get a good deal on new doors.

To answer a question earlier, the £1460 did not include any worktop or door painting- it was just to replace two kitchen doors and the plinth, remove dishwasher and put in a base to make that unit a cupboard. Also to straighten up any wonkiness due to wear and tear. I've heard from a friend locally today that replacing all of the doors would be cheaper, which tallies with a few others experiences on here.

Thanks all for the advice

That quote you got is outrageous for what it covers. Measure up each unit. Make a list of door sizes you need. Go to Wickes or similar and look at doors. Pick some you like. Ask if they have ready built or flat pack cabinet to fit dishwasher gap, most likely 600mm. If it is in the he middle it won't matter if white or brown sides as you won't see them provided inside of shelves us same colour. If you can find what you like price up and order 1 unit and doors for all units and enough plinth for kitchen. Very very easy to build a unit and fit on doors. Once you build unit pull out dishwasher and slot unit in you will need to take off worktop first. Make sure they are level. Then screw in through back of new unit to unit next to it to make it stable. Do that on both sides, using spirit level and adjusting legs if you need to. Get in a carpenter to fit new worktops. They will do cutouts for sink and cooker with jigs. They can do corners on an angle with jig too. You should get new doors, plinths and 1 new unit for under £1500. You could get laminate worktops for £180 each or wooden tops for only a little more. A carpenter should charge about £400 to fit new worktops using jigs for cutouts.

Carpenter will do plinth too.

We’ve just replaced doors and worktop in a large galley kitchen - the doors were £700 and we fitted them ourselves. The worktop was around £100 and we got a carpenter to fit it for £150. So less than £1000 for the lot. Your quote is huge. Try local tradespeople rather than kitchen fitter.

That's fantastic advice, thank you caringcarer and academicmind. I will certainly do that, as I don't want to invest the same amount in restoring this kitchen as I could spend in replacing doors and plinth myself.

Can I ask where you sourced your doors, academic? I'll look at Wickes too. Strangely I think our doors are from Howdens as the previous owners wrote down that they were but the fitter insisted they weren't.

The variation in what people pay is amazing- the first posters all felt £1460 for two doors, base, one shelf and plinth with labour was a good deal, but it sounds like there are much better ways of doing it. I'll take advice here and get my screwdriver out!

It should not cost anywhere near £2000 to replace a laminate worktop!

I wouldn't spend that much money tarting it up.

Options I would consider are:

• Paint cupboards your self with Frenchic + new worktop which should cost something like £180/length and no more than a day of labour for a carpenter to fit. If this breaks your tiles when they lift it, that will add cost for you to get tiles repaired/replaced. Frenchic is nice to work with but the prep time (all the cleaning!) and light sanding will be a significant time investment.

• New doors (fit yourself) + cupboard for DW (fit yourself) + new worktop

• New kitchen

I've just seen these extra comments- thank you both- they're very helpful. I've taken a trip to Wickes and I'm going to make the best of it I can by myself. Thanks all for giving me the confidence to try (and save myself £thousands)

when we redid our kitchen we didn't change the units in the utility room. We removed the doors snd replaced with new doors from ikea and then aded a new wooden worktop. Nobody would ever have known it wasn't a whole new utility room fit out.

Thanks Hasa- it sounds like that's the way to go. I'll need a worktop fitter but can do the cupboards. Apparently Howdens has a yearly sale, a friend told me, which is worth waiting for.

That’s a fortune for the work.
I paid just less than £2k for the units and work tops for my symphony kitchen, I did get a massive discount at the builders merchants and a joiner fitted it
B&Q kitchens are ok and the staff are very helpful, not the quality of other makes though. B&Q worktops are excellent though. You’ll get a good idea of prices from their website.
Gower Rapide are very good and as you can see from the phot very good value.
If you choose units carefully and avoid too many drawers and other fancy bits it keeps the price down.
You should be able to get a new kitchen fitted for less than 8k if you choose wisely. I always buy tiles at b&q as they are the cheapest and the best.