How much to expect for new kitchen and utility

[SaffaQueen]

Hi,
We're redoing our very out of date kitchen and converting part of our garage into a utility room.
We've been speaking to Howdens, no mention of price yet, but our builder keeps telling us not to worry he'll help us negotiate a good deal.
We also approached Magnet to get a comparative quote for similar specs. They've come back really quickly with a price - seems to have forgotten about the utility and is just quoting for the kitchen - and I'm quite stunned.
Excluding worktops, so just cabinets the quote pre discount was £54k!! But they've given us a 50% discount (apparently) so it's "only" £27k. No worktops, appliances, flooring in that. Surely that's not what they charge? If it included the utility and worktops I'd be more believing of the discounted price.
Is this really what they're charging now and if so, how much were you able to discount by?
As a reference, this is for their Ludlow range.
Now dreading to think what Howdens are going to quote... :(

Here's a mock-up - we're really not talking about a massive or super fancy kitchen!

I'd have fallen over again that price.
I got kitchen & utility units for £4.5k in late 2019 from DIY Kitchens.
Definitely worth getting it priced up on there.

Don’t even think of 2019 prices, materials have risen in price so much from then, I have recently had a Homebase kitchen fitted, impressed with the quality, and great value. Magnet have always been considered a higher price point. You can definitely get a cheaper kitchen than you have been quoted, keep an eye out for Black Friday or January sale deals.

Send your plan to diykitchens and they'll give you a quote. I bet it'll be a lot cheaper.

We've done our kitchen this year. V similar to yours. We already had a range so didn't include that. We bought an ex display kitchen, plus extractor and dishwasher separately. Cost us 2.5k and we fitted it ourselves. With tiles, paint etc, we spent less than 3k.

I just had the cupboard doors, worktops and floor replaced in my smallish U-shaped kitchen. No appliances apart from a new, basic extractor fan, and keeping the interiors of the cupboards. And that cost the best part of 8 grand (including fitting and this is in London btw). The kitchen guy said costs have just rocketed since Covid and it would have been several grand less than that before.

Look at DIY Kitchens. We got a kitchen and utility done for about 60% of what Magnet wanted, including appliances and quartz worktops. Howdens wanted about 90% of the Magnet price for a slightly superior spec (solid wood vs MDF). But Howdens all depends on your builder’s discount.

Where did you source your ex display from?

My 4.5 x 3m kitchen from DIY kitchens last December was 3.5k (10 cabinets, laminate worktops, sink, tap, oven housing and appliance doors).

We fitted it ourselves so no idea about labour costs.

Oh no sorry, DIY kitchens was 3k. Spent 1k ish on flooring, tiles, and all new appliances. But I bought mid range appliances rather than the basic

Quoted £12k by Magnet...paid £3.5K when we bought it at DIY Kitchens

Jesus Christ! Even £27k would have made me fall over!

We did our kitchen with Wren in March this year and it was approx £10k - fitting and flooring an extra £3k.

I just had a quote from a local independent company for a very similar sized kitchen - £19k including appliances and quartz worktop.

appliances are hotpot - so not very fancy and I didn’t need a fridge freezer or dishwasher

That is a big kitchen, but that price is crazy!! On their website they say expect to pay 13k upwards for a large Ludlow kitchen. Did you choose a 1k per sqm worktop? Even that would add 15k tops to the price.

They must have made a mistake with the quote. 54k is what you'd pay for solid wood cabinets, not laminate units from Magnet.

Had similar last year - really struggled to get anyone at Howden’s to give a straight price answer. Really put me off them.

Argh, just seen worktops not included. 27k for mass produced cabinets and doors is beyond funny.

That's absolutely fucking ridiculous.
Where do they get off?
I'm having an extension with kitchen and utility but don't have a proper price yet 🙄 I'd like to compare but my builder says Howdens is best for quality and price...

How handy do you need to be to fit your own kitchen? Mine really needs renewing and is a similar size to yours but if I could do it for under 5k I'd be really happy 😊

My kitchen fitter was very questioning about DIY Kitchens before he started, he was all "Howdens this and Howdens that".
By the end of thejob he was very complementary about DIY, and said the quality was better than Howdens.

A pp mentioned not to compare to 2019 prices, and while I do appreciate that there is a world of difference between £4.5k and £54k immediately discounted to £27k.

The fact they discounted so quickly tells you all you need to know. Even John Lewis seem cheaper than the quote you've had

Careful not to be sucked in by all the curved edges and mod cons that you don't actually need that add a fortune onto the price!

Howdens do that dual invoice thing don’t they? One for the builder, another marked-up one for them to show to the client. It’s always put me off because there seems to be very little transparency

It depends what you want to do really. A run of units on a straight square wall took us a weekend as total novices (3 wall, 3 floor & worktop). But our kitchen was completely square (lucky!). It just took slow careful measurement and repeated use of a spirit level.

Even though we weren't moving stuff, plumbing the sink was a nightmare. As was the corner unit, due to a tight working space. Joining a worktop with an invisible join needs a professional really. It took us about a couple months in total working weekends only (whilst also having a bit of a life!) If you are general DIY-er and don't get too worried about having to problem solve your way through, you'll probably be fine.

Things we noticed about DIY kitchens: the units arrive ready built (and pretty much square), which saved huge amounts of time. They were great at responding to queries as we went and at the design point. You need to source your own fixings (screws etc, apart from hanging brackets). They give you basic instructions about fitting, but YouTube is your friend!

Our kitchen is similar but an L rather than U so a bit smaller and the island is smaller
Our units are 12k from Handmade kitchens. Worktops 3k from Gemini (this is being fitted in January)
Magnet are having you over. It's a big kitchen but that's crazy for magnet

We're getting a Howdens mid-range kitchen at the moment, similar size/no. of units but no island. The quote includes worktops, sink, tap and upstands but no appliances. £6.5k
Utility room units including worktop but no sink is £1.5k. Labour is on top of that.

Double check if you've gone for complicated corner cupboards with pull out mechanisms etc as those add loads to the cost! We had a corner rotating one in our old house which was £2k on its own!