Diy kitchens or Howdens

[littlebopeep1991]

Morning all,

My partner and I are purchasing our first home and the kitchen desperately needs replacing. Our aim is not cheap cheap but certainly want something good value and that is easy to fit ourselves. We have had quotes from Howdens, benchmark and diy kitchens.

Diy kitchens have come in far better price. I have used Howdens pre made carcasses a few years ago and found them fairly easy to fit.

Does anyone have any experience of DIY kitchens or have any thoughts about how who is the b let value supplier?

DIY kitchens seem popular on MN but I don’t know a single person in real life who have ever used them. My friend is a kitchen fitter and has never fitted them either. He recommends Howdens or Benchmarx

I also have a DIY Kitchen - quality is excellent.

I am both those things. Obviously. 😎

No seriously - I called them in advance. Said I was coming up from the SE and had to change at Leeds and wanted to know which the closest station was etc etc. Would there be a minicab at the station, did they know, or a taxi, perhaps? Could I get a bus? Oh they said, we have our own site on a busines park and it's a bit of a trek and not on public transport routes. Tell us what train you're on and we will make sure someone is there. I thought it would be a minicab that I would pick up the tab for. And then they said no, they had a car exactly for this reason. Mind you it was a few years ago now so everyone needs to check before assuming the chauffeur experience is still there!

Amazeballs.

No, I don't exist in real life. I am a hologram and my kitchen manifests only in a warp zone in the fourth dimension.

OP - you're best off getting ripped off by the opaque pricing con artists at Howdens where your builder gets the £££ kickback for fitting some balsa wood. Much safer. You do that. I would.

My fitter, who normally fits Howdens, was bemoaning my DIY Kitchens units at the beginning and singing it's praises and going to recommend to other by the time he'd finished the fit.

3.5y on I'm very pleased with the quality, it is still like new.

Have you added the VAT? My recollection is you have to toggle something to include it.

The Howdens stuff is better, but still not great compared to solid units. It's just covered chipboard unfortunately 😕. A friend of mine works for them and the profit they make is eye-watering. I would try to budget for something better if you possibly can and plan on staying in the property for a good few years.

Yes even with the VAT it seems better. The units from Howdens are the same ones I had put in my old house and for the price I paid was very happy with them.

Fitters like Howdens because they can buy everything locally on their account and can pop back to get any extra bits, and the units are OK quality and come ready built. The fitters don't have to live with the kitchen for 10 years though. They are understandably cautious about something the "client ordered online" but DIY/Ultima kitchens are a proper kitchen manufacturer who supply independent kitchen showrooms as well.

@drpet49 my kitchen must be a mirage then cos it deffo came from DIY

Go for the DIY kitchens. They are much cheaper and you will end up with a better kitchen and probably better features.

You get free flapjacks with DIY too

One of the doors for mams kitchen had a slight flaw and their customer service was excellent - a replacement was with her within 48hrs

Ditto - DIY kitchens here. Great quality and we absolutely love it. The online planner takes a little while to get the hang of. I also hired Karen @OnePlan to do a design for me which we ended up using then buying via DIY. We needed the extra help as we were opening up the space by knocking through into another room. I've attached a photo of our kitchen just after it was done. Incase there is doubt that DIY is real

The units available are slightly different sizes to the Howdens one so having to re arrange the design very slightly which i'm finding far more difficult on the DIY planer than I expected 🤦🏼‍♀️

I've got a 7yo DIY kitchen. It still looks perfect.

The chippy was amazed by the quality for the price. Much thicker units and doors than Howdens, and the insidesxare door coloured, not white so it all just looks a bit more upmarket.

If/when we ever need another I'll be straight back to DiY kitchens

Mine is definitely real!

DIY kitchens have been fantastic. Planner tool was so easy and the planning helpers answered everyone of my questions. The kitchen looks amazing and we fitted it ourselves. I cannot fault it. We previously had an ikea kitchen which was great but diy kitchens is better.

My kitchen from DIYK is being fitted in 3 weeks, cannot wait! Malton in Dove Grey with quartz worktop. The planner is great once you workout how to find everything and once you have the plan, send it for checking and they will let you know of any potential issues with the plan. Good luck

Our utility room units are DIY kitchens and several years later still look as if they're new. We have just (yesterday) ordered our new kitchen from DIY kitchens. They've a sale on units at the moment so if you're quick...

I've no direct experience of Howdens but I have stayed in a couple of holiday cottages that had Howdens units and partner (engineer) and I weren't impressed
with the quality of the units and fittings. Ditto Wren.

Lots of real people, including me, with DIY Kitchens on this FB group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/381845813632207/?ref=share

I found this comparison site that might help they've compared a few different suppliers hereand it might help x

Don't know about DIY but our Howdens kitchen has not lasted well at all. I would avoid them.

There is very little to chose between the units manufactured by any of the companies you mention @littlebopeep1991

Even a cheaply made kitchen fitted well will look fine. It's the little things that will make a big difference, worktops, handles, soft close, internal fittings, etc.

We have a DIY and we think it's crap. It's blue and the paint has chipped easily- it's not blue all the way through so you can see the white underneath. We also found the ordering process annoying and had some issues with them. can't remember specifics now as it was a year or so ago but I think it involved order delays, delivery issues etc. i definitely wouldn't have one again.

We used DIY Kitchens. I’d recommend them. We love our kitchen - we went for a painted solid wood one and yes, there are a couple of chips but nothing major and we have touch up paint if I ever get round to it.

If you do use them, I would strongly recommend that you use a kitchen designer like Karen at OnePlan - she gives excellent advice on their Facebook page and it would have been cost neutral to use her as I made a mistake which meant we had to order more cabinets and DIY don’t swap cabinets in and out like Howdens if you need a different size.

Did any of the DIY kitchen purchasers opt for their in-frame designs? I’d be interested to know your thoughts.