Howden's Chilcombe kitchen quote approx 11K

[KitchenRefurb101]

Quote for 11k (including VAT) for a Howden kitchen. I realize that it's part of their luxury range, but still think this is a bit steep.

Any ideas what a reasonable price would be? TIA

DIY kitchens are certainly not flimsy

I always go with DIY Kitchens. We are not the most gentle people and if it can stand up to the abuse our family can dish out and still look like it has just been fitted 5 years later then I can’t praise them enough

I also like the fact you can do your own list. It means if something start to look expensive you can look at a cheaper alternative for the space or change the kitchen type

I hate sitting in a kitchen shop with someone slowly making the design then adding things up at the end and coming up with an amount that you can’t afford

Howden without their price list I just can’t get my head round

I think you’re right to pause on the kitchen. An independent fitter could be 2k less and the kitchen from DIY-K less, for better quality, delivered inside and constructed! We love our DIY-K kitchen and utility!

But if he is doing the fitting and does it well, at a good rate, then the extra for the Howdens kitchen will be absorbed.
We have one from 15 years ago, Burford Cream MDF shaker and it's still going strong. Just avoid the appliances! Worktop was good too. Smoke iridescent grey black Formica. Builder told us to avoid Howdens wooden worktop (but this was 15 years ago)

The fitting is so important so if your builder is otherwise reliable then go for it

But he's not doing it at a 'good rate'. He's charging £4k for fitting, and nearly £2k to carry it in from the kerb if the OP goes somewhere else.

Assuming that's the OPs kitchen plan pictured upthread, that's a huge amount of money - granted it was a few years ago, but we paid less than half that amount for more than twice as many units from Ikea. It should only take a couple of days to do the install.

Even with price increases, I'd expect the OPs kitchen to be well under £10k, not £15k.

Look for a small builder/fitter who will be transparent about materials' costs and get a quote from Benchmarx to compare with Howdens - they have the same quality ranges.

If you have a fitter who gets a good mark up on Howdens they won’t give you decent price on anything else.

@SilkCottonTree Would you mind PMing me your kitchen fitters details? I'm based in south east London and am hoping to renovate soon. Which DIY model did you go for? I'm leaning towards Linwood.

Howdens say they'll price match, so if you can find a DIY range that's equivalent and price it up then go back to Howdens and ask them to match it.

They might be willing to price match but then why would you want to give your money to a company that was initially trying to over charge you and therefore rip you off? DIY kitchens are transparent about their prices unlike Howden, Magnet etc and will save you £££!

They also don't always match like for like- have definitely seen cases of howdens price matching a solid wood DIY kitchen with an MDF one.

Go for a hand made kitchen. I went for a small two man band and got perfect kitchen designed to my bespoke requirements with no filler panels etc to make it fit in chimney breast alcoves and it was a large kitchen plus utility room for £12k which for what we got was amazing. All solid wood. It’s gorgeous (if you are near Bath can recommend my guy!)

Only because it sounds like the builder is going to add on stupid charges if the OP goes elsewhere! In this case of you can get Howdens down to a more reasonable price you can keep the builder on side too.

Same reaction - why would the OP want to give her money to the builder either now when he is trying to rip her off? Why reward bad behaviour and try to keep him onside, the trust has broken down and I’d worry what other extra charges he would chance down the line..

Howdens business model has no transparency. It’s a licence to rip people off.