Howdens or Howarth kitchen?

[CappuccinoCarrie]

We're getting a new kitchen to put in our extension and having never bought a kitchen before are completely new to the whole thing. Howarth and Howdens have both done drawings and quotes, and Howdens is £1000 cheaper. BUT the layout of units they can provide is not quite as good (they only do the three pan drawer in 1000mm so we'd have to have smaller cupboards either side, and they can't do 500mm drawers under the oven) and we don't like their wood laminate worktops as much. We'd rather not spend the extra £1k at Howarth as extension is £5k over budget!
What to do, any tips or ideas? Thank you!

can you ask them to come out and measure up? howdens did mine..they were fab...came up with a few options, really listened to what i wanted and juggled things around to give me the kitchen i wanted.....show them the howarth one and ask if they can match it...and squeeze them on price as much as they can go!

Buy your white goods seperately - They are making a profit on these so you can go and search for great deals.

We're reusing our dishwasher, fridge freezer and washing machine. Its only the integrated oven and hob that they're providing. Can you recommend anywhere good for an integrated oven?

So much to decide...!

We have a howdens kitchen though I designed it and we had our builder put it in. I'm pleased with it.

As ovens are standard width of 600 not sure how you'd plan to have 500mm drawers underneath anyway? If you don't like the wood laminate have a look at the proper wood - we have their beech block worktop and I think it looks great.

Also make sure you're getting the right level of discount, Howdens offer varying levels of discount for different products, the average discount on list price our builder got (which he passed on in full to us) was 45%

Most of the big stores (currys etc) will do integrated appliances - I agree that Howdens tend to charge quite a bit for appliances.

Don't know anything about Howarth I'm afraid. I'd say that the only thing out of your list that might be worth spending the extra £1k on is the worktop as you will really notice that if you're not happy with it whereas the cupboards instead of drawers probably wouldn't be worth spending the extra on imo.

You can only truely compare prices if you have exactly the same design.

If you prefer the Howarth design then ask Howdens to quote for the exact same design.

I bought my appliances separatly from an online company. I also bought real wood worktops online as well. Can recommend either company.

Oh and I also bought my worktoop (laminate) off of eBay to knock down the rpice.

I got my kitchen from Benchmarx. After much tooing anf froing between companies with the SAME design. Till I was satisfied I knocked the price down as low as it would go.

Drawers under oven housing can only be 600 mm as that is how wide an oven is.

Oh and I agree I got cheaper end of the market units but top of the range worktop. Looks fab.

Just had our new kitchen finished last week! We got various designs, picked the bits we liked out of each and got it all from Howdens and got a kitchen fitter via our builder. We bought all our appliances on-line - much cheaper and actually Boots is fab and will deliver on a Saturday - who knew they did kitchen applicances!

Sorry I wasn't very clear, the pan drawers are to go under the hob (we're having an integrated eye level double oven). Howdens can only do us 1000mm drawers with one shallow and two deep, whereas Howarth can do 800mm which means the cupboards either side will be a bit wider.

lindsell I'm very interested to hear that you've got the beech block worktop as I've not come across it before and wasn't sure if its much inferior to oak.

Our builder is going to give us the breakdown so we can see how much we're paying for the oven so there might be some money to be saved there if we buy separately...will look at Boots!!

Actually the oak is a lot cheaper than you would think

try barncrest.co.uk

Another vote for Barncrest here. In fact it might have been cece (thanks) who gave me the idea! I have the oak butchers block sort and it's beautiful.

For appliances I can recommend Roy Waring, who sell unboxed but perfect appliances. I got a top-notch Neff oven and micro-combi (plus Bosch hood and hob and Siemens dishwasher) much cheaper than anywhere else -and all with 2-year guarantees.

Good luck. I know how stressful this all is, but you will come out the other side. I did.

Hi,

Could anybody tell me roughly how much Howdens charge for the intergrated cooker and hob??
Our kitchen flooded and the insurance company are using howdens to replace the units but we'd like to get the cooker too but I have no idea how much they cost.

Thanks x