Kitchens

duotone

iseverynamegone said:

So the better half wants a new kitchen. It’s been a while so I’d appreciate anyone with advice on-

1) —quartz  for worktops? Or something else these days like Corian?
2) is there much quality difference between door construction?
3) I’ll be not be getting solid Wood doors but anything else construction/finish wise to be aware of? 

1) Go with whatever your budgets allows, all will be fine (Laminated/ Corian / Marble etc.). The company supplying & fitting the worktops should come to the site & measure / take templates to ensure everything will fit.
2) There shouldn’t be tbh, most likely will be foil wrapped doors made from MDF.  If you have any links to what you were going for please post them, so we can have a look.
3) Most decent kitchen suppliers will use BLUM hinges, these are well made and what you should be looking for.  https://www.blum.com/gb/en/products/hingesystems/

duotone

TheMarlin said:

Just had ours done. Looked at Corian, but it scuffs easily and doesn’t like heat. Went with quartz tops. Shaker style kitchen. 

My builders told me that every foil wrapped door they had fitted had distortions and bulges evident within five years, so we went with sold wood doors, painted in graphite and alabaster. 

Looks great. Photos soon. 

I’m gonna call BS on that, have foil wrapped mdf doors from Screwfix that I fitted 12 years ago and they are fine.

Sporky

duotone said:

TheMarlin said:

Just had ours done. Looked at Corian, but it scuffs easily and doesn’t like heat. Went with quartz tops. Shaker style kitchen. 

My builders told me that every foil wrapped door they had fitted had distortions and bulges evident within five years, so we went with sold wood doors, painted in graphite and alabaster. 

Looks great. Photos soon. 

I’m gonna call BS on that, have foil wrapped mdf doors from Screwfix that I fitted 12 years ago and they are fine.

Ours is all foil too, been in for about the same time and no bulges anywhere.

iseverynamegone

Cheers for all the replies, really appreciated . Had the first firm round today and 2 others on Friday. I’ll update the thread from my end when I have the designs and quotes back.  I’m letting them recommend at this point on the wortops - first guy said you can’t beat granite cost/performance. Let’s see what the others say. 

Iamnobody

iseverynamegone said:

@Iamnobody sounds like what we are going for

cheers

I’ll see if I can dig out a pic if you want? I did take some when it was newly installed but my phone camera was pretty shit at that time. 

Ours was was all supplied by a local company but the actual kitchen is manufactured locally in Birmingham as well. Mereway Kitchens. 

They do two ranges the trend range that we got is their ‘budget’ range but you still get 19mm carcasses and decent ironmongery.

As @fuengi recommended we put a lot of the money into the worktop and I think we achieved a good result. 

duotone

Iamnobody said:

As @fuengi recommended we put a lot of the money into the worktop and I think we achieved a good result. 

Yes, spend the money on what you actually are going to see. A kitchen cabinet (essentially a chipboard box) whatever brand name is on it, is a chipboard box at the end of the day...and it's hardly ever seen once you have the door closed on it 99% of the time.

markslade07

markblack said:

I used diy kitchens for my new kitchen and granite worktop. Amazing price and service. My builder recommend them and they were half the price of everywhere else.(cheaper than Howdens) my fitter isn't sure how they do it. Just got which? Best buy. After service is great, one unit came damaged, they rush made a new one in under a week. 

https://www.diy-kitchens.com

Yep, I would echo that. Great service and really good price (cheaper and better quality (imho) than Howdens). Again, we had a couple of minor issues that were sorted very very quickly, which the builder appreciated as it let him carry on to schedule.

Would highly recommend.

boogieman

I forgot to say, whatever you decide make sure the units are U.K. supplied. Some of the stuff that Homebase and others do come from European sources. This is fine until you find you’ve got bits missing or your fitter inadvertently breaks something, then you’re looking at weeks or maybe months to get replacement parts. That’s one of the reasons we went with Howdens units... with ours there were a screw up with the wrong profile cornice being supplied, but it was all easily sorted over the phone and it was delivered the next day. 

iseverynamegone

So much choice. 

Took note of all of the advice above.

As it happens DIY kitchens is 5mins from my parents so I have popped in that showroom a few times. 

I have kitchen and utility to do and will be going with handless gloss units with a combo of quartz and some oak worktops. 

Wickes-  £19k fitted
local kitchen place - £18K fitted
DIY kitchens for supply of units and supply fit of worktops -  £9k

You can guess which of  the options I am going with. Also the factory is just an hour away if I need to go back if they miss anything (but as units are supplied fully assembled that is less likely)

 Found a guy who just moved onto my road who has been fitting kitchens for years ( he fitted my neighbours 10yrs ago and did a great job)  and he will fit it for less than £2k. 

Cheers for all all the replies anyway. 

grungebob

Avoid granite if you live in a hard water area or don’t won’t to have to keep sealing  it.  Our tops been in probably 20 years and it’s seen better days, it’s starting to separate and it’s very hard to make it look clean in areas. I’d change it but there’s a lot of it and I can’t afford it. 

strtdv

We're waiting on a quote from a well reviewed/recommended local outfit. Solid doors, quartz worktop and 3 appliances. I'm intrigued to see how much it'll cost. I'm taking the old one out myself and I'll probably tile the floor myself too.