Approximate cost of a new kitchen?

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I'm thinking of getting a new kitchen put in. My old one must be about 25 years old at least. I've lived here just over 10 years and always thought about changing it but other house changes took priority.

It's a small-medium sized kitchen. I'm wanting to basically rip out and replace the existing cabinets, countertop, splashback tiling and sink. I'll be keeping my current freestanding cooker, fridge-freezer and washing machine as they're all in good nick, so won't need any in-built appliances. Only thing I'll need is an extractor over the cooker.

I'm not looking to change anything in terms of layout, just straight up replacement job.

I'll be wanting to get a fitter in to do all the work, as I'm completely cack-handed with any kind of manual labour!

Anyone care to hazard a guess at a rough ball park figure for what I might have to fork out?

Also, anyone had recent experience with the likes of the big brand names like Magnet, Wren, Wickes, Howdens etc? Any good ones, or ones to steer clear of?

Cheers in advance! 

Fretwired

My son has just had a new kitchen fitted in his semi - it cost just under £7K, including a new sink, cupboards, tiling, flooring (tiles) new electrics, and decorating, and a cooker.

Jimbro66

We had a new kitchen fitted by Wrens earlier this year. We were happy with everything - very good design service, the quality of the fittings is great and the fitter they assigned was really good. Price was lower than others we went to including Wickes.

It's hard for me to give a price guide because ours is a big-ish kitchen and included all new appliances. All I can say is that Wrens gave very good value for the money. 

SteveRobinson

I did mine for £10K in Neptune units, fitted, plumbed and wired everything myself though.

Oh and made some of the cupboards from scratch to match as we have a tricky space.

boogieman

Kind of a “how long is a piece of string” question unfortunately. I did a whole Ikea kitchen for £1k at my old place but that’s with flat packed cabinets in a small kitchen and I did literally everything myself. 

We had a Howdens kitchen put in by a chippy 5 years back and that was £10k just for the units, worktops and fitting costs. Appliances, electrics, plumbing, gas work and tiling were all extra. 

Both were actually decent quality but we spec’d the Howdens one much higher with solid oak doors and full stave iroko worktops. 

fastonebaz

This is exactly the question I wanted to asked this week too lol. 

spark240

Ball park 7-10K should do it...

Corvus

£8k and half a pack of streaky

Put some streaky under the gas grill, phone went, I pushed the kitchen door to for some reason. An intense call and couldn't get matey off the phone and forgot about the streaky. Eventually noticed a smell of smoke. Opens the kitchen door to thick black smoke, the grill is well lit up and the wall above the grill is lighting up and the ceiling getting black.

After sorting it all out I pull out the grill tray and there's the 4 rashers, very black and crispy looking. As I touch them they collapse into tiny piles of fine dust, like vampires in crap films...

Pretty expensive non-happening bacon sarnie.. : )

We got a local small firm to sort it all out. Got tired of the big names pricing high and dropping, and "I'll call the manager" type stuff.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Fretwired said:

My son has just had a new kitchen fitted in his semi - it cost just under £7K, including a new sink, cupboards, tiling, flooring (tiles) new electrics, and decorating, and a cooker.

Thanks! Sounds similar to what I'm after, minus the cooker and with a vinyl floor instead of tiling, so hopefully will run to a similar budget or lower. Don't think I can stretch much beyond £7k!

Jimbro66 said:

We had a new kitchen fitted by Wrens earlier this year. We were happy with everything - very good design service, the quality of the fittings is great and the fitter they assigned was really good. Price was lower than others we went to including Wickes.

It's hard for me to give a price guide because ours is a big-ish kitchen and included all new appliances. All I can say is that Wrens gave very good value for the money. 

Interesting. Other friends and family I've pestered for advice have warned me to steer clear of Wren! Their showroom was absolutely vast and was v well laid out. Did seem very good value too.

boogieman said:

Kind of a “how long is a piece of string” question unfortunately. I did a whole Ikea kitchen for £1k at my old place but that’s with flat packed cabinets in a small kitchen and I did literally everything myself. 

We had a Howdens kitchen put in by a chippy 5 years back and that was £10k just for the units, worktops and fitting costs. Appliances, electrics, plumbing, gas work and tiling were all extra. 

Both were actually decent quality but we spec’d the Howdens one much higher with solid oak doors and full stave iroko worktops. 

Yeah I've got someone from Howden's coming round to do a kitchen measure/design. I've heard they're really good, consistent quality, but not cheap!

McSwaggerty

If you are keeping the same layout, why not just not renew the doors/drawer fronts etc and worktops.
Keep the cupboard carcasses and save yourself a few bob.? 

GoldenEraGuitars

McSwaggerty said:

If you are keeping the same layout, why not just not renew the doors/drawer fronts etc and worktops.
Keep the cupboard carcasses and save yourself a few bob.? 

I was about to say just this. Due to the shape of our kitchen the units can only be in the position they’re in now if we want to have a table too. My plan is to replace our worktops and tiles but I plan to spray the doors and cabinets myself. I believe we can do the backsplash tiles, spray job and new worktops for about £1500. 

If I had to replace the lot I’d be avoiding the flat pack stuff or “high end” suppliers (it’s usually still chipboard or MDF painted or laminated units and doors anyway) and getting a joiner in to make me a bespoke solid wood kitchen. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

McSwaggerty said:

If you are keeping the same layout, why not just not renew the doors/drawer fronts etc and worktops.
Keep the cupboard carcasses and save yourself a few bob.? 

I've thought about that, but the existing ones are pretty shoddy and I think must have been real bargain basement items when first put in. Might save a few bob, but think I would end up regretting it a few years down the line.

markslade07

I can highly recommend DIY Kitchens https://diy-kitchens.com/
You have to measure and plan out exactly what you need but I think we probably saved a few grand over the ‘regular’ names. Even Howdens said they couldn’t get close. Quality is great too.

Jimbro66

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Jimbro66 said:

We had a new kitchen fitted by Wrens earlier this year. We were happy with everything - very good design service, the quality of the fittings is great and the fitter they assigned was really good. Price was lower than others we went to including Wickes.

It's hard for me to give a price guide because ours is a big-ish kitchen and included all new appliances. All I can say is that Wrens gave very good value for the money. 

Interesting. Other friends and family I've pestered for advice have warned me to steer clear of Wren!

Yeah, we'd heard those kind of stories too and at first were hesitant to go to Wren but some neighbours of ours had a Wren kitchen installed a few months before us and were really pleased with it so we went to Wren and didn't regret it at all.

Like most suppliers they do the thing of totalling up to a high price then discounting it like they are doing you a favour. It's just a game. At least they don't do the "need to phone my manager" cringeworthy thing.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

markslade07 said:

I can highly recommend DIY Kitchens https://diy-kitchens.com/
You have to measure and plan out exactly what you need but I think we probably saved a few grand over the ‘regular’ names. Even Howdens said they couldn’t get close. Quality is great too.

Interesting, never heard of them, thanks! 

boogieman

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Fretwired said:

My son has just had a new kitchen fitted in his semi - it cost just under £7K, including a new sink, cupboards, tiling, flooring (tiles) new electrics, and decorating, and a cooker.

Thanks! Sounds similar to what I'm after, minus the cooker and with a vinyl floor instead of tiling, so hopefully will run to a similar budget or lower. Don't think I can stretch much beyond £7k!

Jimbro66 said:

We had a new kitchen fitted by Wrens earlier this year. We were happy with everything - very good design service, the quality of the fittings is great and the fitter they assigned was really good. Price was lower than others we went to including Wickes.

It's hard for me to give a price guide because ours is a big-ish kitchen and included all new appliances. All I can say is that Wrens gave very good value for the money. 

Interesting. Other friends and family I've pestered for advice have warned me to steer clear of Wren! Their showroom was absolutely vast and was v well laid out. Did seem very good value too.

boogieman said:

Kind of a “how long is a piece of string” question unfortunately. I did a whole Ikea kitchen for £1k at my old place but that’s with flat packed cabinets in a small kitchen and I did literally everything myself. 

We had a Howdens kitchen put in by a chippy 5 years back and that was £10k just for the units, worktops and fitting costs. Appliances, electrics, plumbing, gas work and tiling were all extra. 

Both were actually decent quality but we spec’d the Howdens one much higher with solid oak doors and full stave iroko worktops. 

Yeah I've got someone from Howden's coming round to do a kitchen measure/design. I've heard they're really good, consistent quality, but not cheap!

Howdens are good quality units with thicker carcasses than many. They also keep stocks in their warehouse so if there’s parts missing or faulty you can pick up replacements straight off the shelf.  They do free planning too. The one downside is they only deal with builders or fitters so you either need a friendly builder to place an order or to get yourself a trade card. They also don’t have a proper price list, they offer ridiculous discounts on their “list price”. Nobody ever pays the quoted prices though, I think ours was something 75% off or something nonsensical. 

I found Worktop Express was the best place for errr, worktops.   Decent prices and quick delivery times. 

Our neighbours have recently had a Benchmarx kitchen fitted. They got the units on time but have had to wait three or four months for their worktops to be delivered. The company reckoned the delay was covid related, no idea if that’s true or not.  

the_jaffa

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

markslade07 said:

I can highly recommend DIY Kitchens https://diy-kitchens.com/
You have to measure and plan out exactly what you need but I think we probably saved a few grand over the ‘regular’ names. Even Howdens said they couldn’t get close. Quality is great too.

Interesting, never heard of them, thanks! 

Another vote for them from me. They were Independently recommended to me by two separate kitchen fitters. We went with them and were very impressed. 

Really well built carcasses that arrive fully built. They’re solid. All done at their factory in Pontefract on massive CNC machines. You mostly do it all online but because we were fairly close we went to the showroom/factory to have a look. 

Another recommendation is to go with pan drawers rather than cupboards as much as you can. So much easier to use and you don’t need to bend down to see what’s in them

Redlester

spark240 said:

Ball park 7-10K should do it...

This I think. 

We actually went with John Lewis, but they handle everything. Plus they were doing interest free repayments over 24 months so it helped spread the cost. 

Not a perfect process but we got there in the end. 

markblack

Another shout for DIY KITCHENS. really good quality and service. My builder recommend them to me. Their kitchen planner is easy to use, and i got my granite worktops of them as well at a great price.

Iamnobody

Worktop material could make a couple of grand difference if you go for quartz granite etc. 

But I reckon you’d get a small kitchen sorted for ~  £5k if you shop smart.

I’d never put my foot through Wrens showroom again based on their sales technique. I’m sure their kitchens are actually ok .

stratman3142

We had an extension last year including a new kitchen.

We were lucky to have the kitchen designed by a retired friend who used to run a kitchen business. Our builder suggested Howdens. Our local Howdens branch only deal with builders as they don't actually fit kitchens.

Howdens came up with a detailed plan based on our friend's design. I was impressed with Howdens, but certain compromises were required as they only have a menu of options. For example they didn't provide shelf units and substituted cupboards. Also, there was a limitation on the peninsula width, which IIRC was 900mm. I think their estimate was somewhere in the region of 10 to 11K. That was without fitting as our builder had made an allowance for that.

In the end we went to a local specialist kitchen supplier for the units and another supplier for the granite worktops to get a match to our friend's design, which is what my wife wanted. It all came to about £13K. But that included a wide granite worktop which cost about £3.7K, despite my wife saying she'd go for a lower grade option, then picking a high grade option.

I'm sure it should be possible for up to £10K, but I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter.