Approximate cost of a new kitchen?

Snags

Howden's kit is OK - ours was done with that, but bought and installed by an independent chap who just used their carcasses and doors. It was a few years ago now, and for us was rolled into a much bigger and more expensive project that still makes me wince but at the time you were looking at anything from £3.5k at B&Q/Wickes level through to £25k+ going for the posh stuff installed by the local high end independent people. IIRC we ended up broadly in the middle, plus appliances - but ours was a back to the brickwork and start again job (for other reasons), not just units out units in.

sawyer

Try the smaller independent manufactuers too. The guys with showrooms with manufacturing attached.

boogieman

Just be careful where the units are sourced from. Some of the diy sheds like Homebase get their units supplied from places in the EU. Which is fine until you discover a hinge is busted or part of the trim is missing and there’s a twelve week wait for a replacement.   

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Thanks everyone, all very useful information. I think I'm gonna have to start hammering in the overtime by the sound of it!

(And must try to stop buying new guitars I don't need...)

Axe_meister

Don't discount the IKEA route. You get free kitchen planning, with a nice graphical rendering of what it would look like.
Putting the cuboards together is a piece of cake especially if you have but any ikea stuff together before. The only thing you should need a chippy for is the worktops.
We did our 11m by 4m Kitchen with both bottom and wall cupboards for about 4k, then spent an additional 3K on Granite tops

Iamnobody

boogieman said:

Just be careful where the units are sourced from. Some of the diy sheds like Homebase get their units supplied from places in the EU. Which is fine until you discover a hinge is busted or part of the trim is missing and there’s a twelve week wait for a replacement.   

There’s a UK company called Trend

https://www.trendinteriors.co.uk/home

They are part of the Mereway group that make slightly higher end kitchens. 

The Trend range are manufactured in Brum and at least the equal of the high street quality. We thought better but that’s probably subjective.

That’s what we went with after trawling round everywhere! 

digitalscream

GoldenEraGuitars said:

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. 

This is pretty much my plan.

There's going to be a slight layout change, in that we'll go from an all-in-one electric cooker to a large induction hob with cupboards underneath, and a double built-in oven in a tall cabinet in the corner next to it.

The rest of it is basically reskinning over the existing frames and replacing the worktops, which gives me a good excuse to get a table saw and a router table. I'll probably get rid of the backsplash tiles and replace them with a strip of the same wood I'm using for the worktops, too.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Well, just had my first design consultation and quote doing (at Magnet). Ouch!! I guess maybe I have more expensive tastes than I had thought! 

strtdv

Ours was £12-13k for solid oak doors, engineered quartz worktop (probably the single most expensive bit), fancy swing out corner units (£250 a piece), a custom sized full height cupboard by the door, and Italian porcelain tiles.
I did the tiling and plumbing myself, as well as wiring up the lighting under the units.

It was fairly expensive, but looks even more expensive than it was. Money well spent IMO.

If you're willing to do it yourself you could have a nice kitchen for about £7k

rsvmark

As long as a piece or string of sausages- especially if you consider appliances. Induction hub from curry’s might be £300. Miele might be £2500

mike257

This thread, and the size of everyone's kitchen quotes, is making me so glad that I bought some power tools and sheets of plywood, watched some YouTube videos and built my own! 

ToneControl

lots of people will rip you off

also it's a very bad time to get one done, there is currently huge demand, and many are doubling their prices

Howdens have a weird pricing method, which has made the papers, e.g. here quoting from £10k to £44k for the same kitchen
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/16/howdens-kitchen-varying-quotations-customers-confused

I got a decent kitchen from Howdens supplied and fitted for £1300 last month
3 x 1 metre base units
1 x 1 metre wall unit, 3 counters and a sink, with upstands, which add £75

Cooker hood is not much, personally not convinced they are any use
I think we paid £150 for ours and £50 to fit

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

^^^Wow, that Howden's story is crazy! I have a consultation/quotation with them on Wednesday, so will bear that in mind!

So far I've had a quote from Magnet that came to £4250. I've then had a quote for a similar kitchen design from B&Q which came to just £2850, AND a included flooring which the Magnet one didn't. Seemed like I was quids in with B&Q, then I enquired how much they estimated for fitting the kitchen - it came to £3400 additional just to fit it! Having a bloody laugh! 

So far I'm thinking of going B&Q for the basic kitchen, but then getting my own independent fitter. I like the fact that at least with B&Q their prices for everything are clearly itemised on their website so less chance of being ripped off. With 'trade only suppliers' like Howden's, Magnet etc, itemised prices for their kitchens aren't on their website so much harder to see if/when they're trying to pull a fast one! 

ToneControl

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

^^^Wow, that Howden's story is crazy! I have a consultation/quotation with them on Wednesday, so will bear that in mind!

So far I've had a quote from Magnet that came to £4250. I've then had a quote for a similar kitchen design from B&Q which came to just £2850, AND a included flooring which the Magnet one didn't. Seemed like I was quids in with B&Q, then I enquired how much they estimated for fitting the kitchen - it came to £3400 additional just to fit it! Having a bloody laugh! 

So far I'm thinking of going B&Q for the basic kitchen, but then getting my own independent fitter. I like the fact that at least with B&Q their prices for everything are clearly itemised on their website so less chance of being ripped off. With 'trade only suppliers' like Howden's, Magnet etc, itemised prices for their kitchens aren't on their website so much harder to see if/when they're trying to pull a fast one! 

tell me how many units, what type

boogieman

ToneControl said:

lots of people will rip you off

also it's a very bad time to get one done, there is currently huge demand, and many are doubling their prices

Howdens have a weird pricing method, which has made the papers, e.g. here quoting from £10k to £44k for the same kitchen
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/16/howdens-kitchen-varying-quotations-customers-confused

I got a decent kitchen from Howdens supplied and fitted for £1300 last month
3 x 1 metre base units
1 x 1 metre wall unit, 3 counters and a sink, with upstands, which add £75

Cooker hood is not much, personally not convinced they are any use
I think we paid £150 for ours and £50 to fit

I mentioned this strange policy by Howdens in an earlier post. Our builder passed on the “75% discount” he’d received from Howdens and gave us the Howdens invoice to prove it, but he may well have actually got it cheaper and pocketed the difference, who knows. We were happy enough with what he quoted anyway. Presumably Howdens must be operating on the right side of legality doing this, they’ve been selling this way for a long time, but there’s obviously the potential to get ripped off if you can’t trust your builder/fitter. 

 I would never get own brand appliances as mentioned in the article. Howdens do their own Lamona branded gear for instance. Googling it brings up no end of complaints, it’s just rebranded cheap crap and the spares situation seems laughably bad. Howdens will also insist that you can only fit certain integrated appliances into their units and will give you a choice from their catalogue. We thought this was just sales waffle, checked the dimensions of the units and bought the brands we wanted. The fitter had one small issue with the fridge freezer we’d bought but sorted it very easily. Everything else fitted perfectly well. 

SteveRobinson

Wren Kitchens here

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Right, I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger I think. If I want anything done before Xmas I'm gonna have to get something booked now, as all decent fitters are crazy busy!

Any thoughts on flooring? I'd originally thought of just getting a half decent laminate, but I've heard good things about Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT) which seem to be the new kid in the block. Pricier than laminate, but a bit cheaper than real wood, and supposedly a lot more durable, easier to maintain, and looks good.

Anyone tried LVT flooring anywhere in their house? 

steveledzep

I have Quickstep Livyn in my bathroom and kitchen.  It's LVT planks just like laminate.  Cannot fault it.  Laminate is vulnerable to water puddles and leaks from the dishwasher etc.

strtdv

I've used LVT in a hall and a shower room (karndean and amtico respectively) They have the advantage of being warm underfoot in a bathroom, but if I was going for a nice kitchen I'd get some nice tiles.

I used 4' floorboard style ones, they were reasonably expensive as they are very flat and have rectified edges which gives a sharper/cleaner finish than the softer edge you get with non-rectified edges. 

Jalapeno

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.? 

This