Buying/Fitting a kitchen - who do you suggest....

Gof

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Hiya-

My wife and I are getting excited about havign a new kitchen installed - basically ours is falling apart.

We want somethign modern and clean with wood/birch or beech (light) and a nice shiny dark hard wearing (maybe glossy) worktop.

We had Moben come round and do the plans last night (£6K fitted) - only 5 or 6 units and a massive Range electric cooker with extractor etc and hidden dishwasher included.

We also toyed with Ikea but found planning and thinking today to be quite stressful.

Who do other people recommend? Any views to help us along the way?

We don't feel up to fittign ourselves - too much trouble with 3 kids and no time!

Cheers in advance! :smashin:
 
Hi there,

We bought a kitchen from Wickes about 3 Months ago and we absolutly love it. I'd definatelly recommend them.

The guy who came to fit it said that Wikes are one of the best, he had one himself.

It lookes a hell of a lot more expensive than it actually was (2,700), and all Wickes Kitchens come with soft close as standard.:thumbsup:

Happy hunting...
 
How much was fitting?

Yeah the Moben ones were soft close- I really want a nice looking finish - the current one was done by the previous owners and has that never finished feel to it!

jonathanmusto said:
Hi there,

We bought a kitchen from Wickes about 3 Months ago and we absolutly love it. I'd definatelly recommend them.

The guy who came to fit it said that Wikes are one of the best, he had one himself.

It lookes a hell of a lot more expensive than it actually was (2,700), and all Wickes Kitchens come with soft close as standard.:thumbsup:

Happy hunting...
 
Good advice - thanks for that - have emailed a local company to find if they can help......


Any other opinions from others out there?

:hiya:

ash said:
I think we got ours done from Howdens, but you need your builder to know them? I'm not sure, but as they sell ONLY to trade it is cheap, but the quality is great! Remember go for solid wood, none of that cheap crap.

http://www.above-it-all.co.uk/howdens/companies.htm
http://www.above-it-all.co.uk/howdens/about.htm

Read up there, maybe ask a builder, or phone your local Howdens from that list, ask for the manager and ask if they can reccomend a builder possibly.
 
ash said:
I think we got ours done from Howdens, but you need your builder to know them? I'm not sure, but as they sell ONLY to trade it is cheap, but the quality is great! Remember go for solid wood, none of that cheap crap.

http://www.above-it-all.co.uk/howdens/companies.htm
http://www.above-it-all.co.uk/howdens/about.htm

Read up there, maybe ask a builder, or phone your local Howdens from that list, ask for the manager and ask if they can reccomend a builder possibly.

Good advice a lot of my friends have Kitchens from Howdens, it is the trade side of MFI.
 
Ikea kitchens are good (we have one - so I am biased) and a local kitchen fitter could fit it for you. Ours cost about £2500 fitted, as opposed to £5000+ from MFI/Howdens etc.
 
Gof, The fitting was £850... But that was back when Wickes would give you a list of Recommended Joiners to choose from. I believe they have their own fitting service now. The one we went for was the Aviemoore range, its all high gloss white, but they did have some nice wooden ones that we saw.
 
bought mine a couple of weeks ago from a local timber merchants - fitting it myself!!! - taken the night off as i'm knackered.

All in should cost me about £1500 for all the kitchen units, plumbing, electrics etc that i am doing myself.

Normally look around another £1000 to get a joiner etc to fit a kitchen for you.
 
Excellent - some really useful tips and info there!

We have planned it using the initial thoughts from Moben planning and used the Ikea planner so at least we can go to Wicks and Ikea and elsewhere with some idea of what we need and accurate kitchen measurements.

Amazing how much 6 units costs -lol!

Anyone near Notts/Derby recommend a decent fitter locally?
 
£6k for 6 units , are they gold plated . I always assumed Moben were expensive , They are the Kitchen relative of Dolphin bathrooms , who are expensive .
 
The £6K includes a 'free' discrete dishwasher and a Rangemaster, splashback and hood (worth £1800) for £595 a sink/taps and fitting (but not electrics/tiling).
From Ikea the units, taps and dishwasher would costs about £1400 but to get the cooker package we like would be around £2K - depending on fitting it would be aroudn £1k - £1.5k cheaper from Ikea but the hassle of organising things would be ours not another companies.

I read some poor reviews of Moben experiences online which put me off to be honest. That's why I came on here from advice I rate what others on here think - usually good free advice ;)

johnscarlet said:
£6k for 6 units , are they gold plated . I always assumed Moben were expensive , They are the Kitchen relative of Dolphin bathrooms , who are expensive .
 
Hi Gof,

We had B. & Q. supply and fit a kitchen about seven months ago. It was the "Cottage style" in cream with black gloss worktops (look like granite). We are delighted with the quality of the kitchen units; we have three very long drawers for holding baking tins, etc. and a big cutlery drawer in this. The slightest touch opens them and in spite of the weight in them they move so easily. Lots of other excellent features. If you have a corner unit, try and have a magic corner one, which is an interior fitment. The kitchen, including two single built-in pyrolitic ovens and s/steel splashback was about £11,500. £5,000 of that goes to the installers. We had a lot of cupboards and wall cupboards. We had downlighters installed in the ceiling and an expensive sink. Other appliances we already had. This included them removing old, cracked ceramic tiles, and laying new ones (we bought them from B. & Q) We had to pay extra for renewing part of the floor (Victorian house, floorboards had rotted when rats ate the mains pipe a couple of years ago!) Also they laid thick ply on this (we paid for this).

The installers were excellent, qualified workers. Our carpenter said they also worked for Moben and B. & Q. units were better quality. One man was in charge of the whole team and initially everything went smoothly. The B. & Q. assistants in store were very helpful and efficient.

It didn't help that B. & Q. had a promotion promising people kitchens installed for Christmas, and a big discount(we had missed out on that). We paid for the kitchen (all of it) early September, it was finished two days before Christmas! Unfortunately half way through B. & Q. reduced their work force by 50% and there were so many errors with deliveries, it drove us all mad (and the installers too). White units sent instead of cream, wrong design units, shortages, We had about ten deliveries in all. Still have stuff sitting in the garage waiting to be picked up. It ended up being three and a half months before it was finished (we were told a fortnight!) except one wall cupboard was missing its door until late January. There was obviously a lot of hiring and firing and we kept speaking to different people. Apparently, it's better now.

Would we use B. & Q. again? In December we would have said "No". Now, we are so pleased with the kitchen, we would probably say "Yes". If you can stand the hassle!

Good luck that all your installation goes smoothly. Some excellent freebies at Moben by the sound of it.
 
Cheers Cynthia - sounds like it was worth the hassle - we are also lookign at black gloss surface - lovely!

If only you had enough 'left over' units to furnish my kitchen -lol! ;)

Went to Wickes today - they seemed to be pretty good too - will be deciding who to finalise with by Wednesday and placing the order!
:thumbsup:
 
I know a few people that have used Moben, and not one of them has had a noce thing to say about them.

My mum bought hers from MFI, on the last day of their sale and got extra discount. I went to a company called Rixonway kitchens, they make the units for a lot of companies

http://www.keencost.co.uk/

Depends on where in the country you are though! As I think they are only based in Yorkshire.
 
ours came from a company called Lakes kitchens via a local timber merchants.

Will post a few piccys in my blog about it later on - still fitting it!!! (glutton for punishment!)
 
Just to say that if you want that luxury feel, don't go for a laminate worktop...I think it really brings down what could have been a nice kitchen, especially when you have real wood doors....It sounds like your kitchen is rather compact anyway with only 5 units, so treat yourself to some nice granite....By going direct to a stonemason I was able to save nearly 50% compared to buying it in a shop, and you can even pick the slab you want etc....

Oh an personally I wouldn't dream of going for all wood baseunits...Too many of our friends/family went for it and they started warpen as wood expands/shrinks over time....
 
The misses & I went to a large Curry's got them to design the kitchen for us, with all that we wanted etc and then we took the plan from them after saying give us a couple of days to think about it!!:clap:
And then went to Wickes, BnQ, with a good idea on how many units we wanted etc. no mucking about...
Another thought is, its all good to have fancy stuff in the kitchen like under cabinets lights, but do you really need them. We got them, as the misses thought they looked great, but do we use them... heck no!!!:mad: after 3 years, i must have switched them on 4 times!!..
ah.. things like tumble dryers etc, that you want to hide behind doors.. the standard appliances from shops don't fit behind normal kitchen doors, you will have to either have specially made doors, or smaller appliances, which cost more, just so you can hide them behind a door.:suicide:

regards
 
Have a look at granite worktops - but not from any of the main places (i.e. B&Q, MFI etc) as they will charge a fortune - there are loads of trade places that will supply exactly what you need for about half the price.

Also, I would never pay B&Q to do any work. Ever. They installed a new bathroom and cloakroom in a house we rented a couple of years ago, for the not too small sum of £6k, of which £3k was for the installation. The guy installing took 5 days - which means that this cost £600 a day!!! The workmanship was poor, the products were shoddy with numerous trips out to replace tiles, taps etc and generally a shambles.
 
We got ours from a company called Howdens Joinery. Don't know much about them but it is a very nice kitchen...
 
Hi Gof,

Oddly enough we were on the point of ordering a kitchen from Wickes. Something like Marlborough units in cream. In the end they didn't have the sink I wanted (and neither did B. & Q. in the end it had been discontinued). I have heard good reports of Wickes from two acquaintances.

Our installers tried to put us off having the black gloss worktops, although they were sitting in our garage, as it was easier for them to handle the matt. The gloss tops do scratch, you just have to be careful, and our only scratches were done by the wall tiler. I just love the look of them. I bought "Worktop Wonder" a spray polish, from Lakeland Ltd. and once you've cleaned them a spray of that helps protect them and they look so glossy. The installers referred to them as High Maintenance, but using chopping boards and remembering not to put hot pots and scratchy items on them is normal practice for us anyway. We had tiled worktops before and they were so unhygienic and the grouting had to be regularly scrubbed and bleached and half the tiles were coming off in places. They were small tiles and looked nice when new, but a nightmare years later.

Please let us know how you get on or I shall always be wondering!
 
Do you have a link to this: -

"Worktop Wonder a spray polish, from Lakeland Ltd"

We have the same worktops on a Kitchen we just had installed and we are about to run out. If you just clean it with a cloth you get dreadful marks.
 
jonathanmusto said:
Hi there,

We bought a kitchen from Wickes about 3 Months ago and we absolutly love it. I'd definatelly recommend them.

The guy who came to fit it said that Wikes are one of the best, he had one himself.

agreed. we have a Wickes kitchen, recommended to us by a carpenter with loads of experiencing in fitting. He reckoned they used thicker cabinet construction and were of a higher quality of manufacture. Ours have been excellent with nice (light) oak doors...

have heard a few horror stories about Moben... left one of my wife's friends in the lurch for several weeks with a half-finished kitchen (and they are also expensive), so would be careful here.

UV
 

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