Cost for a reasonable kitchen?

Soldato
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I'd try and go for a granite or quartz if you can afford it, I used a local company but DIY kitchens also do it. Wood is nice but dents too easily and isnt great around sinks.

We've currently got solid wood tops and I am not a fan at all. It looks lovely when fresh but it definitely dents a lot and also has gone black in areas around the sink. I've resanded and applied Danish oil quite a few times but its a lot of work that I'd rather not in future.

Also, I'm glad Howdens is recommended as there's one about 1/4 mile from here and all the fitters seems to use them for kitchens and internal doors.
 
Soldato
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We've currently got solid wood tops and I am not a fan at all. It looks lovely when fresh but it definitely dents a lot and also has gone black in areas around the sink. I've resanded and applied Danish oil quite a few times but its a lot of work that I'd rather not in future.

Also, I'm glad Howdens is recommended as there's one about 1/4 mile from here and all the fitters seems to use them for kitchens and internal doors.

I'm really pleased you've said that. Speaking to a few people who have had quartz, oak etc etc they all say the same thing. Looks great for a few weeks, then starts to look crap.

We're changing our kitchen this year, and our 13yr old laminate tops still look new.
 
Soldato
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We've gone from one extreme to the other - Units Online for a kitchen in our flat 5 years ago to a Neptune kitchen when renovating our house recently. We had to get a bespoke kitchen installed as it had to be fitted around an immovable concrete curb, and therefore cost a great deal more than I was hoping. In hindsight, I probably would have investigated getting ready made units from somewhere like Standard British and then seeing if we could adapt them.

Previously the kitchen in our flat was about as cheap as you could get (units) and I'm still amazed at the quality for £1,800. Their customer service was amazing too. After I placed the order online they called me up to rub through the layout, measurements, made comments and suggestions, etc. I was really pleasantly shocked at how well it all worked out.

It's stood up well to some heavy use since and the only problems we've had with it have been our own doing.

We opted for a quartz worktop this time around, whereas we had a Corian one previously. Both I'd recommend highly, although Corian was a tad more expensive than I'd budgeted for.
 
Soldato
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My neighbours used DIY kitchens and had a local fitter in for the day to install the units and worktop, then tiled and painted themselves. The units are quite nice and they said they were good value.
 
Soldato
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Take a look at IKEA kitchens too, there was a lot of positive posts on here about them at the time I fitted mine.

You can use their web based app to design and save it. You wind up with an order list and price as you go.

I got my appliances, sink etc from other sources but I'm very happy with the units and worktop we got from IKEA. If in a few years you're fancying an update you can buy new doors from them too.
 
Soldato
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Just my 2p with. I designed my own kitchen using the (admittedly not great) DIY Kitchen app (after Wickes totally screwed up by and produced a plan which looked ugly and had huge gaps in it) and fitted it myself. Got a spark in to do the downlights. I went with a plinth heater to replace the radiator, which previously blocked off nearly an entire wall.
 
Soldato
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Just my 2p with. I designed my own kitchen using the (admittedly not great) DIY Kitchen app (after Wickes totally screwed up by and produced a plan which looked ugly and had huge gaps in it) and fitted it myself. Got a spark in to do the downlights. I went with a plinth heater to replace the radiator, which previously blocked off nearly an entire wall.

Do they still do that app? I used it a year ago and thought it was pretty damn great. Can't find it now though.
 
Associate
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I am moving my old kitchen from one side of the house to the other, its 1.5m by 1.5 ish the now and will be going to a much much larger room.
All the services will need to be moved and a lot of work done so i am expecting a larger than normal number however.. one thing that really is peeing me off is..
I want a drawer refrigerator - i have been to 4 major kitchen suppliers in my town and all say they dont do them - i walk out after that.

WTF how can it be so hard to get a refrigerated drawer, i want to be able to drop stuff in instead of getting down and trying to find the last bottle of pop at the back of a big fridge, not happy when my backs not happy.
But OMG these things are unicorn poop apparently. Even though i have found several online including some that do separate temps so you can use one as a freezer. Yes i know they are expensive but i dont give a toss.

The sales staff... just rubbish.
 
Soldato
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Our DIY Kitchens order is due to be delivered at the beginning of March. Custom painted shaker style with 16 units came in at just under £5k inc VAT. Hoping it will be good as we went in blind but it's a mirror copy of the Howdens kitchen we nearly went with but for 40% less and in the colour we wanted.
 
Associate
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Can't you just source and supply it yourself? There are plenty available on the market.
Yes i could and it may well come to that, but i am not asking for golden unicorn piddle am I? I mean seriously these big kitchen outlets saying "nope" and not even attempting to use google like i did.

Or is it just a case of lazy sales staff?
 
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Yes i could and it may well come to that, but i am not asking for golden unicorn piddle am I? I mean seriously these big kitchen outlets saying "nope" and not even attempting to use google like i did.

Or is it just a case of lazy sales staff?

I think with the large companies the staff don't have any flexibility in design and choice of appliances. Smaller, local firms are far more prepared to change designs and appliances. The large firms have staff who are required to only sell what they are allowed to sell.
 
Soldato
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Knowing about plinth heaters will make a huge difference to my layout so thanks for that.
No worries. :cool:

The kitchen in our old house had no heating in it at all until we discovered plinth heaters. Made a hell of a difference. The only downside was our dog sitting in front of it with a guilty expression whenever it was on.
 
Associate
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I think with the large companies the staff don't have any flexibility in design and choice of appliances. Smaller, local firms are far more prepared to change designs and appliances. The large firms have staff who are required to only sell what they are allowed to sell.

Your prob right, still cannot do anything right now with this virus, who knows by the time i get to actually do this refrigerated drawers might be the in thing :D
 
Soldato
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a lot of kitchens and bathrooms these days are sold on the pretence of selling the dream and that a designer kitchen is a must to keep up with the Joneses and therefore can run into tens of thousands of pounds. Nobody needs to spend that on a new kitchen.

I'd be happy with an off the shelf one from Ikea or B&Q to be honest.
 
Associate
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Just done mine, a U shape galley kitchen. 3m long 3m deep.

Did a lot DIY, ripped out the old kitchen, then discovered the shoddy job previous owner did, a lot hides behind a kitchen!

So I had to chase walls (old cables were just laying behind plinth - including cooker 6mm and induction hob 10mm cabling, I was lucky that the ring and induction cable was even there, if you need to get a new circuit - price that in, that's notifiable and not DIY. we put a proper isolator switches and new sockets and backboxes and ran all new 2.5mm for the ring - basically a rewire of the kitchen ring.

then the cabinets were just attached to the bare brick and patches of plaster painted in 80's paint and various paper styles... this all got knocked off with the chasing and then bonded and plastered.

I got a builder in once the room was plastered and electrics sorted to finish the rest, we got our units from IKEA in shaker style for 1.6k inc worktops, all appliances integrated, new hob, cooker and fridge freezer. circa 1.5k for appliances.

Due to IKEA having no service void I had to reposition the plumbing to below the cabinet height, using pushfit, easy job.

Builder did all fitting of the cabinets, worktops, new floor tiles inc levelling and also tiled the walls, labour came to £120 a day and he took a week and did a cracking job! worked 9am until 6-7pm most days! never saw him take a break!
 
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