Cost of replacing worktops in kitchen?

elrasho

elrasho

elrasho

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I'm replacing my electric hob with a free standing gas cooker. Due to the measurements of the electric hob I can't reuse the worktop. I can't find the exact same worktop in the shops and so will have to replace all the worktops so they are all the same.

I've seen a worktop from B&Q, £60 for 3 meters. I think I'll need about 12 meters so that's £240 material costs.

So I need a Kitchen fitter of sorts to rip off the old worktops and cut and fir the new ones, how much would this roughly cost?
 
At a guess probably a day or two's work, so whatever the day rate is for a kitchen fitter in your area x2.
I assume you'd also need the hole cut for the sink etc as well....(that's one of those jobs that seems easy enough, but whenever I've done it, or my father has done it, it's ended up being a pig).
 
Fitting workshops is quite a basic DIY job if you have a little confidence, a jig saw and an electric screw driver :). The only daunting bit is the sink

If you have to go with a fitter (nothing wrong with this at all :)) then it shouldn't be more then a days work at the wort. Getting your old units off shouldn't take more the. An hour, that leaves another 6 to fit and seal new ones.

I did ours with my father in law in about 5 hours, but I didnt have to worry about any wall finishings as we were doing the whole kitchen, not just replacing the tops.
 
elrasho said:
I'm rubbish at DIY, totally rubbish. Would you say it would cost around £130 for a fitter to do the work?
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Get a few quotes and see. It's hard to tell really, considering homebase offered to fit my kitchen for more then the cost of the kitchen I haven't had experience with any kitchen fitters.

If it takes a day or two I wouldn't pay more then £200 tops personally, but would prefer closer to the £130 mark.
 
Syla5 said:
Fitting workshops is quite a basic DIY job if you have a little confidence, a jig saw and an electric screw driver :). The only daunting bit is the sink
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Erm, you don't cut worktops with a jig saw. You use worktop jig as a guide and a router. It's hard, and very easy to get wrong like chipping the laminate etc. Get a chippie in and save yourself the heartache.
 
Stretch said:
Erm, you don't cut worktops with a jig saw. You use worktop jig as a guide and a router. It's hard, and very easy to get wrong like chipping the laminate etc. Get a chippie in and save yourself the heartache.
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We did all of ours with jigsaw and a fine toothed wood blade. We used end bars on the two bits of worktop that butted up against the other piece, out worktop goes around 3 sides of a square so we have two end bars to attach top the top side. It's slightly less glamorous then routing the the bits of worktop together and using the bolt locks underneath, but it's far from obvious and saved a days hire cost for a router and templates. As for the sink hole there was nothing wrong with using a jigsaw after using a starter hole made with a drill :)
 
Do you have any masons mitre? if yes then get a chippy if no then use a decent skill saw with a sharp fine blade, consider that the tiling if you have any most probably has been laid over the old worktop so be careful pulling it away or you could break tiles and make sure it's the same depth / thickness or you'll be chopping the tiling out as well.

Seal cut ends with PVA or mastic
 
Got a quote... £800 for the work. That included ripping off the old ones, refitting the sink, moving the washing machine to make room for the gas cooker and plumbing that back in, fitting the new work tops. 2 day job so that's £400 a day.... all this work just to replace the electric hob with a free standing gas cooker :(
 
Syla5 said:
We did all of ours with jigsaw and a fine toothed wood blade. We used end bars on the two bits of worktop that butted up against the other piece, out worktop goes around 3 sides of a square so we have two end bars to attach top the top side. It's slightly less glamorous then routing the the bits of worktop together and using the bolt locks underneath, but it's far from obvious and saved a days hire cost for a router and templates. As for the sink hole there was nothing wrong with using a jigsaw after using a starter hole made with a drill :)
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With all respect that's a bit of a bodge job then

I'm having a bespoke kitchen fitted in a house I'm renovating 18 units and 2 (straight Galley style) solid oak worktops and been quoted 2 days for 1 fitter.
 
mattyg said:
With all respect that's a bit of a bodge job then

I'm having a bespoke kitchen fitted in a house I'm renovating 18 units and 2 (straight Galley style) solid oak worktops and been quoted 2 days for 1 fitter.
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Not a bodge job at all, the fittings are specifically made for the job!

http://www.wickes.co.uk/corner-joint-40mm/invt/161169/

As i said they do not produce as fine a finish as using a router and mitreing in the edges, but lets be honest for a minute here, we fitted bog standard chip board laminated tops to an out of the box kitchen. Hardly a "bespoke" job :p.

As i also mentioned homebase wanted to charge me more to have the kitchen fitted then the cost of the kitchen. I laughed, did all the hard work with my farther in law and saved over 3k. Kitchen looks perfectly fine, and in comparsion to what was there before well its in a different league!

If i was just refitting the worktops at a later date, i would probably go to the effort.
 
Just because you can buy something to cover up a bodge doesn't mean its not a bodge.

I'm not having a go.

But If you paid a fitter and you came back to that you'd not be happy.

Its not the way it should be done (ok bodge may be a bit harsh maybe I should have said its not the correct way to do it)

I have done it that way myself in the past but that was in a flat I didnt like.

Maybe I'm just a bit more fussy nowadays
 
mattyg said:
Just because you can buy something to cover up a bodge doesn't mean its not a bodge.

I'm not having a go.

But If you paid a fitter and you came back to that you'd not be happy.

Its not the way it should be done (ok bodge may be a bit harsh maybe I should have said its not the correct way to do it)

I have done it that way myself in the past but that was in a flat I didnt like.

Maybe I'm just a bit more fussy nowadays
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I fully agree if i paid a fitter and came back to that i wouldnt be happy. As well, dependant on the quality level of the tops would impact my choice of joining definatly. But if the op was to go down the cheap and cheerful self fit route and was not DIY confident enough to hire and use a router, those bars definitely save time and money, and really arnt that bad, especially for entry level worktops.
 
Stretch said:
Erm, you don't cut worktops with a jig saw. You use worktop jig as a guide and a router. It's hard, and very easy to get wrong like chipping the laminate etc. Get a chippie in and save yourself the heartache.
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you can if you have a decent jigsaw. i have a makita one that does perfect cuts assuming i am using the right blade.

i dont think i would do the mitred corners with it though and i dont have the right jig anyway.

OP: it should be an easy job as long as you dont have a weird shaped kitchen or lots of mitres. cutting the sink is easy, not sure why people have issues? i used a £20 jigsaw to do mine at the last house and it was fine.

this current house is all real wood worktops and due to time constraints i reluctantly paid for wickes to fit my kitchen. so expensive though for a pretty basic job. i fitted my old kitchen and this one isnt any better standard than i did.
 
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