New Kitchen - which 'sheds' are best

[DerbyBorn]

I really don't see haow a small manufacturer can invest in the sort of machinery to accurately produce such stuff. Okay for bespoke maybe.

[Tim Streater]

We went to Wren because they were doing what we felt were nice designs and proper solid wood drawers, something that no one else seemed to offer. So we're quite happy with what they provided, although there was a bit of argy bargy at the end because there were some small bits missing and one of their customer service people said they wouldn't supply these as we were finishing the installation more than 6 months after delivery [1]. But our Sales lady sorted them out OK.

[1] This was because a lot of work needed doing in the kitchen after the strip out and before installation of the new kitchen.

[dennis]

diy-kitchens.com/

Not flat pack rubbish.

[spuorgelgoog]

Local community centre has a Howdens kitchen and it seems nice and substantial. I don't expect they paid for a luxury range, but probably not the cheapest.

I got a Wickes Dakota. It's horrible. And despite warning not to stack doors vertically they do, with the result they come out of the packaging bashed. They also have a very limited range of sizes. (This is their take-away range not the designer stuff.)

Owain

[tim...]

what's horrible about it

(I'm off to see the Wickes designer tomorrow)

well that's just a delivery problem that ought to be sorted before installation

As do many on the list

tim

[spuorgelgoog]

The 'melamine' is the thinnest possible laminate with no edge sealing or pr otection. It chips very easily when drilling through for handles. Actually, it just chips very easily. It doesn't even look proper white. The 'matchin g' plinth and cornice are a different shade of white and a different textur e. The drawer sides and back are so shallow that stuff falls over them and out of or behind the drawers. The drawer runners are very basic and the dra wer fronts don't adjust well to line up. The unit backs are hardboard and n ot even one continuous sheet on the wall units, but two with an H joining s trip.

Owain

[Bill Wright]

Sally Clarke has a large workshop full of machinery. And a massive amount of skill and experience. Better to have your furniture made that way than mass produced by machines set up and controlled by unskilled labour.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

I'm not going to waste my time writing an essay to answer that question.

Bill

[tim...]

I'm looking for a handleless style.

I won't be looking for white.

well that just sound like a bad match that should/could have been rejected.

OK, I'll look at that

they always are.

ISTR my MFI cupboards were like that

never caused a problem.

I will be adding glue to the back to make it more robust though.

thanks

tim

[RJH]

I used B&Q carcasses, a Wickes solid wood worktop and ebay oak doors (doors appear to be where the bulk of the markup happens). No complaints drawers are a bit lightweight but seem sturdy.

A friend/fitter rates Ikea - I saw one he did recently and it looked very good, in a gloss black/white sort of way.

[Terry Casey]

I have a namesake who is a kitchen fitter. He tried to get the email address I already had, so was offered an alternative with the name appended with a '2', which he obviously accepted!

He deals with Howdens who often forgot the '2', so I got his estimates showing his 80% discount on retail prices ...

Perhaps Magnet's prices have a similar mark-up?

[F]

IKEA. I've installed three at different properties and all have worked and lasted well for 12+ years so far.

[spuorgelgoog]

So was I, but then I realised most of them jam your fingers against the underside of the worktop when opening.

Bar handles have the advantage you can hang tea-towels on them.

Intrinsic to the style, rather than a manufacturing defect (they use the same plinth for other white styles, but not all whites are the same ...)

The ones I got off ebay to make my own drawer for the wasted space under the built-in oven were better.

Owain

[tim...]

Howdens don't have retail prices as they wont sell to consumers

they just have some made up price and then their final Trade price.

It seems (I have no personal experience) that the fitter can charge any price he likes between the two at a level that he thinks he can "get away with"

I doubt that anyone gets away with "full price", there's too much competition. No-one who has other offers of 4-5K is going to pay 15K for Howdens.

Their price are retail and, the last time I looked they don't discount appliances. The price you see is the price you pay, even when there's sale on.

Wickes "price matched" their appliances. Quite surprised me how much that took off their headline price.

tim

[Theo]

It's telling that Wren's price comparison:

claims the average Howdens price is a discount of 76% over list price and uses that as its baseline. So that's a ballpark to use when calculating the 'real' cost of a Howdens kitchen.

Theo

[dennis]

It cost us 4k for the appliances and we got them cheaper than AO, etc.

[Theo]

Was that like for like, or Lamona it's-not-Beko-in-disguise-honest?

Theo

[tim...]

I just got an offer from Wickes and the appliances (cooker, hob, extractor, and Dishwasher) were circa 500 quid

tim

[tim...]

Oh is that that they are

good to know

trim

[dennis]

Bosch. Series six stuff was seriously expensive in the shops but the wife was paying out of her pension lump sum.

I like the pyrolytic cleaning.

The microwave/oven is a bit odd.. power settings jump from 600W to 1000W with nothing in between.

I also don't like that you can't use silicon bakeware as it does the baking sensor in.

The ability to set precise temps over a wide range is useful, I use the big oven to dry out 3D printing filaments and to anneal printed bits.

You need to consider these DIY things if buying new appliances.

The dishwasher has a handy feature in that the door opens if you push it which is handy when the wife has arthritis in the fingers. Its also completely integrated and projects an image of what its doing on the floor as it has no visible display.