Page 1 of Doing up the gaff...

Now for those of you who may remember the soap opera that is my life, we have finally started the renovations of my late F.I.L`s house.

Finally found a builder...getting quotes for lots of bits that include double glazing et al.

Need a new kitchen. So went to B&Q - the range there looks quite nice and seems friendly enough...plus half price on units right now.
So how does a "basic" kitchen end up being quoted at £10k? and...£3k of that is to fit the buggar! Serioulsy £3,000 to fit a dozen or so cupboards and worktops?
Anyway when asked if we could fit it ourselves the guy tells me that as we have opted for the granite worktops they will have to fit...is this right?

Has anyone done a kitchen lately?

And is there anywhere else you recommend to look for kichens?

Ta

Gav

I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which i`m dying are the best i`ve ever had.

Stay clear of bloody B&Q fitters mate. Brother had a kitchen fitted by them a few years ago - I don`t think they carried a plumbline or level in their toolkits! If they did they sure didn`t know how to use them.

If you are a reasonably competent DIY-er you can fit the kitchen units yourself and then get someone in to fit the stone worktops. That`s exactly what we did a few years back.

The money you save on the installation can then be spent on nice bits of stone if that`s your thing. Once the units are in, someone comes round to template, makes MDF or similar templates, takes them away and then comes back with the equivalent bits of stone.

Do try to get everything as straight/square as possible, otherwise they have to scribe the stone to make it fit and this adds a little extra to the cost.

It might be worth asking the builder to quote for fitting the kitchen. We did that in our cottage, was about £1400 for complete fitting, and looked great after. One advantage was that it meant all the electrics, plumbing etc were all organised by the same guy at the same time as fitting the kitchen.

I would also say stay clear of B&Q fitters..............they ruined my kitchen to the extent B&Q ended up footing the bill for someone to re-do the crap job they had done and me having my kitchen for nearly free as compensation.

My friends have just fitted a kitchen from Ikea (believe me they are far from having the ability to `diy` but they managed!). They ordered the work surfaces cut to fit the measurements they wanted and Im quite impressed at the quality

Juls

If your builder is any good he`ll know where to go and get a kitchen at a `trade outlet` - mine did and we paid him to fit it. Saved us over £4K.