On 8 Nov 2004 11:19:40 -0800, (Richard) wrote:

Hello All,

I thought I'd ask for your opinions on purchasing a new Kitchen.

I have been trying to decide if spashing out 8-10K on a new kitchen is
really worthwhile or settling for an equivalent B and Q jobbie at a
quarter of the price would be better or serve us just as well. I had
kitchens Direct in not so long ago and they qouted me 14K which I
thought was a complete Pi!s take and have had other qoutes from people
like John Lewis and Nichols for around the 8-10K price mark. Today
whilst browsing through B and Q which has become my second home
recently I stumbled on their kitchen range and quite like the gloss
white offering they have. The money for this in comparison seems like
peanuts. One of my mates recently spent 32K on his kitchen!!!! it
looks real impressive but Im not sure you couldn't of got something a
third of that price which would of basically looked the same.

Can someone tell me if there really is that much difference in quality
to justify spending 10K on a new kitchen. We plan to stay in the house
for a long time and have plenty of other things that we could be
spending our money on as we have basically renovated the whole
downstairs thanks to a lot of help and advice from you folks.

My mrs was telling me that on one of the DIY programmes recently it
was mentioned that the average proce paid for a kitchen is 2K.

What questions should I be asking?

Any comments greatly appreciated as usual.


I found that going to several local kitchen specialist firms (not the
outfits like Kitchens Direct, Moben, etc.) and inviting ideas,
discussing materials etc. was a good option.

One factor in deciding what you are willing to spend is in your
expected stay in the house. If you were planning to move within a
few years you probably wouldn't get much of a return on significant
investment, although a reasonable quality kitchen can help to sell the
property. If you anticipate staying a long time, then I think it's
reasonable to look on the kitchen in terms of what you like, choose
quality things and pay more.

I think that the average of £2k mentioned by a DIY program could be an
average for a basic set of stuff for a small kitchen bought from a DIY
shed. They don't have top of the range brands for appliances
typically either.

For the kitchen, I specified hardwoods for doors and certain panels
together with pre-made carcasses in thicker than normal material.
Worktops are granite and natural stones have been used for walls and
floor. Windows and doors were replaced with custom made oak
versions. A complete rewire and replumbing exercise was done,
utility room fitted out and an Aga installed. The end result
was and is very pleasing. Cost was north of £10k and south of the
amount spent by your friend.

I have just been completing a refit of my study. For that, I've
used some of the doors and drawers from B&Q's Solid Oak range.
Normally I would now have made the doors but needed to finish the job
reasonably quickly and didn't have the machinery or time to do so.
The quality of these doors isn't anywhere in the same league as the
kitchen ones but they are not bad for what they are.
I didn't bother with B&Q's carcasses because I felt that they are
fairly poor quality, they actually let the doors down - so I made my
own with cut panels, biscuit jointed etc. It is something of a
custom job anyway, as I built filing drawers into the deep kitchen
drawer sizes.

The basics to look for are

- quality and constuction of carcasses and doors - thickness and
construction of carcasses.

- worktop materials

- lighting

- fittings

- appliances

- check very carefully what is included and what is not.

Above all, take plenty of time and don't be pressured into buying. If
you go for a local firm, ask for references. For the better ones be
prepared to wait.







--

..andy

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