Hi all

Patience is not my strong point, so instead of trying to source good
condition second hand I went out and bought 1 wall unit and 1 base to be
fitted in a walk in cupboard for my light tools.
Didn't investigate too far, but presumably all B & Q kitchens use the same
carcasses?

Problems experienced:

Wall unit fixings - are they serious? This had 2 bits of bent plate which
are each screwed to the wall with 2 screws. I used 2" x 10s and found that
nipping them up "damned tight" started to crunch the bracket throught the
plasterboard (dry lined brick wall). Then there are these weird plastic!
adjuster blocks with a metal claw projecting behind to engage the top edge
of the plates. So the unit just hangs on the plates and is not "locked"
vertically. Granted it is unlikely that the unit will be lifted in future
accidentally, but the whole arrangement seems weak albeit neat and straight
forward. Anyone had any failures?

The internal finish does not seem as solid as MFI stuff (the only self
assembly items I have constructed recently have been MFI wardrobes). The
veneer tended to flake as I screwed the metal post-type fasteners into
place.

The backing hard board was ripped. Looking at the way this was packed, it
would be difficult for this item to survive any package handling at all. It
is the weakest part and was on the bottom of the pack, in some areas only
"supported" internally with polystyrene blocks.

I believe all modern units are now constructed as boxes on plastic legs like
this one, instead of having full height side panels. The adjustment thread
on those legs is coarse and there doesn't appear to be a way to lock them at
the required height. I found that these could easily move when I was
fine-tuning the position of the carcass.

Finally handles! These are purchased separately at what appear to be
rip-off prices.


The only positives we

Managed to talk the "showroom" guy into allowing exchange of parts from
other box rather than re-package and return the whole thing back.

Got most of the job done over weekend.

For some reason the doors were incorrectly priced in our favour - £6 instead
of £26. I guess this just about compensated for the return hassle.


Am I expecting too much?
Following a suggestion from Jacob in my thread last week " Where do all the
old Kitchens Go", I mentioned the possibility of free standing furniture to
SWMBO. Didn't get the rapturous reception it might have I'm afraid.


Phil

TheScullster wrote:

Wall unit fixings - are they serious? This had 2 bits of bent plate which
are each screwed to the wall with 2 screws. I used 2" x 10s and found that
nipping them up "damned tight" started to crunch the bracket throught the
plasterboard (dry lined brick wall). Then there are these weird plastic!
adjuster blocks with a metal claw projecting behind to engage the top edge
of the plates. So the unit just hangs on the plates and is not "locked"
vertically. Granted it is unlikely that the unit will be lifted in future
accidentally, but the whole arrangement seems weak albeit neat and straight
forward. Anyone had any failures?


Are /you/ serious? This is the standard way of hanging wall units,
common across many ranges.

You're not supposed to just screw it to plasterboard - you need
something behind it.


--
Grunff

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:27:24 +0100, "TheScullster"
wrote:

Hi all

Patience is not my strong point, so instead of trying to source good
condition second hand I went out and bought 1 wall unit and 1 base to be
fitted in a walk in cupboard for my light tools.
Didn't investigate too far, but presumably all B & Q kitchens use the same
carcasses?

Problems experienced:

Wall unit fixings - are they serious? This had 2 bits of bent plate which
are each screwed to the wall with 2 screws. I used 2" x 10s and found that
nipping them up "damned tight" started to crunch the bracket throught the
plasterboard (dry lined brick wall). Then there are these weird plastic!
adjuster blocks with a metal claw projecting behind to engage the top edge
of the plates. So the unit just hangs on the plates and is not "locked"
vertically. Granted it is unlikely that the unit will be lifted in future
accidentally, but the whole arrangement seems weak albeit neat and straight
forward. Anyone had any failures?

This is a very standard way of fixing kitchen cabinets and has the
advantage that they can be adjusted in multiple directions to achieve
a precise alignment.



The internal finish does not seem as solid as MFI stuff (the only self
assembly items I have constructed recently have been MFI wardrobes). The
veneer tended to flake as I screwed the metal post-type fasteners into
place.

The backing hard board was ripped. Looking at the way this was packed, it
would be difficult for this item to survive any package handling at all. It
is the weakest part and was on the bottom of the pack, in some areas only
"supported" internally with polystyrene blocks.

I believe all modern units are now constructed as boxes on plastic legs like
this one, instead of having full height side panels. The adjustment thread
on those legs is coarse and there doesn't appear to be a way to lock them at
the required height. I found that these could easily move when I was
fine-tuning the position of the carcass.

You can put a self tap screw through when they are set up. Once you
have the worktop in place, they are not going to move anyway.


Finally handles! These are purchased separately at what appear to be
rip-off prices.


The only positives we

Managed to talk the "showroom" guy into allowing exchange of parts from
other box rather than re-package and return the whole thing back.

Got most of the job done over weekend.

For some reason the doors were incorrectly priced in our favour - £6 instead
of £26. I guess this just about compensated for the return hassle.


Am I expecting too much?

At the B&Q price point, this is about what you get. Reasonable
quality for lowish price.



Following a suggestion from Jacob in my thread last week " Where do all the
old Kitchens Go", I mentioned the possibility of free standing furniture to
SWMBO. Didn't get the rapturous reception it might have I'm afraid.

There is the cleaning issue....



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In article , Andy Hall
writes
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:27:24 +0100, "TheScullster"
wrote:



Am I expecting too much?

At the B&Q price point, this is about what you get. Reasonable
quality for lowish price.



We used B&Q units for our kitchen, I thought they were good for the
price. They often play funny pricing games with the doors.

I found a lot of the in-store stock was damaged in some way. We had ours
delivered (cos there was quite a lot of it) and it was all in perfect
condition.

If you pay quite a bit more you get the solid pre-assembled carcasses
from Magnet, Jewsons etc.


--
Tim Mitchell

Grunff said

Are /you/ serious? This is the standard way of hanging wall units, common
across many ranges.

Yes, it's 20 years since I fitted a kitchen so much has changed!

You're not supposed to just screw it to plasterboard - you need something
behind it.

As stated in original post, this is plaster board dry lined over brick wall!

Occupational hazard - working in heavy(ish) engineering has the disadvantage
that anything less than an M16 bolt looks positively dangerous!

Phil

TheScullster wrote:

As stated in original post, this is plaster board dry lined over brick wall!

In this type of situation, it's common (certainly recommended) to hack
out some plaster board and attach a piece of board to the wall behind to
provide a firm fixing.

When we did our kitchen, I pre-installed pieces of 3/4" ply running
along the wall where the fixings went. If you do this at the dry-lining
stage, it's a lot easier.


--
Grunff

Grunff wrote:
TheScullster wrote:

As stated in original post, this is plaster board dry lined over brick
wall!


In this type of situation, it's common (certainly recommended) to hack
out some plaster board and attach a piece of board to the wall behind to
provide a firm fixing.

When we did our kitchen, I pre-installed pieces of 3/4" ply running
along the wall where the fixings went. If you do this at the dry-lining
stage, it's a lot easier.



I did some MFI units on heavier duty frame fixings. Solid as a rock. If
brick (as stated) use correct size drill if aeriated block a slightly
smaller one might be a good idea (does not really need to be a masonry
drill in this case).

Re-boarding with ply works (done it for some bathroom fittings) but
might be effort intensive for a whole kitchen. In my (admittedly small,
about 5) experience of dry lined kitchens I have never seen one fitted
this way by a fitter etc.

HTH,

Alex.

Grunff said

When we did our kitchen, I pre-installed pieces of 3/4" ply running along
the wall where the fixings went. If you do this at the dry-lining stage,
it's a lot easier.

Now you mention it, I seem to remember a similar post previously.
Also saw that someone got the builder to put a line of adhesive behind the
plaster board at fixing height.
Trouble is remembering these handy hints when you are doing the jobs for
real.

Thanks

Phil

Tim said
If you pay quite a bit more you get the solid pre-assembled carcasses from
Magnet, Jewsons etc.

Thanks Tim, I'll look at these other suppliers at kitchen time

Phil

TheScullster wrote:
Hi all

Patience is not my strong point, so instead of trying to source good
condition second hand I went out and bought 1 wall unit and 1 base to be
fitted in a walk in cupboard for my light tools.
Didn't investigate too far, but presumably all B & Q kitchens use the same
carcasses?

Problems experienced:

Wall unit fixings - are they serious? This had 2 bits of bent plate which
are each screwed to the wall with 2 screws.


They are serious, and I don't like them either. They supposedly allow
you to drill the holes anywhere in the general vicinity and use the
adjustment to level things up. They didn't feel that positive to me and
not being able to see what's going on behind the cabinet doesn't help.


Finally handles! These are purchased separately at what appear to be
rip-off prices.

Handles and knobs are surprisingly expensive wherever you buy them

"Stuart Noble" wrote in message
...

Handles and knobs are surprisingly expensive wherever you buy them

Try Ikea - I know, the name just sends shudders down the spine, but well
worth the suffering - same with legs too. In fact, the whole of the kitchen
range is pretty good and far cheaper than similar products from B&Q,
Homebase, etc

In article , Robin Mayes
writes

"Stuart Noble" wrote in message
...

Handles and knobs are surprisingly expensive wherever you buy them

Try Ikea - I know, the name just sends shudders down the spine, but well
worth the suffering - same with legs too. In fact, the whole of the kitchen
range is pretty good and far cheaper than similar products from B&Q,
Homebase, etc

But if they haven't got everything you need in stock you can end up
waiting forever to get the rest of it.
--
Tim Mitchell