I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

--
Richard Perkin
To email me, change the AT in the address below
richard.perkinATmyrealbox.com

It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's.
It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
-- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

Richard Perkin wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!


I have fitted three DIY kitchens, one from MFI, one from Magnet and
the latest from IKEA. All three are budget kitchens, although the
Magnet units were comparatively expensive.

The IKEA units were by far the best constructed of the three, and I
would happily choose them again.

In article ,
Richard Perkin writes:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

I've installed two IKEA kitchens, and found them excellent.
Also use the units (modified) to do a bathroom, as they
were much cheaper and higher quality than bathroom units.
Everything lines up properly. All the bits are separately
available if you need extra bits to make up custom items.
IKEA inset s/s sinks had much nicer low profile edge than
others I found, and because the public can't rumage through
the stock, they don't come with dents and bashes. (I had
previously found one in B&Q I wanted, but every one in
stock was damaged.)

The most annoying part is having to go to a store to buy
the parts, although there are some companies near store
which will do that for you and deliver.

I've not used any IKEA worktops, partly due to difficulty
in getting them home, and partly because I already found
something else I wanted to use.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

You need to be aware there's no space for services behind
cupboards -- the backs are flush with the wall. Run services
at skirting level behind cupboards.

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

So is my experience.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

I dislike Ikea, and think some of their products are deliberately
designed not to last. However I bought some Ikea Varde kitchen units
and they are very solid and extremely easy to assemble - I found no
particular shortcomings with them.

It's a good idea to check the items very carefully before the checkout
- Ikea customer returns is the lowest place on earth and you spend a
long, long time there before your number comes up.

"Richard Perkin" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

i'm still in the process of finishing my ikea kitchen off, just the little
odds and sods to do now that seem to take for ever.

we went for the cheapest cabinet fronts, harlig white, so were spending
about £35-£40 per cabinet, very easy to put together,

i really like the concept that you can get the frame unit, then the door,
drawers if wanted, and any internal fittings seperately to make it just how
you want it, we got a couple of the corner wall cabinets, but couldetn
afford the ones with the carosells in them, so just got the 5 quid pack of
shelves for now, will get the £30 quid carosells later when we have more
spare dosh.

The hinges are great, took me a while to figure out there really werent any
missing screws, the hinges fit into the holes and clamp in place by flipping
the cover bit over, ingenius, and they then clip onto the cabinet plates,
and can be released with a push on the locks at anytime if needed,
then the adjusters, 2 screws, the back one moves the hinge in and out
paralell with the frame side, much better than the usual undoo the screw,
pull out then lock it design, other screw moves the hinge in and out to
level the door.

we got the ikea worktop, the largest length just fitted into our nissan
micra, had to put the passengers seat down, and the boot wouldent quite
close, but we did it, sam had to sit on the cabinets in the back tho

went for the plinths, 2 quid for a pack of 4 legs is great, ok they are
plastic, but havent broken with me standing on the cabinets, they are said
to take 125 kilos each leg,

the plinths have a slot on the back, which you push in the fitting that come
with the legs, then you just clip the plinths over the legs with the
fittings, dunno if that's the normal way of fitting the plinths or not, but
it's bloody easy to do, and they van be removed in seconds if you ever need
to get under the cabinets.

We couldent be happier with our kitchen, compared to the ****e that was in
this place before, it's a million times better, i'd deffo fit another one,

we looked at all the big sheds kitchens, but they wanted far too much for
inflexiable crap, we just wanted a bog standard white kitchen, cheap as
possible but customizable.

On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin
wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

As Andrew pointed out, there is NO space behind the back of the
cabinets for anything like pipes or plugs and sockets.

I have been looking for reasonably priced oversized worktops for ages
to use with their cabinets. Also the build quality is very high for
their price.

"EricP" wrote in message
...
On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin
wrote:
As Andrew pointed out, there is NO space behind the back of the
cabinets for anything like pipes or plugs and sockets.

that is true, but 5 seconds with a jig saw sorted that out for me.

Richard Perkin wrote:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I install/build sh*t loads of flatpack.

Limited experience of kitchen units, and I get customers to order direct,
for me to install - so I don't have any experience of their delivery system,
but my overall opinion of IKEA flat pack is that it is absolutely superb,
very well made, very well designed & really simple to install.

IME the best flatpack on the market, streets ahead of the rest.

Don't even mention Argos...


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:30:01 +0100, "gazz" wrote:


"EricP" wrote in message
.. .
On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin
wrote:
As Andrew pointed out, there is NO space behind the back of the
cabinets for anything like pipes or plugs and sockets.

that is true, but 5 seconds with a jig saw sorted that out for me.

Swimbo wants all that sliding in and out crap. It goes right to the
back, so nothing poking into the cabinets.

gazz wrote:


i really like the concept that you can get the frame unit, then the
door, drawers if wanted, and any internal fittings seperately to make it
just how you want it, we got a couple of the corner wall cabinets, but
couldetn afford the ones with the carosells in them, so just got the 5
quid pack of shelves for now, will get the £30 quid carosells later when
we have more spare dosh.

Well if you invest in a saw and a plug cutter for the hinges, you can
make a kitchen cabinet yourself.

Draw slides, hinges and so on are all widely available.

Kitchen units are just a convenient way of buying them with some free
ultra naff quality chipboard thrown in.

The budget carcase range I kike best us Hygena QA - Currys used to do them.

A small cut above MFI/Magnet utter crap, and not as expensive IIRC as
Ikea, which are awkward shape with the 'no backs' policy.

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 +0000, Richard Perkin wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that we're
currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

I've dome about ten IKEA kitchens.

They are the best value middle market kitchens , IMHO.

Logistics are a slight problem unless you have an empty van.

Ther worktops are however too narrow, these need to be sourced elsewhere,
This will allow you to fit the kitchen in a real building. IKEA ones are
600, so if the walls are out you'll need 616 or even 650. Besides which
more overhang looks and works better.

You will need to make sure all the 'services' are in the plinth space as
the units go right back to the wall.

The sinks are OK, the trap European-one-size-fits-the-whole-continent is a
joke. The hole in the sink take a standard basket strainer anyway.
The taps are not good, the water comes out crooked. However the fixing kit
(FIXA ATLANT?) contains a couple of useful tools a samll pipe cutter
(works on microbore) and a punch/die set to make 35mm whole in sinks,
which if you need it is good value.

You can take back what's left over as well.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
Richard Perkin writes:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

I've installed two IKEA kitchens, and found them excellent.
snip


The most annoying part is having to go to a store to buy
the parts, although there are some companies near store
which will do that for you and deliver.


If you live in England or Wales then it looks like you order kitchens
online now.
--
Chris French

As many have said, their construction seems among the best. Although
it's irritating to have to pick up. I think that's better than waiting
forever for a delivery and taking time off work, only to find it's
incomplete and having to go through the whole cycle again. The trick
(I think) with getting them from Ikea is to go along on a mid-week
evening when they're quieter, rather than having to mix it with the
weekend crowds.

The business about the base units going all the way back may present
some fitting challenges but, once they're installed, they have much
more capacity. Watch out for the worktops though, as the units are
deeper overall. The wall units are also deeper: When I did my
kitchen / utility a couple of years ago, I managed to get the same
internal volume as I had before with fewer units, creating space for
other purposes.

The big thing to watch out for is all the little goodies that you can
end up getting in Ikea, that push the overall spend up while you're
not looking......

GMM wrote:
As many have said, their construction seems among the best. Although
it's irritating to have to pick up. I think that's better than waiting
forever for a delivery and taking time off work, only to find it's
incomplete and having to go through the whole cycle again. The trick
(I think) with getting them from Ikea is to go along on a mid-week
evening when they're quieter, rather than having to mix it with the
weekend crowds.

The business about the base units going all the way back may present
some fitting challenges but, once they're installed, they have much
more capacity. Watch out for the worktops though, as the units are
deeper overall. The wall units are also deeper: When I did my
kitchen / utility a couple of years ago, I managed to get the same
internal volume as I had before with fewer units, creating space for
other purposes.

The big thing to watch out for is all the little goodies that you can
end up getting in Ikea, that push the overall spend up while you're
not looking......

Beware the carousel fitting if you have pipes running along the back.
There ain't a lot of leeway

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
gazz wrote:


i really like the concept that you can get the frame unit, then the door,
drawers if wanted, and any internal fittings seperately to make it just
how you want it, we got a couple of the corner wall cabinets, but
couldetn afford the ones with the carosells in them, so just got the 5
quid pack of shelves for now, will get the £30 quid carosells later when
we have more spare dosh.

Well if you invest in a saw and a plug cutter for the hinges, you can make
a kitchen cabinet yourself.

Draw slides, hinges and so on are all widely available.

Kitchen units are just a convenient way of buying them with some free
ultra naff quality chipboard thrown in.

The budget carcase range I kike best us Hygena QA - Currys used to do
them.

Mine are Hygena ready assembled carcasses, I think they are good.
They were from MFI.


A small cut above MFI/Magnet utter crap, and not as expensive IIRC as
Ikea, which are awkward shape with the 'no backs' policy.

On 11 Oct, 20:49, Richard Perkin wrote:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

--
Richard Perkin
To email me, change the AT in the address below
richard.perkinATmyrealbox.com

It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
is. *If you don't, it's its. *Then too, it's hers. *It isn't her's.
It isn't our's either. *It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
-- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

I've got one which was installed for me by their recommended fitters.
The quality of the kitchen is superb. We had a custom laminate made,
with a wood edging, which looks really good too.

My only complaint was against the fitters. We designed the kitchen on
line and went for the "full service". So their recommended fitters
turned up to check the installation. Between their visit and the
final order the price of both the labour and materials went up by
about £400. The fitters added something like £70 for "fixings" (which
were already included in our original quote), wanted to charge for
Part P and Corgi (even though we specifically said someone else was
doing the appliance installations), and changed our design
(unnecessarily and without asking us). In the end it all came right -
the fitters dropped the "fixings" charge when we told them that we had
reported them to Ikea for that, as well as reinstating the design back
the way that we wanted it and dropping the Part P and Corgi charges,
but not before delaying the whole thing by a fortnight and causing the
actual kitchen order to be significantly delayed.

In the end I think it would have been cheaper to get our own fitters
in, but the chippie that was doing the rest of our extension work
didn't want to do the kitchen so quoted us more than the Ikea lot.

As I say, kitchen is excellent though.

Matt

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:35:29 +0100, "dennis@home"
wrote:



"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
. ..
gazz wrote:


i really like the concept that you can get the frame unit, then the door,
drawers if wanted, and any internal fittings seperately to make it just
how you want it, we got a couple of the corner wall cabinets, but
couldetn afford the ones with the carosells in them, so just got the 5
quid pack of shelves for now, will get the £30 quid carosells later when
we have more spare dosh.

Well if you invest in a saw and a plug cutter for the hinges, you can make
a kitchen cabinet yourself.

Draw slides, hinges and so on are all widely available.

Kitchen units are just a convenient way of buying them with some free
ultra naff quality chipboard thrown in.

The budget carcase range I kike best us Hygena QA - Currys used to do
them.

Mine are Hygena ready assembled carcasses, I think they are good.
They were from MFI.

IME MFI stuff is not bad quality for the price but MFI is a really
sh*t company to deal with. God help you if anything goes wrong.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Owing to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
See http://improve-usenet.org

On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

We had one and while the construction and materials were good the design
didn't leave much room behind for existing pipes. Quite a bit of pipe
rework was required to get it all to fit in the 2 inch gap. Three inches
would have meant the job was finished two days sooner and I wouldn't have
been as upset whilst doing it.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:09:31 +0100, richgk wrote:

On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

We had one and while the construction and materials were good the design
didn't leave much room behind for existing pipes. Quite a bit of pipe
rework was required to get it all to fit in the 2 inch gap. Three inches
would have meant the job was finished two days sooner and I wouldn't have
been as upset whilst doing it.

though as others have said the cupboards were lovely and spacious as a
result

richgk wrote:
On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:09:31 +0100, richgk wrote:

On 11 Oct 2008 19:49:43 GMT, Richard Perkin wrote:

I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance
We had one and while the construction and materials were good the design
didn't leave much room behind for existing pipes. Quite a bit of pipe
rework was required to get it all to fit in the 2 inch gap. Three inches
would have meant the job was finished two days sooner and I wouldn't have
been as upset whilst doing it.

though as others have said the cupboards were lovely and spacious as a
result
Which since no one can ever find anything more than 300mm inside a
cupboard, is a complete and literal waste of space.

Richard Perkin wrote:

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

I've installed several Ikea kitchens.

One problem is they are designed for forrin. And in forrin all pipework
is channeled in to walls with service points installed about where the
sink/dishwasher etc would be. In the UK this is rare and pipes usually
are run on the surface.

The actual construction is very good, particularly the steel/stainless
units which I've used in a commercial kitchen. Just as good as the
catering units and a fraction of the price.

The only items that I have been disappointed with are the Ikea worktops.
Every one of them has been of dreadful quality. The wooden ones split
and the chipboard ones aren't waterproof. Not even if you carefully coat
every single exposed edge with waterproof paint or sealant. Also the
ones with "metal" trim use some substandard glue for the trim and after
a year it falls off, then water gets in, and the worktop is ruined.

Shop elsewhere for worktops.

On Oct 11, 8:49 pm, Richard Perkin wrote:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I have Googled, but most of the posts seem to be from a year or three
ago...

Many thanks in advance

Just installed some Ikea units to replace some crap B&Q stuff. The
units are great, but beware the buying process. Unlike everything
else in Ikea, it proceeds as follows:
1. Decide on the units and fittings you want. Either in store, or by
reading the website/catalog beforehand. (So far so good).

2. (This is the first unusual bit) Find somebody in the "Kitchens"
department and tell them what you want. They then print out a long
list for you.

3. (This is /slightly/ unusual) Pick up some of the smaller bits (eg
draw dampers) direct from the kitchen display area. (You do have a
big yellow bag, don't you?)

4. Head to the warehouse and collect all the carcasses from the
locations indicated on your piece of paper.

5. (... and this is the /really/ unusual bit). Take your piece of
paper to a service part of the warehouse (possibly before, possibly
after, checkout - depends on the store). They will the go and fetch
the door fronts from their fast selection.

If you have the choice, I would strongly recommend going to Milton
Keynes, rather than Lakeside. My partner got trapped in Lakeside for
four hours getting some of the kitchen - we were in and out of MK
inside an hour and a half!

In message , The Medway
Handyman writes
Richard Perkin wrote:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I install/build sh*t loads of flatpack.

Limited experience of kitchen units, and I get customers to order direct,
for me to install - so I don't have any experience of their delivery system,
but my overall opinion of IKEA flat pack is that it is absolutely superb,
very well made, very well designed & really simple to install.

IME the best flatpack on the market, streets ahead of the rest.

Don't even mention Argos...

What are Wickes 'to order' range like now - they used to be very good?
--
Robert

robert wrote:
In message , The
Medway Handyman writes
Richard Perkin wrote:
I'm thinking of installing kitchen units from IKEA in a house that
we're currently renovating.

I'd be very interested to hear the opinion of anyone who's had
experience of this, whether good / bad / indifferent, and also any
comparison with other low-ish cost kitchen suppliers.

Anything I should look out for etc - all hints and tips welcomed!

I install/build sh*t loads of flatpack.

Limited experience of kitchen units, and I get customers to order
direct, for me to install - so I don't have any experience of their
delivery system, but my overall opinion of IKEA flat pack is that it
is absolutely superb, very well made, very well designed & really
simple to install. IME the best flatpack on the market, streets ahead of
the rest.

Don't even mention Argos...

What are Wickes 'to order' range like now - they used to be very good?

Don't know, but the 'take away' stuff is excellent & very good value.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk