A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower the
better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she starts
looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort of thing?
Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms of quality and
design? Are there any other sources?

Many thanks.

On 04/11/2016 09:56, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

Many thanks.
Have a look at Wickes takeaway kitchens, think the budget one is called
Dakota. Website is dreadful, pop into a store.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On Fri, 4 Nov 2016 09:56:29 -0000, "Bert Coules"
wrote:

A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower the
better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she starts
looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort of thing?
Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms of quality and
design? Are there any other sources?

Depending on how much DIY will and skill levels are available don't
ignore the possibility of buying previously used units.
While nobody would like to buy dirty dirt encrusted previously used
units of the day to day kind as sold in the sheds those who pay
several thousands to have a kitchen fitted professionally are often
the very people who can afford to have them changed more frequently
because they want the latest look and before such better made units
are anywhere near being worn out.
Might pay to enquire from any local kitchen fitting firms who deal
with the higher end of the market what they do with units they
remove.

G.Harman

On 04/11/16 11:10, wrote:

Depending on how much DIY will and skill levels are available don't
ignore the possibility of buying previously used units.
While nobody would like to buy dirty dirt encrusted previously used
units of the day to day kind as sold in the sheds those who pay
several thousands to have a kitchen fitted professionally are often
the very people who can afford to have them changed more frequently
because they want the latest look and before such better made units
are anywhere near being worn out.
Might pay to enquire from any local kitchen fitting firms who deal
with the higher end of the market what they do with units they
remove.

+1

For that also look on FreeCycle, Freegle, local Facebook selling groups,
and ex-display stuff in showrooms. From the latter, a mate picked up an
entire kitchen worth of absolutely everything for less than £300 from
the local Magnet. Originally was four times that!

--
Adrian C

On 04/11/16 09:56, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

Avoid cheap £20 kitchen carcases from dodgy sources on eBay.
Got one. Horrible chipboard, the edges dent and crumble like cheese.

Though it looks OK with £1 Ikea doors from their 'salvage department',
though I also had to buy Ikea's own hinges.

Should have gone to Ikea in the first place....

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/k...base-cabinets/

--
Adrian C

On 04/11/2016 11:12, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
On 04/11/16 09:56, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

Avoid cheap £20 kitchen carcases from dodgy sources on eBay.
Got one. Horrible chipboard, the edges dent and crumble like cheese.

Though it looks OK with £1 Ikea doors from their 'salvage department',
though I also had to buy Ikea's own hinges.

Should have gone to Ikea in the first place....

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/k...base-cabinets/


+1

I've installed quite a few Ikea kitchens, and they are still going
strong, some after many years. The carcases are all the same, and you
just pay more for different doors. I don't rate their worktops or
plinths very highly, though. To keep costs down, don't buy cornices and
other bits of trim.

Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower the
better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she starts
looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort of thing?
Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms of quality and
design? Are there any other sources?

As far as I could tell when I was shopping around the actual units are
just about identical, price only varies with the doors/fronts.

--
Chris Green
·

Many thanks to everyone for the replies and advice, all valuable.

On 04/11/2016 11:53, Bert Coules wrote:
Many thanks to everyone for the replies and advice, all valuable.

be aware that if you take a colour brochure from a kitchen supplier the
most rxpensive range is first!

Malcolm

On 04/11/2016 09:56, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

IKEA.

Look at their prices, look at their guarantee.

I've installed three in different properties and would use them again
without any hesitation.

Just one thing to watch out for, they don't have a gap for services
behind the carcasses so you run services through them on the inside, at
the back, or underneath and then up.

--
F

"F" wrote:

IKEA.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Are these different manufacturers' kitchens interchangeable? I presume that
overall dimensions are pretty standard, but is it possible to fit, say,
doors of one make onto carcasses of another? I suspect that the hinge
cutouts are in standardised positions.

On 04/11/16 13:50, Bert Coules wrote:
"F" wrote:

IKEA.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Are these different manufacturers' kitchens interchangeable? I presume
that overall dimensions are pretty standard, but is it possible to fit,
say, doors of one make onto carcasses of another? I suspect that the
hinge cutouts are in standardised positions.


Once you have obtained a premade door with already hollowed out location
for the hinge, you are stuck with using just that hinge unless you want
to get messy with a coverup.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/k...inges-dampers/

They are nice (Blum) but like all else it adds up.

Also, Ikea Metod cupboards hang off the wall on a suspension rail system.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/k...-art-60205664/

Doing it traditionally with (?) won't work, it's all very specific for
that make.

But, I like 'em.

--
Adrian C

On 04/11/2016 13:50, Bert Coules wrote:
I suspect that the
hinge cutouts are in standardised positions.

I think that's highly over-optimistic.

"GB" wrote:

I think that's highly over-optimistic.

It certainly is, largely because I inadvertently left out a word. What I
intended to write was, "...are not in standardised positions..."

In article , Bert Coules
wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

Many thanks.

My preference would be for IKEA.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On Friday, 4 November 2016 09:56:25 UTC, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower the
better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she starts
looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort of thing?

http://www.cutpricekitchens.co.uk/

Lucerne is £58 for a 1 metre wall or base unit.

A sit-on sink (rather than inset) saves a metre of worktop and the cost/effort of cutting the hole

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/l...iner-sq-front/

A lot of the cost of units can be avoided with careful use of open shelves on brackets, gaps below worktops filled with gingham curtains etc. The mock-industrial artisanal look is very in at the moment (BBC4 informed me last night).

Owain

Owain,

Thanks for that. I didn't know that sit-on sinks were still obtainable.
It's always irked me in the past to buy an expensive worktop and then remove
a relatively sizeable chunk of it.

On 11/4/2016 7:28 PM, Bert Coules wrote:
Owain,

Thanks for that. I didn't know that sit-on sinks were still obtainable.
It's always irked me in the past to buy an expensive worktop and then
remove a relatively sizeable chunk of it.

Sit-on sinks are also available at Ikea.

On 04/11/16 20:23, S Viemeister wrote:
On 11/4/2016 7:28 PM, Bert Coules wrote:
Owain,

Thanks for that. I didn't know that sit-on sinks were still obtainable.
It's always irked me in the past to buy an expensive worktop and then
remove a relatively sizeable chunk of it.

Sit-on sinks are also available at Ikea.

Is a sit on sink another word for a toilet?


--
Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early
twenty-first centurys developed world went into hysterical panic over a
globally average temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and,
on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer
projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to
contemplate a rollback of the industrial age.

Richard Lindzen

On 11/5/2016 9:31 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 04/11/16 20:23, S Viemeister wrote:
On 11/4/2016 7:28 PM, Bert Coules wrote:
Thanks for that. I didn't know that sit-on sinks were still obtainable.
It's always irked me in the past to buy an expensive worktop and then
remove a relatively sizeable chunk of it.

Sit-on sinks are also available at Ikea.

Is a sit on sink another word for a toilet?

Bidet.

On Fri, 4 Nov 2016 12:07:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:



https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/l...iner-sq-front/

A lot of the cost of units can be avoided with careful use of open shelves on brackets, gaps below worktops filled with gingham curtains etc. The mock-industrial artisanal look is very in at the moment (BBC4 informed me last night).
Is that what they call it, put the remains of window tape across the
glass ,some congealing green soap in a dish and one of those rotting
rubber spouts on the tap and you've got my grannies WW2 blitz damaged
and never really fully repaired kitchen.
She did replace the gingham curtains with some orrible nylon thing
circa 1959 because it could be wiped down. Still looked awful.


G.Harman

On Friday, 4 November 2016 20:58:19 UTC, wrote:
one of those rotting rubber spouts on the tap

I'd forgotten those! It was always quite exciting getting a new one and screwing it onto the tap.

She did replace the gingham curtains

Are you suggesting that my gingham curtains are not a la mode?

I was hoping to get some bonus points as they're hung from two cable rods taped together and hemmed to the right length with staples.

Owain

On 11/4/2016 11:03 PM, wrote:
On Friday, 4 November 2016 20:58:19 UTC, wrote:
one of those rotting rubber spouts on the tap

I'd forgotten those! It was always quite exciting getting a new one and screwing it onto the tap.

She did replace the gingham curtains

Are you suggesting that my gingham curtains are not a la mode?

I was hoping to get some bonus points as they're hung from two cable rods taped together and hemmed to the right length with staples.

Should have used glue stick for hemming - staples rust.

On 04/11/16 09:56, Bert Coules wrote:
A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower
the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she
starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort
of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms
of quality and design? Are there any other sources?

Many thanks.

Stax have units including doors at good prices.
I forget how much but i'm sure it was less than buying just the doors at
B&Q.

I think they may only come in white or light wood though.

http://www.staxtradecentres.co.uk
Trade only but I doubt getting an account would be difficult.

R D S wrote:

Stax have units including doors at good prices...

Thanks for that; I'll take a look.

The units look interesting but unfortunately you have to have an existing
account with them before you can register for the website.

Installed a low budget kitchen from Focus, which didn't have height adjusting feet. Whatever you select make sure it has adjustable feet.

John

Thanks, John. Clearly good advice: I suppose you can take economies too far.

On 05/11/2016 18:05, JohnW wrote:
Installed a low budget kitchen from Focus, which didn't have height adjusting feet. Whatever you select make sure it has adjustable feet.

John


Or buy the adjustable feet from Screwfix for 0.50p each and screw them
to the bottom of the units yourself.