Struggling with new Kitchen

[Ando]

Hello,

First post here after finding this forum last night doing research on all things new kitchen.. We are planning a new kitchen which involves taking down a supporting wall to join dining room with kitchen and create nice open plan space including a breakfast bar. Given we are going to expense / hassle of taking wall down we want to put something in of decent quality that will last 20 years or so at least. 

 

Have so far had quotes from 3 different brands / suppliers and can summarise below;

 

Howdens - Cheapest by a fair bit, getting price direct from Howdens and separate installation quote from joiner. We find the choice is limited however, and struggling to find units we like. Not sure about the quality - but the samples didn't feel or look as nice as other two places we have been.

 

Nolte - Double the price of Howdens, and great selection of Units / fronts etc.. The stuff we picked here is all price point 2 in their pricing scale and we were swinging towards ordering from them but every time I try to reduce the price the salesman manages to keep it the same. This put me off and caused me to dive deeper and I noticed the worktops / cupboards are all made from melamine resin (low pressure laminate) - did some digging on that and appears as though this is much cheaper alternative to better laminates and not ideal for worktops. Feel like I would be a bit of a sucker to order from here as some of the Howden's laminates possibly better quality!? 

 

Ponneghaus - Random kitchen place near to where we live. They have been best to deal with and are similar to Howdens in that they do their pricing through tradesman. Our joiner isn't interested in that however so getting price direct. The price seems to be slightly higher than Howdens, but fair bit cheaper than Nolte. We could get a Quartz worktop for example with this lot and it would come out at the same price as Nolte. I can't find any reviews on this brand however. 

 

Has anyone got any views / experience / tips on the above three companies or suggest decent alternatives? 

 

Also re the melamine resin worktops - does anyone have any knowledge / advice on this?

 

We have two young kids so need worktops to be able to withstand usual abuse that comes with kids. No risk of moving home, we will likely be staying where we are for some considerable time. 

 

Thanks in advance

[ToughButterCup]

Welcome.

You are at the planning phase: full of hope, and more questions than Bamber Gascoin and Jezza Paxman put together. The question you ask is similar to BMW, or Skoda, VW or Citroen? I think the answer is '... each to their own...'

 

The key issue is: how good are the fitters? Do they pay attention to detail?  Are they tidy? Do they smell rank? (Yes, its happened to us) Do they stick to one job, or do they job-hop? Do they finish the job? Have they got everything in their van or does it take three hours to fetch some lost-head screws from Screweez. 

 

Network to find out. And if it takes 6 months to get an excellent fitter , wait.

 

The DEVIL is in the detail. 

[SimonD]

1 hour ago, ToughButterCup said:

Do they smell rank? (Yes, its happened to us)

 

Yes, we've had that too! They even left their work clothes in bags in the house when they went home. Stank the place to high heaven and brought one of my son's to tears. I said my goodbyes asap and thanked them for their hard work. That was awful!

 

And sorry I can't add any value re the kitchens. I gave up and am making my own...

Edited February 17, 2022 by SimonD

[nod]

I installed  a Nolte kitchen in ours

and will go for Nolte or Hakker on the next 

Probably the easiest kitchen I’ve ever installed

Everything millimeter perfect and square

4 year on looks as good as the day it was fitted

We almost purchased Ballerina Smaller company than Nolte Similar price 

Great reputation 

 

 

I do know what you.mean about sales 

We had the design and everything settled 

Almost there and on the way out Tge salesman said We will need a decision by Monday Because 

My wife quickly answered you can have one now 

and went to one of there competitors and bought the same kitchen 

[Big Jimbo]

I ran a kitchen company for 20 years. Bespoke high end, and seriously expensive. Range from £35 to £200K. The truth is that all kitchens are not made the same. My ironmongery was Hettich or blum. Some companies use cheap far eastern copy ironmongery. Don't expect it to last for 20 years. It won't.  Mfc board (which cheaper kitchens are made of) also varies in quality. Egger make decent quality Mfc. There is a lot of shite Mfc used within the kitchen industry thats full of aggregate and iron filings. When you are looking around ask them who manufacturers the boards that the kitchen carcasses are made of. If they can't tell you, then the cabinets are either shite, of the knob you are chatting to was selling double glazing last week. Moving on. Kitchen fitters. Most top end good kitchen fitters are not carpenters. They are kitchen fitters, and that is all they do. The lower end companies sub out the fitting to all sorts of tossers who should not be let near a kitchen fitting job. Bear in mind that 20 years ago i used to pay each of my fitters £1000 per 5 day week. Be very wary of people who tell you they will fit it for £700 quid gov.  Don't get me wrong, a lot of people can make a fair hash of fitting a kitchen. However having a kitchen fitted that you want to last 20 years will, in my opinion require the skills of a proper kitchen fitter with the skills and equipment to know where kitchens are normally put undre stress etc, in order to do a proper quality job. Sorry, i can't give you any advice on laminate worktops, as i never used them. The likes of Wrens worktops are shite, and will not last 20 years. Be aware that if you step up to a composite top, you again need to be aware that the quality varies between manufacturers.

[Big Jimbo]

Sorry, i can't edit. I'm an old bugger, and computers were not invented when i went to school. Avoid Corian worktops. Utter shite. They dull, they scratch, and they are basically expensive shite.

[Ando]

Thanks for replies. Ponneghaus use Blum fittings so a plus for them - will ask them about the carcasses when I next see them. I asked Nolte salesman for more info about the laminate worktop today and all he told me was it's 'German laminate the same as in the showroom' - can't see me going with them as guy is grating on me now. 

 

The current kitchen in house is 20 years old and still in fantastic shape (Leicht branded) - I might have to resign myself to fact that we should spend a little more than initially planned. 

[Newgate]

Use a decent local independent imo, Howdens kitchens aren’t as bad as people make out long as you get them at the right price, they price match any quote so if you don’t mind shipping about you can save loads on them . Worse kitchens I’ve ever fitted were from Mkm tkc .

[JohnMo]

You can spend a lot on a kitchen, if that is money well spent depends.  A fantastic ultra high quality kitchen and poor fitter and poor design, will never be as good as a medium quality kitchen with a great fitter and good design, design is important and so is how it's installed.

 

We spent £25k on a kitchen in 1998, the designer, took our design, chucked it in the bin and designed us a fantastic kitchen, had no issue paying for the Italian kitchen with contoured granite and stainless steel tops.  We saw the kitchen a couple of years ago and still looked great.

 

22 years later, we paid £16k, again great design, great fitter, no Italian cabinets, but who would know.

 

Shop around, get opinions of different companies, don't pay upfront, use a company you feel comfortable with.