Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: tunnie on 30 November 2008, 18:38:16
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Wondered into Homebase today after buying my train ticket for next month, decided to look at kitchens, as the house i saw would need one.
The actual price of the kitchen itself was not too bad, £400 or so for the units, nice beech wood style, another £400 for work tops and all the handles and other little bits.
After i fully stock it will all appliances, i could see it would cost £2k-2.5k
Guess i should shop around i can get it cheaper than that.
But i foolishly asked how much for fitting?
I almost fell over when she said 3.5k, but she said, "ohh its a professional job"
Lady for that money i would want to keep the immigrant workers you get to fit it.
I can't see it being that hard? Bolt some units on the wall, same with the ground units. Be carefull when cutting work tops so its neat. Get a sprit level, a hammer and screwdriver!?
Surely its not that difficult? :-/
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I Just bought the stuff & fitted it myself it is a simple enough task if you map out what size units etc Hardest part is if you need to cut worktops anything other than a straight cut :y even then make sure you buy reverse cut blades for your jig type saw or it wrecks the tops finish.. :o
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In 1986 Moben Kitchens quoted my ex and I £10,000 to supply and fit a kitchen!! ::) ::) ::)
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That's pricey!! :o :o :o
Do it yourself... It's not hard and the important thing is to take your time! :y :y
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In my last house......i used the trades that were already working on the house to fit the kitchen.....they fitted it, in about 3/4 days.
Chippie, i was paying £150/day......but bloody good and didnt cut corners....he basically did most of the fitting.....i was amazed how he fitted the work tops and did the joints.....no glue or rubbish like that....
he bolted them together.....you couldnt even feel the join with your finger after he'd finished.
I had a plumber on site as well.....for the dishwasher/washing machine plumbing and sink. Think he was £100/day
And then an electrician.....think he was about £130/day
Soon mounts up tunnie.....but that was when trades were hard to find.....in this economic climate.....i expect trades are falling over themselves for work.....and expect their prices have dropped.
Be better to buy the kitchen and get your own trades to fit :y
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You can EASILY spend £3.5 on a new kitchen. My fridge was £1200. :y
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agree work tops would be the hardest, bloody heavy things, and very, very thick to cut through.
I had a look under neath, they all have adjustable feet, just looks like you bolt it onto the wall. Putt some of those wall socket thingys to screw into, same with top bits.
Would have to get a sparky to sort out the oven and hob, but apart from that!
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You can EASILY spend £3.5 on a new kitchen. My fridge was £1200. :y
On the kitchen yes.
But this was the FITTING ONLY!!!
3.5k just to FIT it!
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But this was the FITTING ONLY!!!
3.5k just to FIT it!
Ah! Sorry ...... misunderstood you.
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In my last house......i used the trades that were already working on the house to fit the kitchen.....they fitted it, in about 3/4 days.
Chippie, i was paying £150/day......but bloody good and didnt cut corners....he basically did most of the fitting.....i was amazed how he fitted the work tops and did the joints.....no glue or rubbish like that....
he bolted them together.....you couldnt even feel the join with your finger after he'd finished.
I had a plumber on site as well.....for the dishwasher/washing machine plumbing and sink. Think he was £100/day
And then an electrician.....think he was about £130/day
Soon mounts up tunnie.....but that was when trades were hard to find.....in this economic climate.....i expect trades are falling over themselves for work.....and expect their prices have dropped.
Be better to buy the kitchen and get your own trades to fit :y
Basic stuff i can do, i would fit the kitchen myself, plumbing is easy as well, worst i can do is get wet ;D
Leccy stuff i would leave to a professional though :y
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lol - do it yourself its really easy and then just pay a chippie to fit the worktop with the proper cut - thats where you notice if its a bodge job or not
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The worktops are easy enough.
You need a jig (I ahv one) and a good router (I haev a big Ryobi one). A few masons mitres adn off you go.
As for units, I found the screwfix ones excellent (pre-assembled!), reasonably priced and made by Moores.
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Wondered into Homebase today after buying my train ticket for next month, decided to look at kitchens, as the house i saw would need one.
The actual price of the kitchen itself was not too bad, £400 or so for the units, nice beech wood style, another £400 for work tops and all the handles and other little bits.
After i fully stock it will all appliances, i could see it would cost £2k-2.5k
Guess i should shop around i can get it cheaper than that.
But i foolishly asked how much for fitting?
I almost fell over when she said 3.5k, but she said, "ohh its a professional job"
Lady for that money i would want to keep the immigrant workers you get to fit it.
I can't see it being that hard? Bolt some units on the wall, same with the ground units. Be carefull when cutting work tops so its neat. Get a sprit level, a hammer and screwdriver!?
Surely its not that difficult? :-/
Try MFI, you'll probably buy the business for that ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Ow yes, for the trim pieces (kicker boards, plinths etc), Ikea are about the cheapest :y
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the house i'm in the middle of negotiations with has a partly fitted homebase kitchen (swmbo works there :D), just cupboards and worktops, they're extremelyy nice units though, but its always cheaper to fit them yourself!
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buy some ready parts, assemble , cut ,work..
and call friends and dont pay that crazy money!!
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Tunnie, I fit kitchens & bathrooms - £3500 sounds a lot but the complete job is quite involved. It's not only fitting the base units , worktops and cupboards, you have electrics, plumbing and possible gas adaptions to sort ,as well as tiling to both floor and walls.
For the DIY er the most difficult part of fitting the actual units would be if you wanted mitred (seemless) corner joints on the worktops. My advice is leave this to a pro. Price in my area is £100 a joint :o :o
The other way is to use to ali corner joiners and end strips, looks quitye neat but you do get a raised strip on the work top surface about 2mm x 20mm.
As a ball park figure to fit just base units, plinths, worktops and all cupboards in an average 3 sided 12 x 12 kitchen - about £800 labour :o :o :o
Good luck - Go for it - do it yourself :y :y :y
Any info required feel free to PM me ;D ;D ;D
Regards, Al
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About ten years ago I went to Mfi to look at some fitted wardrobes, they wanted 700 odd quid for the wardrobes and over £900 to fit them :o..... so I did them for free ;)
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i ripped a 125,000 kitchen out a house 2 yrs ago, they didnt like the colour. it was sold on e bay for 25,000. bloke was a russian banker, house cost 9million
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i ripped a 125,000 kitchen out a house 2 yrs ago, they didnt like the colour. it was sold on e bay for 25,000. bloke was a russian banker, house cost 9million
and in today's market it's worth £45,000 ;D
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And being a banker....so is he. ;D
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The worktops are easy enough.
You need a jig (I ahv one) and a good router (I haev a big Ryobi one). A few masons mitres adn off you go.
As for units, I found the screwfix ones excellent (pre-assembled!), reasonably priced and made by Moores.
I likes the sound of that!
I am not fussed on the style, as long as looks nice and won't go fashion so to speak.
I'll have a browse at their site tomorrow, my biggest worry is the joints on top of the work tops if i came to do it.
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I'll have a browse at their site tomorrow, my biggest worry is the joints on top of the work tops if i came to do it.
Patience is the key there. You can get them better than your average kitchen fitter but it's painstaking, especially if your worktops go round 3 sides of a room that's not square. ::)
Kevin
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mfi supplied my units pre assembled, not that you should use them now. They will probably go bust before delivery. Have to say it was quite easy.
Work tops where a bit of a pig in mine though. The longest of a u shape section had to come in through the window. If you router the work tops make sure you do the relevent side upside down or the router will "blow out" the leading edge and bugger the join. You have to make note of the direction the router turns. Once you get that, its easy with a jig, and gives perfect results. You can use biscuits and glue/bolt them together. Make sure you specify the work top depth etc when buying or renting a router. The smaller ones aint man enough.
Those aluminium strips are nasty, they catch food and your always banging them and then they scratch and look shite.
If you have gas though get a pro. It has to be legal and certified. I could have done it myself from what i saw but not worth the risk.
Hth
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The worktops are easy enough.
You need a jig (I ahv one) and a good router (I haev a big Ryobi one). A few masons mitres adn off you go.
As for units, I found the screwfix ones excellent (pre-assembled!), reasonably priced and made by Moores.
I likes the sound of that!
I am not fussed on the style, as long as looks nice and won't go fashion so to speak.
I'll have a browse at their site tomorrow, my biggest worry is the joints on top of the work tops if i came to do it.
Tunnie,
You just need a decent 1/2" router and the Jig - You will also need an extra long bit for the router, but if you hire the kit (router, jig) it will come with a kitchen fitters kit. I did mine, it is not difficult (although I know how to handle a router), the key is very small depths of cut and make lots of passes, also when you are cutting, hold the router against the waste side of the jig until you have completed the cut, then run a final pass holding the router against the other side of the jig. this will give you a nice clean line for the joint. you use bolts to fix it together and run a bit of clear silicon along the top of one edge to make it waterproof.
I have a box of the bolts you need, so let me know if you want some (3 per joint) - (free obviously!).
Good luck!
Merv
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As said, I have a half inch router and the correct jig.
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i knew i had some pics somewhere
125.000 kitchen
(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/richierich1961/04101402.jpg)
this was painted above the dining room, cost 5k
(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/richierich1961/04101407.jpg)
the wallpaper for the hall stairs and landing was 5k a roll
8ftx8ft wall tiles for shower was 30k
loft conversion 150k
swimming pool and sauna
115k
and so on ::) ::)
and i forgot, the view from the bedroom window was cliff richard staring across from a window in his house through the trees ;D ;D ;D
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i knew i had some pics somewhere
125.000 kitchen(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/richierich1961/04101402.jpg)
this was painted above the dining room, cost 5k
(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/richierich1961/04101407.jpg)
the wallpaper for the hall stairs and landing was 5k a roll
8ftx8ft wall tiles for shower was 30k
loft conversion 150k
swimming pool and sauna
115k
and so on ::) ::)
and i forgot, the view from the bedroom window was cliff richard staring across from a window in his house through the trees ;D ;D ;D
:o for that money you can buy a good home!
and as I'm working for a building and design company also
I've seen much better ones and most expensive costing 15000 £
(everything included) ..A good quality standard size kitchen here is
avg 3000-4000 £ depending on the granite you use..
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he was only moving in for a yr while he had a house built, costing 100m
money to burn from a 32yr old man worth 3.5 billion
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he was only moving in for a yr while he had a house built, costing 100m
money to burn from a 32yr old man worth 3.5 billion
:-/
some people born lucky..
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when we moved into our current house there was no kitchen, nothng at all apart from a crimped live gas pipe :o :o but that's a different story.....
Went to MFI, for the units and worktops it cost £3.5k, labour was £1.5k, and the other £5k was on appliances, hob, extractor, oven, convection microwave, dishwasher, and waste disposal....
that was 5 years ago, it still looks as good as the day we bought it, i know MFI have/are going bang but i believe they represented good value at the time
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people seem to spend thousands renewing a kitchen no need. its cheaper to renew the doors, plinths end panels and worktops, nice new sink and hob. new wall tiles and a lick of paint and your probably save about 3000 and easy enough to do yourself. i see some good kitchens ripped out when a quick refurb is as equal to renwing and cheaper
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when we moved into our current house there was no kitchen, nothng at all apart from a crimped live gas pipe :o :o but that's a different story.....
Went to MFI, for the units and worktops it cost £3.5k, labour was £1.5k, and the other £5k was on appliances, hob, extractor, oven, convection microwave, dishwasher, and waste disposal....
that was 5 years ago, it still looks as good as the day we bought it, i know MFI have/are going bang but i believe they represented good value at the time
Never been good value but, the schreiber range of units are very nice quality....the hygiena self assembly ones are a little questionable
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There must be some good deals now or soon from MFI - don't expect to buy extra in a few months though.
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agree work tops would be the hardest, bloody heavy things, and very, very thick to cut through.
I had a look under neath, they all have adjustable feet, just looks like you bolt it onto the wall. Putt some of those wall socket thingys to screw into, same with top bits.
Would have to get a sparky to sort out the oven and hob, but apart from that!
if you don't know they're usually called Rawl plugs, i'd leave the tools to the experienced!
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There must be some good deals now or soon from MFI - don't expect to buy extra in a few months though.
MFI = Made For Idiots!
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In my last house......i used the trades that were already working on the house to fit the kitchen.....they fitted it, in about 3/4 days.
Chippie, i was paying £150/day......but bloody good and didnt cut corners....he basically did most of the fitting.....i was amazed how he fitted the work tops and did the joints.....no glue or rubbish like that....
he bolted them together.....you couldnt even feel the join with your finger after he'd finished.
I had a plumber on site as well.....for the dishwasher/washing machine plumbing and sink. Think he was £100/day
And then an electrician.....think he was about £130/day
Soon mounts up tunnie.....but that was when trades were hard to find.....in this economic climate.....i expect trades are falling over themselves for work.....and expect their prices have dropped.
Be better to buy the kitchen and get your own trades to fit :y
Basic stuff i can do, i would fit the kitchen myself, plumbing is easy as well, worst i can do is get wet ;D
Leccy stuff i would leave to a professional though :y
any electrics in a kitchen have to comply with building regs. not just part P (electrics) but also the parts covering Access (think its M) Ventilation (not sure), Fire, Sound (cant go cutting holes in the ceiling willy nilly anymore!! And then there's any Gas safety issues too.
If you're gonna do it yourself then you have to notify building control and get work inspected at various costs.
I'm fed up of finding kitchen botches and it's no wonder with all these extra charges to keep them safe! I find botches both from ignorance or from poor professionals. On the sparky side, even being 'Part P' certified is no guarantee of a good job. References are a must for any fitter!
as for supply, mine came from Alno. the best quality i've seen in a kitchen for a long time. All the mountings are stronger, the feet are bigger and tougher, the draws and carousels work and the whole lot came ready constructed to just bolt together. The worktop came ready jigged too.
It's definitely the final finish that can make or break a kitchen install, whether pro or DIY. take your time, ask lots of people who know, not who sell, and don't cut corners!! :y