Mine cost £1500 in 2003 and I fitted it myself..............I'm not a carpenter BTW, I just use common sense and don't pay others to rip me off.
went to price a kitchen a while back for my ex's boss. All they wanted was 18 doors changing ( flat mdf with a sprayed finish) and change worktops. The tops were around 4 k so I priced it a 9k which I thought would have been a good earner, she's an Architect and didn't believe it could be done so cheaply so got a local company that all her Architect buddies use and payed 25k.. so a grand a door. For that money I could of hired a workshop for a year, built a booth, bought some very nice spray equipment and still turned a profit! have installed a few wren kitchens and they are not bad but no better than howdens or magnets Imo, unless you go for howdens budget range which is a bit shit.
the only problem with this is if you have the tools that may be required for the likes of ripping down end panels and making up filler panels, joining work tops and the like. Also how much you earn an hr at ya day job, as in if you earn £30 p/h, are going to take ages, have to hire or buy tools and are going to end up with a bad diy finish, then you are better to pay a pro 20-30 p/hr and stick to your day job! ( I don't mean you personally btw, I'm sure you've done a good job!)
I didn't do our kitchen during the day when I was working - I used to stop day work at about 10pm and worked on the kitchen from then until about 1am. It took me three days to get the basics done and another two for finishing off. That would be about the same time for a specialist company and two blokes doing the job.
I must move down south £20/30 an hour is unheard of up here, never charged £20 an hour in my life and I've been a self employed joiner for 40 years. I spent five years fitting kitchens and bedroom furniture and the fitting charges were twice as much as I got for doing the work. Steve
Steer clear of Wrens. My mate has had a kitchen from them and has had nothing but trouble, wrong panels sent, design faults, wrong screws, damaged on delivery. The after sales service is shit they just dont want to know they tried to fob him off with all sorts of excuses! Also don't use their fitters use your own as the workmanship is none existent! Seems the thing that they're shit all round the UK! BBC One - Watchdog - Wren Kitchens
I'd say youve bee. Selling yourself to cheap! Ive not work direct to a kitchen company but I know they charge about twice what would to install. Used to be with the likes of howdens, a third to half the value of the kitchen to install. 10k kitchen 3-5k install. Don't know if that's still true.
A good fitter can make an average kitchen look good, a bad fitter can make a very expensive kitchen look average. I've been shocked at the state some fitters have left kitchens in, customers have asked me to put things right for them after they couldn't get a satisfactory solution from the suppliers, on a few occasions. Steve
I would say that nearly every kitchen I have installed from any company ive encountered has had all these problems. It does my head in if on a price as I end up running around and solving design faults. the client has usually paid over the odds for the kitchen, they are not happy and do not want to part with more money. not sticking up for wrens btw they may be particularly bad. the last howdens kitchen I did was sent out with the incorrect hinges, when I rang to find out why I was told it was because the right ones were out if stock! the designers all round are arses, doin images of things like drawers under the sink and then selling the client a unit that is impossible to use for that application. None of em can read a tape measure either.
I'm a builder Wren kitchens are by far the worst kitchens I have encountered. The doors chip easily. I am forever returning them. Ikea is better quality than Wren and probably cheaper. That's my tuppence worth.
The last kitchen I fitted just before Christmas was designed by an imbaseal, the wall units were 300 mm to low over the hob, not meeting regulations and as it was a new build he had given an electrical diagram for the electrician which resulted it a double socket behind the sink. Steve
Only a small kitchen above a garage but you can see the double socket and the wall units were designed to run through level at the bottom to the right above the hob. And to add it has an integrated fridge next to the oven, another no no as they are working against each other.
My mate's wife demanded a new kitchen yesterday. He went out for a while & returned with a job application form for her to work at McDonald's. I'll be asking him how she took it when he is allowed visitors on his ward.
