B&Q Kitchens

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dj01

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Has anyone bought a kitchen recently from B&Q. Looked at their kitchens yesterday, and their range and quality look failry good, looks as good as kitchen world or nolan kitchens etc.

Would be interested in hearing anyone who has bought a kithen from them in the recent past.

dj01
 
Best value for a diy kitchen in my opinion is a cash and carry kitchen. I've no connection with them, I have fitted them as well as other manufacturers products, and I think they are the best for value.

sabre
 
I would have to agree, we found the best value was Cash & Carry Kitchens. By value I mean value for money without sacrificing quality. They are very well built for the money, compared to some bespoke Kitchen suppliers who's quality is much the same but price far higher. The only drawback with C&C is that their range is quite limited, but they are very flexible and adaptable units, ours is a rather strangely shaped kitchen layout.

But after visiting Ikea in Belfast and looking at their stuff you can build a fantastic looking kitchen from their range for a lot less, I don't know anyone directly who has gone the Ikea route but it is another one for your list to research further. They may look well but could be a pig to install or may not be durable, I didn't look into how they were built in any great detail.
 
Dont know about B&Q kitchens but we got B&Q slidedrobes. Oh my God they were cumbersome to deal with to say the least. They ordered wrong bits, bits missing etc eventually when we got it all and got them put up they turned out to be fantastic. But what should have taken 2 weeks to order took nearly 3 months and a lot of headaches!!!
 
thanks for all the info, very helpful. JohnDigital, was actually up in ikea over the weekend, and agree you could build a kitchen for far less. Quality differs on the type of kitchen, but most are as good as I've seen anywhere. Friends have an ikea kitchen for the last 10+ years and still looks good, so it's well worth considering.
 
I tried B & Q for my kitchen and found them more expensive than MFI. They have just recently opened next door to B & Q in Newry. Recently purchsed my kitchen and bathroom suites from them. I had priced around a good few and found them to be the best especially with the sterling rate being so good!!
 
I purchased my kitchen from B & Q last September. Having done the rounds getting some ridiculous quotations and finding that most of the different companies had the same kitchen anyway - I decided to take a chance with B & Q! They had just what I wanted - a cream in-frame kitchen from their select range. I did check the threads here for info but when I put the problems to the salesman - he told me that all those teething problems were sorted - yes I am blonde!

I paid them almost 20,000 and that included a discount of around 25% as there was a sale at the time but did not include a counter top ( as I was getting granite) or the fitting of the kitchen!

To my surprise it arrived within the six to eight week timeframe which I was very impressed with! However that good impression didn't last for much longer! A couple of the items received where damaged and there was also some items missing. It is now an unbelievable six months later and I still haven't received all the missing items. I have made numerous phonecalls and have had to repeat the list of missing items many times - to the same person! I have been given one excuse after another - the computers are down - the person dealing with it has left - the delivery people have it somewhere etc. etc.
In my opinion they are totally incompetent. My whole 20,000 euro worth of kitchen is still sitting in the boxes as my carpenter will not attempt to put it together until all the pieces have been received. God only knows what trouble I will have when we try to put it together.
At this stage I would have to advise people to steer clear of them! It's just not worth it!

Spicey
 
I'm on the hunt for a kitchen myself at the moment..got a quote of 4,111 including fitting from cash and carry and 6,399 (excluding fitting)for a similar spec kitchen from the panelling centre ..who I was told were reasonable!! I had a look in B and Q the kitchens look quite nice..I've heard very mixed stories, good and bad..My sis in law got a B and Q kitchen and had no problems with the delivery, but having it installed was a nightmare apparently...Going to try Kelly's kitchens..they apparently do everything from measuring to installing..If anyone has used them I'd like to hear how you got on..My friend had her kitchen done by them and it looks pretty good..no idea what they'll quote though..
 
I'm not a chippie - but I don;t understand why they are were a nightmare to install - I found them very straightforward to put together and from what I have seen, the principle is generally the same
 
to the op: although i have an indirect link with ikea i can say that their kitchens are rated highly by many of your southern compatriots- we deliver enough of them!

mfi is mentioned above, they unfortunately went under before christmas and left many people (including delivery contractors) severely out of pocket.

from both sides of the fence i can say that systems such as b&q can lead to delivery problems as the stock is only 'yours' when the order is being picked maybe a few days before delivery. systems such as these work on a just in time basis and can be prone to stock delays such as the issues above - in effect if they run out of a part they go back onto orders on a first come first served basis ( e.g. you could be one of 100 waiting on an item) and you could end up with say 4 items short - 1 comes in but 3 are still outstanding, then another comes in etc etc..... over an extended time period.

the huge benefit of ikea is that you have your goods there and then, if something is out of stock you can get a realistic expectation as to when it will appear and it's in your control, not that of a warehouse management system running hundreds of orders a day!
it's also fair to say that a local retailer will be better here too as they can add bits and pieces to orders and bring the entire order together over a period, although you may pay more than the bigger companies.

my 2 cents from the home delivery world....
 
I don't think it is the case that IKEA kitchens are well thought of in the south. I think you are being biased. I think IKEA are generally thought of as low end.
 
Quickprice, I have an Ikea kitchen and I think very well of it indeed! As did the kitchen fitter, who was very impressed with the quality - he had recently installed a much more expensive kitchen for his mother and said that the carcasses were actually by the same company (aparently they make Ikea's carcases for them, in the same way that Whirlpool make Ikea's kitchen appliances for them, and I believe a well known mattress manufacturer makes their mattresses).

Also, my brother lives in Germany and had an Ikea kitchen in his old apartment. When they moved they actually ripped out that kitchen and brought it with them, to install in their new apartment. In fact this is standard practice in rental apartments in much of mainland Europe, and Ikea kitchens are made to stand up to being moved several times during their lifetimes, so they are very durable indeed.
 
Watch B&Q closely though - they often have half price sales etc. We got a great deal on our kitchen in January.
 
i think it stands to reason that quickprice has some connection to 'in-house' as is referred to in his only other post, fair dues, everyone is entitled to opinions as is the purpose of this site.

i stand by my comments, only as i've listened to literally hundreds of purchasers over the last 18 months from the south. What one person finds fantastic may not suit others, quality and value is sometimes more what you perceive than a standard measure!!!
 
BQ ,in my experience are rubbish to deal with on delivery and design i think you have been lucky if you have a good experience with them
 
SHIELDSni said:
i think it stands to reason that quickprice has some connection to 'in-house' as is referred to in his only other post,



Hi all, the only connection I have is that I bought a kitchen from in-house and travelled up to IKEA in belfast to have a look at their kitchens. Like a lot of people I talked to before I got a kitchen they told me to check out other companies and hearing a few things about IKEA i took a trip up to see what it was all about. The kitchens are "Alright" they have lots of great gadgets, the price is good but the quality wasn't there. I thought about fitting the kitchen myself and the thoughts of being half way through the fit and missing something, (Which is highly likely according to a lot of people who have bought an IKEA kitchen) and having to travel back up to Belfast to pick somthing up turned me off the whole thing. I got my kitchen fully assembled from in-house as well as getting them to design it. I started to fit it myself and being a novice I ran into a few problems, (Walls were off, needed to cut two units down ETC) I got the name of a fitter from the girl who sold me the kitchen and paid him to fit the rest. It cost a little more but it was worth it. I am out for value and price as much as anybody but a paying a little extra for peace of mind and a nice kitchen is worth.

Anybody agree/disagree?
Click to expand...
 
Quickprice, I got a professional to install my Ikea kitchen too, so the installation is perfect (putting actual cabinet carcasses together is not difficult, it's fitting them to the wall and cutting holes for your sink and stuff that's difficult). And as I said, he actually commented on the good quality of the kitchen.

Re getting the kitchen company to design it for you, I was actually happier to design the kitchen myself with the Ikea room planner. I was able to take my time and change my mind over several weeks, do several different layouts as well as several different door/drawer/counter combinations. I would hate to have had to rush through the design process with somebody in an hour or two. And btw I have no design experience (and very little kitchen experience!), so this wasn't the way I'd have preferred to go anyway.
 
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