Kitchen prices

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cunninghams

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Hi,
I am building a house in the Athlone Region. I'm currently looking at quotations for kitchens. At present the prices i've been quoted have been anything from 15 to 20K which is way outside my budget. I have set my budget maxing @ the 13K mark. To be fair most of the specialist kitchen places ive been certainly have an extensive range of unit interior fittings and specifications combined with individual design elements and a vast array of colours etc. My question is can i get all these trimmings with a good carpenter for much less cost...... i.e Does anybody know of a good carpenter that would make me up a kitchen to the same standards as these "Designer" Kitchen. Or does anybody know if it would be worth my while going over to England and buying my kitchen there and getting a carpenter to fit it? I have my kitchen plans and it would be a traditional Kitchen im after (Oak/maple finish possible with granite worktop). Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 
Not sure what quality you would get over here in England for the sort of money you are talking about:guess if you want a B&Q job then you might make it but not really for good quality materials.

Our kitchen is made to measure ( we have a biggish bay window in the kitchen) and, excluding appliances, it has cost £13k Sterling.

The kitchen is 12ft X 9ft with a maple worktop about 25ft long. All cupboards etc are made from tulip wood. We have no wall cupboards as Herself doesn't like them. (I must admit the kitchen looks much better without.)

A granite worktop of the same length would have cost about £3K alone.
 
I have recently done a lot of shopping around for kitchens - all in Dublin it has to be said - what I found is this - if you visit enough kitchen suppliers you will find that many of them stock the same doors as most don't make the doors themselves but buy them in from external manufacturers - one company is based in Carlow www.Springhilltrust.com and others that I came across that supplied doors are based in Northern Ireland. Leaving out what fittings you get behind the doors (which any kitchen company can source for you) the main decision you make is the doors you want and the worktop.
I priced a kitchen with a specific door manufactured by Springhill with two kitchen suppliers who stock it in Dublin. I got a quote of €10,500 for it with granite worktops from one supplier and a quote of €17,000 without granite worktops from anther supplier - needless to relate we are going with the €10,500.
My advice would be look in as many places as you can, decide on the door that you want and then shop around on price - if you know who manufactures the door you could get a list of retailers from the manufactures (Springhill have a list on their website for example). Hope this helps!
By the way, it is a solid oak door we are getting with oak gables - the Shackelton Oak from the Springhill range.
 
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Hi Cunninghams

A lot depends on what you really want - maybe I'm stingy but you can quite easily get a very nice kitchen - excluding granite worktop - for 3-4K (including fitting)

Ours cost a lot less - but we we just wanted a kitchen that looks 'half reasonable', which we got. In fact we've been complimented on it by people whose kitchens I know cost many times the price.

My advice would be to go to a wholesaler and look at what they have. A lot of it in fairness is basic and looks it, but if you see something you like I think you would be surprised at how little a nice kitchen can cost. For a local tradesperson it isn't that big of a job.
 
I agree with Caveat that good kitchens need not cost a lot.

My advice would be to find those kitchen places out of the way, behind the big industrial estates with little or no showrooms. Hence they have low overheads and price accordingly. Look up the golden pages to find them. The most expensive part is the doors, solid wood in particular and granite worktops of course. Inside the cupboards I can't see any point in anything other than MDF I think it's called.
 
Aileen2 said:
I agree with Caveat that good kitchens need not cost a lot.

My advice would be to find those kitchen places out of the way, behind the big industrial estates with little or no showrooms. Hence they have low overheads and price accordingly. Look up the golden pages to find them. The most expensive part is the doors, solid wood in particular and granite worktops of course. Inside the cupboards I can't see any point in anything other than MDF I think it's called.
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I agree aileen2 i got my kitchen from tongue & groove joinery in galway and it was well worth the money i paid for it, the kitchen was hand built and it looks great plus its tailored to fit your space so no room is wasted, granite worktops are pricey but if you can stretch to it you should get them, i did.
 
I went with a kitchen carpenter. My kitchen is 26ft * 19ft and it only cost me 3k. In fairness my uncle who is a kitchen fitter/carpenter did it and charged me at cost however he did mention that it would have been 6k otherwise. My uncle operates through the golden pages and is never short of work. He has a work shop where he employs 4 other men however it is a small operation and he does not have a showroom. What he does is when he visits potential customers he brings his book of kitchen designs and lets the customer choose which design they want and then returns with door and handle samples. Not as ideal as going into a showroom but certainly allot more cost effective. Our kitchen is a solid cherry.
 
Cunninghams, we paid 25k for a large U-shaped kitchen (3m*5*3) and L-shaped utility (3*3). The kitchen was solid walnut doors with standard carcass and utility was vinyl - kitchen 13k, granite 4k, appliances 8k from tradeappliances.co.uk. we got kitchen from Choice kitchens in galway who source their kitchens from Springhill, very nice but obviously not in same price range as cash & carry type. I'd advise spending money on good quality appliances which you use everyday along with the worktop, the rest is not that important really. we changed our minds a lot, even went over to edinburgh to buy from ikea but chickened out. ended up buying stolmen wardrobe from ikea. anyway, if you wanted a reasonable kitchen, my advice would be to design the exact kitchen you want using the ikea online tool, pay them to deliver the flat pack (they have nice wooden worktops or get granite local), definitely choose your appliances online, then visit 3/4 local shops with a list and get the best price, they can all source the same and you should drive a good deal for the lot. ikea are great value considering the quality and all the better if you could find someone else to share the shipment charges.
 
I disagree with Denman, if there is anything wrong with the stuff you buy abroad how will you get it exchanged etc. Plus if you do the measurements incorrectly where will you be. A couple of people here have told you where to source reasonably priced kitchens, the design of kitchens is not a big deal in my opinion - they all conform to a basic design with the cooker, sink and fridge location being key. Most people make the mistake of having too many cupboards and not enough workspace. The easiest and most hassle free way of installing a kitchen is getting the person who supplies it to install it. They know the quickest and cheapest way of doing this and all the responsibility will lie with them. I know someone who let her husband install the kitchen and he sawed the worktop in half and she now has two different worktops. I've seen a kitchen where a man cut a circular hole in the worktop for the bin underneath - bad idea. Personally I don't like bins in cupboards so I always leave a bin space and tile it floor and back wall for ease of cleaning. Currently I have a full size bin in a large pull out drawer under the island - works brilliantly. I hate bins stuck in the corner at which people 'throw' teabags' and miss!

If you can afford granite for sure go for that - absolutely brilliant and worth the money.
 
Bluebells said:
Could you give some more info re ' tongue & groove in Galway? Contact No.
Thanks.
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hi bluebells, the number i have is 091 788777 the guys i dealt with there were gerry & tony they're based in oranmore in galway.
Hope that helps
 
Aileen2, I concede your point on the correct measurements, you would need to be fairly precise on the measurements and maybe order 1-2 extra of some items to compensate. However, the online tool is very good and I figure a carpenter that can fit a cash&carry can fit an ikea just as easily. I found the wardrobe instructions very easy to follow. Anyway cuningham, my opinion on ikea is based on the belief that they sell a better quality product at a more reasonable price than irish companies. Aileens point on the bins is dead right but again the same pull out bin from ikea will cost 3 times as much from "Inhouse" in galway. I got a number for a carpenter who fiitted an ikea kitchen for a lady in barna, let me know if you want me to dig it out, might be a bit far from athlone.
 
I know someone in the Dublin 15 area who will supply and install kitchens and bedroom furniture, very good value for money. he used to work for a local kitchen company but then decided to go out on his own a couple of years ago.
PM me if you require his number
 
Folks, thanks a lot for all the advice. i think i have decided on my kitchen but still do not have anybody to put the kitchen in. Anybody have any contact in the Athlone/Roscommon region
 
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