New kitchen - advice?

[Blue nose]

After some advice please for my mum.
She's getting a new kitchen but it's turned into a massive job. Kitchen's not big. About 3m long and 2.5m wide. Doors at either end.

Kitchen has damp so we need to take old one out, knock off plaster for damp course. DH has kindly volunteered (by me) to do it.

The damp person will not replaster. We live slightly outside his preferred area so to get him (he's been recommend) we need to find a plasterer.

I had an extension built a few years ago so he's kindly reviewed my ideas and told us what needs doing in what order and is recommending trades people. It's going to take about 4-5 weeks with no kitchen as plaster needs minimum 3 weeks to dry. Looks like this will over January too so extra cold so.longer to dry.

So far estimate is about £4-5000 just to get kitchen ready to go in.

We've looked at a kitchen in Howdens yesterday and its about £3,400 plus oven and hob. These are prebuilt units.

We've looked at B&Q last night and they quote for two different doors, one was £1900 (similar to Howden) and a gloss one at £2400. Again plus units. These are flat packed. Not sure if worktops are same standard. The B&Q one was £138/m so seemed middle of their standard range.They quoted another £3000 fitting.

The B&Q one recommended big drawers rather the cupboards so mum is thinking on that as might be easier to access as she gets older. Anyone have these? Pros/cons?

This would obviously put more cost on fitting to build flat packed or on cost of Howdens if we asked them to change their design.

Anyone any idea on cost difference to fit a prebuilt kitchen compared to flat packed? Personally I'd prefer to spend on better units and less on fitting if overall cost was the same.

Also tempted to ask DH to fit if it was prebuilt but not sure how big of a job it would be. They'd only be me to help (by making coffee and moving rubbish)

My dad died last year. If he was here he'd do it himself and I feel we should do it for her (as dad did do much for me) but that would be DH not me and don't want to ask him if it's s big job.

Some designs so you can see how many cupboards. This is the Howdens one.

Window side: free standing fridge, 3 cupboards plus free standing washer.

Other side:

[Picalily]

Hi, we have had a lot of damp sorted and replastered and our plaster only took a week to dry before we could put a mist coat on (watered down coat of paint) and we decorated a couple of days after that so not sure why your plaster would take so long to dry.

[Jenfie80]

My husband is a carpenter and fitted 1000+ Kitchens over the years, Howden's are much better quality

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Jenfie80

My husband is a carpenter and fitted 1000+ Kitchens over the years, Howden's are much better quality

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That's what our builder has said too but for mum it's all about the cost. Our builder said we should expect to pay about £1500 for the Howdens one but he only does big projects and is booked up for 10 months.

Did your DH give you an idea how much extra it would be to build and fit a flat packed kitchen? Is it just an extra days labour or a week, for example?

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Picalily

Hi, we have had a lot of damp sorted and replastered and our plaster only took a week to dry before we could put a mist coat on (watered down coat of paint) and we decorated a couple of days after that so not sure why your plaster would take so long to dry.

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I don't know 🤔

All three trades have said the same - the damp proof company (said 2 weeks), the plasterer (2-3) and my builder (3 to be safe). Maybe it's because it needs to harden underneath to support the weight of cupboards?

[Island mamma]

Building flat pack kitchen units is not that difficult. DH has done it several times and is about to do so again for a holiday let we are renovating. He is going to get a joiner to fit the worktops though to get a professional finish on them.
Could you put some extra heating into your mum's kitchen to help the plaster dry since it will be January?

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Island mamma

Building flat pack kitchen units is not that difficult. DH has done it several times and is about to do so again for a holiday let we are renovating. He is going to get a joiner to fit the worktops though to get a professional finish on them.
Could you put some extra heating into your mum's kitchen to help the plaster dry since it will be January?

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We've got a portable air con that I think has a warming function and maybe a dehumidifier. DH is.looking for yeh instructions.

But yes we'll try and.put something in there but apparently if it dries too quick it cracks.

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Island mamma

Building flat pack kitchen units is not that difficult. DH has done it several times and is about to do so again for a holiday let we are renovating. He is going to get a joiner to fit the worktops though to get a professional finish on them.
Could you put some extra heating into your mum's kitchen to help the plaster dry since it will be January?

See more...

We just don't have time to build flat paxk for her. DH has said he'd have a go at fitting the ready built Howdens units but like you say pay someone to do.the worktops.

[parisdisneyfan]

Can’t help with other questions but big pan drawers are the way to go IMO. I trialled them in my last kitchen and loved them. This time round will be hardly any cupboards, all drawers! We are going with Howdens, haven’t seen any bad reviews, most builders including ours really rate them. Good luck😉

[sam_b]

IKEA kitchens consistently beat Howdens for cost and quality - after lots of research that’s the route we went and we love our kitchen. We had a local joiner fit the units no bother.