www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Good point, personal recommendations are always a good indicator, especially if you can see an example of their work. You used to get small ads in local papers for trades and I think Yell.Com is worth a look but you have to trawl carefully and decide if the good reviews are genuine.

DWD

Neelix wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:37 pm Which one do you trust and are their prices fixed or do their quotes allow for extras?

And what about VAT?

I would also say ask friends and neighbours for recommendations

They all have pics of work done and positive feedback, they all include VAT. I will get a worksheet done, listing everything that needs to done, I'll get him to sign it. The £1,600 won't do gas installation for the Cooker (he was upfront I like that), he's the most local. I'm going to ask him to do the 'bit of tiling' within the quote. We'll have to get someone with GAS SAFE to do the gas installation.

Have a quick look at Yell.com in your locality, search carpenters and joiners rather than kitchen fitters. I prefer to find a non-VAT registered tradesman as that saves a bundle.

DWD

Just remember that some sites will not publish bad reviews or negative feedback

Neelix wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:04 pmJust remember that some sites will not publish bad reviews or negative feedback

That will be "Trust a trader" then

Someone-Else wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:04 pm

Neelix wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:04 pmJust remember that some sites will not publish bad reviews or negative feedback

That will be "Trust a trader" then

Not just them …..

yartin wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:37 pm For 14 units plus bit wall tiling, boxing, panels, worktops, basic plumbing plus a mini skip, anything much below £5k would be a cowboy job IMO, anything over £15k would be taking the p!ss. That's only for labour. Be prepared for unexpected extra job comes about and extra charge, also you may need to redecorate some parts.
As said above, it's impossible to price such in a forum.

There is only one way, get quotes not one or two get few from places like: yell.com, mybuilder.com, **********, ratedpeople.com, ********.com and the likes... That's where I find tradesmen for jobs I can't do, you know my secrets now .

Ps, I have no idea why ********** are blanked out?!

My fault:
When I put £5000 I was thinking a quote I had for my kitchen similar to 14 units but price included floor tiling, skimming , wiring, remove old, wall tiling, downlights, plumbing and decoration... everything which I didn't go ahead.
When I did everything myself but paid for skimming walls and ceiling and floor tiling, to a similar stage to the op (but old units removed) to fit units and worktop, I had a quote of £950 which again didn't go ahead, I did what I could myself, called gas safe as cooker location was moved by 700mm, called plumber to fit stop cock and prv and tidy up old pipes (I can't solder and don't like plastic or pushfit) plus worktop fitter which totalled around £500.

its a bit of a minefield.....

however if i was quoting for a kitchen and had to assemble flat pack id want a days pay for building them up.... or correcting them after someone else has built them (happened to me a while back they were built completely incorrectly)

i recently quoted for a job in the next town over. i got the lead of howdens. the woman kept pestering me for my quote so they knew what they had to spend before they moved into this house.

the job involved.....

rip out stud walls in a new biuild house to make the downstairs open plan. (£400 )

plumbing alterations including water pipes and drain pipes to an island (plumber quoted £700 going off the plans i upped it to £800 )

electrics to the island, lighting and possible other socket alterations (£800)

plastering of walls and ceilings as obviously thered be damage caused when ripping stuff out (i had £600 in for this)

waste removal from site (i had in £600 as the entire job was priced based upon howdens plan due to the client badgering me for a quote and me not being able to access the property)

apply smoothing compounds to floor (house is a newbuild and they wanted laminate throughout for some reason.... id have laid lvt personally. ) £480 based on 16 sq meters supply and laid by my friend who runs a flooring company

fit howdens kitchen including integrated fridge freezer, dishwasher, oven, microwave, this kitchen had an island with the sink and dishwasher in. not a massive kitchen but awkward enough £1600

hole core fella to come and core 2 holes one for the extractor one for the sink waste £40

total £5320

the woman came back and said i was more than £2000 higher than the bloke shes going with....... so shes getting all that work done for £3000 basically......

I'm with Fin on this one - flat pack takes time to assemble (20 to 40 minutes per unit) plus there is generally a lot more waste to dispose of - so only an idiot wouldn't charge to do it

As to charging £3k for all of that work, given the amount of additional work to do over the actual kitchen fit, your fit complete with plumbing and electrics comes to about £3.2k, on maybe an £8k to £10k kitchen (7 day install?), so I think you are somewhere in the ball park. I wonder if the fitter she went with has quoted for everything on your list, and whether she'll be getting the relevant certificates for electrical work? Also, whilst your waste disposal seems a tad high to me (how much is a 4 yard skip for mixed building waste including gypsum in your part of the world - it was about £300 last time I had one in Manchester), I have to wonder if the waste from that job might be getting fly tipped.

The problem for that fitter if he us doing it all at £3.2k is that he has absolutely no leeway to cover problems, and when does any job go 100% right?

BTW did you provide her with a break down of the various price elements?

Some good points above esp diydiy11.

Like many jobs eg bathrooms, prepping is the key to fitting kitchen's.
Prepping to a checklist and the actual installation will flow.

I used to fit kitchens for a while, and found that storage & movement of rigid units can be a problem - esp large numbers of cabinets and appliances, then there's all the other materials and tools to be on hand.
In a void property it works but in occupied property its a nightmare for fitter and client.
Having said that, like others, i think rigid is best.
I've always allowed 60 mins/unit for assembling and messing about with flat packs - maybe i'm slow?

The above "prices" are well out of touch for 2021 prices.
Some of them guys would be paying you so they could do the work.
fwiw, never quote unless you've seen the job - people who keep picking away are often trouble or even other tradespeople fishing for prices because they cant quote.

Job and Knock wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:35 am I'm with Fin on this one - flat pack takes time to assemble (20 to 40 minutes per unit) plus there is generally a lot more waste to dispose of - so only an idiot wouldn't charge to do it

As to charging £3k for all of that work, given the amount of additional work to do over the actual kitchen fit, your fit complete with plumbing and electrics comes to about £3.2k, on maybe an £8k to £10k kitchen (7 day install?), so I think you are somewhere in the ball park. I wonder if the fitter she went with has quoted for everything on your list, and whether she'll be getting the relevant certificates for electrical work? Also, whilst your waste disposal seems a tad high to me (how much is a 4 yard skip for mixed building waste including gypsum in your part of the world - it was about £300 last time I had one in Manchester), I have to wonder if the waste from that job might be getting fly tipped.

The problem for that fitter if he us doing it all at £3.2k is that he has absolutely no leeway to cover problems, and when does any job go 100% right?

BTW did you provide her with a break down of the various price elements?

ive only been able to see the plan and the howdens designers verbal description so i over done the waste costs just to make sure that was covered as best as could be.

yea i broke it down as above. she must have people working for free

wes56 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:57 pm Some good points above esp diydiy11.

Like many jobs eg bathrooms, prepping is the key to fitting kitchen's.
Prepping to a checklist and the actual installation will flow.

I used to fit kitchens for a while, and found that storage & movement of rigid units can be a problem - esp large numbers of cabinets and appliances, then there's all the other materials and tools to be on hand.
In a void property it works but in occupied property its a nightmare for fitter and client.
Having said that, like others, i think rigid is best.
I've always allowed 60 mins/unit for assembling and messing about with flat packs - maybe i'm slow?

The above "prices" are well out of touch for 2021 prices.
Some of them guys would be paying you so they could do the work.
fwiw, never quote unless you've seen the job - people who keep picking away are often trouble or even other tradespeople fishing for prices because they cant quote.

yea id expect an average kitchen to take a day to assemble cabinets atleast. it can be a right mess on building them all.

did you mean the prices id posted on the job ive just clearly not got

The kitchen fitting prices in this forum question, including your own, based on the amount of work thats been variously described, are well unrealistic - far too low for 2021.

wes56 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:45 pmThe kitchen fitting prices..................................... are well unrealistic - far too low for 2021

You said that yesterday.

wes56 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:57 pmThe above "prices" are well out of touch for 2021 prices.

ha well whoever got the job that i quoted for must be veryyy cheap compared to me since he was £2k atleast cheaper.

some people tell me im too expensive aswell..

theres a company round here that supply and fit doors for £50 per door... the white egg box type. id be double that all day long