Fitted kitchen - worth doing?
 

Hi guys, I'm in a position where we (she) are thinking of what to do with the house, want to have a new kitchen fitted but we are also thinking of moving in the next year or two id the right house for the right money comes on the market.
Is it really an investment by adding value to the house and do you recoup most of the money spent when selling the house our is it just best to leave it?

Years ago my brother sold a house with a brand new kitchen. A week later, skip outside and the whole kitchen in it :eek:

It might help close the sale but I would not expect any extra for it IMO.

impossible to say without knowing what yr old one looks like.

also if yr hse is one of many similar for sale, it may help sell it.

if yr hse is quite a fiind, then the kitchen etc is irrelevant.

i.e we're looking to move and its purely about space, garden, drive, garage or space to build one, space for me to extend/expand the hse. Area and schooling and of course ultimately the price.

I'd buy anything if it fits the above, because I can gut/renovate a hse myself.


i think its rare that anyones taste is the same. Yr £10K state of the art kitchen may just not suit someone for example.


as a guide for money though, I put a new kitchen in at home in late 2008. £4000 dead on for full re wire, re plaster, units, fancy lights, NEF applicances etc etc. I did well with that but it was 100% my labour (barring the full replaster and I'm including that in my £4K) took me 4 weeks dead on to finish it.

depending on the size and what work you want doing electrics/plastering/tiling etc etc your looking at £2000-£3000 labour so even if you get a cheap kitchen not gonna see much change from £5000 unless you do alot of it yourself if you do and need any advice give me a pm will be glad to help

It seems strange to us when we see couples on the TV admiring a house that they have been inspecting with everything possible done to mdernise it including a perfect looking fitted kitchen only to hear the wife saying "Oh we should have to have all the kitchen rebuilt". Seems a terrible waste to me.

Les

We decided to have a bespoke kitchen made for our place - I agreed to go for it as we intended to stay for the long haul. Spent £15K about 10 years back. tbh - If you are moving on in the next 5 years or so - I wouldn't bother with a new kitchen. If the one you have is falling to pieces I'd get something from B&Q (ie inexpensive) If your carcesses are sound - you could spruce them up by replacing the doors / drawer faces (I think we paid £100 per door but I reckon you can find keener prices out there) £100 per door included fitting mind you!

done mine myself with 2 mates help ;
prices as follows
kitchen with 6x400mm upper cuboards 2x500mm 2xcorner units
bottom units 6x400 1x500 1x300 1xset of 3drawers all in 18mm units beack effect
stainless fancy handles
oven stainless plus hob and extractor
black/speckled grey effect worktops
shiny black upstandings
total cost £1130.00 delivered ex howden stock company lost contract to supply howden
£500quid for lee (carpenter to fit)
electrics full rewire fancy titainium effect sockets 3xdouble 1x cooker 3singles 1xboiler switch with light 4switchs for dishwasher and extractor etc plus all cables and socket boxes plus led lights under plynths £345 city electrics plus £250.00 cash for nigel (sparky) i did all the hard graft he just wired it all in and tested and gave certificate .
tiles where £300 quid all in done by me after a 1/2 hour lesson from a mate taff who tiles for a living total cost inclunig new floor tiles £2660 so it can be done on a budget , four visitors have all said at least 5grand when asked to guess how much it all cost . it puts a smile on my face everytime someone says it :thumb:

Not everyone gets mates rates though! - Nice touch for you though :P

Jammy Fekkir :)

New kitchen/bathrooms and internal doors do help sell houses :thumb:

lol it was mates rates sort off but lee was five days at 100 a day
nigel was evenings up until 2am one night when he refused to leave until we where able to cook .
the bathroom was the better bargain
17.6 meters of tiles 1/2price in sale tiles £450quid cream with black centre line
fitted by taff for £400 quid no questions asked
wirlpool bath 800x1800 plus sink and surround and toilet 1/2 price in bnq £995 plus £250quid cash to gary (plumber old school mate) to remove old and fit new , with my help , then towel rail rad £90 quid in screwfix with £25 quid cash for gary to fit :thumb: he then charged £200 quid to fit n supply a shower power pump and refit the stainless shower with new pipes :thumb: i later found out the pump was £130quid on its own . in fairness i have since replaced the brakes on garys transit for him and didnt charge :thumb:

Thats the dilemma, I want to be in the position that if we do find a different house our current house is one that stands out so hopefully sell a little quicker but I just can't see the point of spending a load of money if some of it is not carried over into increasing it's value when we come to sell it.

How did you know that she has now added bathrooms to the list :lol1:

They might help to sell the house but knocking the equivalent off the asking price will likely sell it quicker.

Unless the current setup is badly dated or falling apart, leave well alone. Save the money for your next house as you'll not recoup the outlay.

Use all the tricks to freshen up the house and make it appear open and welcoming. Excess crap/furniture should go into storage, look critically at the front garden, hallway and window dressings. + a bit of graft and a lick of paint or two.

J.

Cheers for the responses guys.
We have decided to go for it and arranged for someone to come and knock one of the walls down to open up the space. Nothing really wrong with the kitchen in my eyes but they are but a mans eyes, as long as I've got a settee, tv and garage I'm content.

We have just ordered a new kitchen from Wickes - saved about 5k with the sale they have on at the moment

Depends on the kitchen and teh quality of teh house its going in - if it a cheapy then it will always be that; Melamine coated chipboard worktops, vinyl coated MDF doors, and flimsy chipboard units with wafer thin backing.

That may suit a two up two down inner city terrance or flat, but it won't do for a pleasent 3 bed detached in the 'burbs.

A proper fitted kitchen - solid wood doors (be it coated or painted/stained), granite or solid wood worktops; heavy duty units with solid backing, branded built-in appliances (not New-world or Zanussi ;) ) etc. As long as its tasteful and well laid out, it'll add value.

But you can quite easily fudge it all up by screwing up the layout, or choosing bad colour/style combinations...hence why a brand new kicthen may end up in the skip a few weeks after selling the house.


PS: Sold our old kitchen for £80 on ebay even though it was 20years old! Solid wood doors though, so it wasn't the usual rubbish.

Couple of years ago now we had a fitted kitchen built at a cost of 16k :freak3: I went mad to say the least. But, the wife is happy at least :cuckoo:

16K for a kitchen :eek: thats a helluva a lot of blow jobs :norty: I thought i was bad spending half that .

We will be spending around 11k and as said that is from Wickes with a nice discount. Our kitchen is not a bad size so i would dread to think how much a top class kitchen would be - 20k+ probably

Five days for 19 units? Was he cutting them from trees with a hand saw? I used to do this as a sideline when I was a student and worked on the basis of 20 minutes a unit to build and fit. Worktops always took a day, even if you thought it only looked like a couple of hours. When I started, I worked with a very old man who looked like he needed help to get dressed in the morning. He used to do 6 an hour, every day of the week.


bigsinky - when we built the house, the builders had priced in 20k for the kitchen. From my prior knowledge, I thought 2k was doable and 5k was pushing the boat out. Ended up costing 22 including the granite. Did you know you can spend a grand on taps and not get a BJ for your trouble. I did the utility room myself. 12 units.... engineered rather than solid wood. A day and a half - total cost - 800 quid. 5 years on the worktops in the utility room are starting to look a bit used, but the doors are in better nick than the ones in the kitchen.

Rob - If you are seriously moving, do a cheapo DIY one. They look every bit as good and will probably last longer. If you are staying..... do a cheapo DIY one. You can chuck it out in a few years and get one that looks more modern.

Had a long chat and going to this length will make us stay in the house for at least a couple of years so fingers crossed it will be worth it, or I have a good defence for "wasting" money on the car.