Supply only kitchens - are they real value for money?

Is that 'supply only' kitchen the value for money you think it is?

A price tag of £1000 or £1500 for a brand new kitchen sounds tempting doesn't it? For the sake of a few hours with a screwdriver and a drill surely that's a worthwhile saving over the price of a full installation?

Not always. Even taking advantage of many suppliers' planning and advice services may not provide the results you're looking for, and don't forget that the showroom that shows off supply-only kitchen units has been designed around the units – not the other way around.

At the KitchenQuoter.co.uk desk we receive calls every day from people who have got as far as half way through the installation of their flat-packs and then end up calling us to see if we can recommend a local tradesman.

Kitchen Quoter's Vernon Baptiste explains: “There's a lot more that goes into the design, planning and construction of a kitchen than people often think. Unless you happen to live in a brand new house, the chances are the kitchen will be far from square for a start, so off-the-shelf units will only fit to a point. After that you either put up with gaps and unused spaces or you have to embark on some pretty fancy carpentry.”

“The other difficult parts come along when you need to plumb in appliances. Modern integrated appliances will often need some degree of coordination with the cabinet design or require the manufacture of doors or panels to blend in with the rest of the kitchen. It's these touches that add those extra thousands of pounds of value to your house and that extra quality of life.”

“There are also lots of specialist and unusual products available that our network of installers can suggest and source for you. Taking a flat-pack design off the shelf probably means you're going to be limited severely by the range of the catalogue you're choosing from.”

By law you will also require competent certified tradesmen to make plumbing or routing changes to gas or electric supplies, and these are all costs that need to be factored into any price comparison. By the time these are added in and you've done with the hammer, chisel and plane yourself then there's always much less of a difference than you think.

If you're thinking about a new kitchen, make sure you get independent quotes from registered and approved local companies to you by using KitchenQuoter for an instant online quote. Click here to get your online quote now.