Club Arnage

OK! So slightly off topic, but I have to get a new kitchen do to my new extension (now in month 8).

Does anyone have any experience with new kitchens or wooden work surfaces - Howdens, Magnet, John Lewis, or am I solely afflicted?

Aricus

Nolte, German. Though you do not mention budget.

>Martini...LB

Sorry, I did not realise the urgency... try B&Q or Magnet, though I would probably recommend Magnet... We do not have the others here...

Sorry, I meant to say that my build is in month 8. The contingency was swallowed up getting out of the ground.

No there is no urgency, or indeed budget.  :'(. But I would like it to be done by Jume, but I suspect it will not be.

Seriously, it needs to be a kitchen that is in keeping with the build, so mid priced.

Thanks - I will look at Nolte and Magnet.

Aricus

If it helps I built an extension a few years ago and had a complete new kitchen at the same time. I went for Wren Kitchens and couldn't fault them. They were cheaper than the others, the units arrived pre-built and the installers were first class. Four years on and it still looks like new and nothing has broken or tarnished.

Thanks for the info.  I've got a few quotes which vary but the materials vary too.

If you actually want Real Wood doors then it's ££££.

I think I might skimp and use the money on fun.

Any views on underfloor heating?

Aricus

Had a Magnet kitchen fitted Aug 2012 and very pleased.

The guys who fit them are not Magnet employees but "trusted" sub-contractors and I guess therefore that you are at the mercy of who is available at the time.

Ours was fitted by a company based locally to us in North Baddesley and he was very good.

Paul

Electric or wet?

Wet

Complicated in so far as they take a lot of power out of the central heating system.  You should check that the existing boiler is up to the job.

I forget the exact extra over cost required to fit a wet u/f system in one of my previous employers houses but I don't think you get much change out of £10,000.

They weren't all that popular with purchasers, the guys speccing the systems and the installers/builders.

They take a while to heat up and i have also seen mention of ground source heat pumps.

Had electric u/f heating in a bathroom and that worked well.  Nice to have warm feet in winter!

Do ask the supplier how long the doors will continue in production.  We got caught, as we needed a door replaced under warranty, and there weren't any left, but it was glued back together.

We have a fan radiator hooked into our CH and it works well.  I've seen under unit heaters, and wonder if you can get something similar.  Might melt the flips flops though.  Come to think of it, this sort of thing is now used in caravans

A couple of mates have wet underfloor but only because one is a plumber and the other is quite handy at most other stuff, I don't think they'd have paid someone else to do it. I understand it's pretty good but as Landman says it's fairly complex and I believe they have separate circuits which come on much earlier because of the time taken to heat up. (Also takes a while to cool). I think they both quite like it.

They also both have hot water at mains pressure, I can't remember how that's done but it involved new tanks and stuff, and I believe cost nearly £2.5k each even doing a fair bit of the work themselves. Fairly costly just to be rid of noisy shower pumps!!

Socks and slippers - about a tenner.

More money for fun then......

MG Mark

It appears that with kitchens and underfloor heating there are a number of options.

We have household representatives who are voting for underfloor powered by the gentle breaths of vestal virgins (and there are parts of this that I quite like), and a kitchen made from timbers from Shakespeare's globe theatre and a kitchentop formed in the fires of Mordor

And there are others who's standards are more modest.

As we say, he who holds the budget is king!