And to bore you all a bit more, I fitted 42 Hacker kitchens from January to end of November last year.
Wren Kitchens
- Thread starter KyleFz6
- Start date
Thank you for those details - you certainly know your stuff.
Do you work for yourself or were on contract for the kitchens?
So much German material is still first class even after sometimes getting mixed in with Chinese stuff.
The early German work tops & units were a revelation - my back then boss added a few thousand pounds for German kitchens on the names alone. He dropped building work for pure kitchen sales & fitting - I left.
Do you work for yourself or were on contract for the kitchens?
So much German material is still first class even after sometimes getting mixed in with Chinese stuff.
The early German work tops & units were a revelation - my back then boss added a few thousand pounds for German kitchens on the names alone. He dropped building work for pure kitchen sales & fitting - I left.
I'm Self Employed, the kitchen supplier sells the kitchen and I price direct to the customer, last years tally was about a 50/50 split Domestic/site work.
They are easy to fit, well thougt out, Domestic you can charge more, sit work not as much but it's faster as you don't have to worry about mess as much.
Last year was to intense, I've gone back to Carpentry and Joinery for a rest.
Wren have far better quality materials than Wickes and B&Q, those aren't fair comparisons but their installation is over-priced... better to employ your own and save a good amount.
The design you get is dependent on the quality of the designer you sat with and the information you provided.
If anything at all goes wrong and is their fault, you will get it replaced for free but they'll take it from the employee whose fault it is.
My GF worked for them, they're a bag of ****e to work with but they are good at what they do and their quality is up there. I'll likely go with them when I come to do my kitchen.
The design you get is dependent on the quality of the designer you sat with and the information you provided.
If anything at all goes wrong and is their fault, you will get it replaced for free but they'll take it from the employee whose fault it is.
My GF worked for them, they're a bag of ****e to work with but they are good at what they do and their quality is up there. I'll likely go with them when I come to do my kitchen.
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Just ordered a new kitchen from diy-kitchens.com. 7m x 4m L shaped kitchen.
Units and worktop came to just short of £4.5k delivered. Should have it by Early June.
Have visited the showrooms twice, its the best arrangement I've ever seen anywhere.
Just for comparison, I stared with creating the design and chose the style, finish and colour and presented the same plan to these companies for pricing. These are prices for units and worktop only, no appliances
Wrens were £38k (although that was fitted)
Ikea was £15k
B&Q was £18k
Magnet was £42k (fitted)
Wickes was £19k
The range was £22k
Inhouse was £29k
Couple of local showrooms on supply and supply/fit ranged from £38-£56k
Units and worktop came to just short of £4.5k delivered. Should have it by Early June.
Have visited the showrooms twice, its the best arrangement I've ever seen anywhere.
Just for comparison, I stared with creating the design and chose the style, finish and colour and presented the same plan to these companies for pricing. These are prices for units and worktop only, no appliances
Wrens were £38k (although that was fitted)
Ikea was £15k
B&Q was £18k
Magnet was £42k (fitted)
Wickes was £19k
The range was £22k
Inhouse was £29k
Couple of local showrooms on supply and supply/fit ranged from £38-£56k
Diy kitchens - done loads in refurbs just make sure you order everything as the delivery cost can mount.
D
Deleted member 281264
I've got the Howdens version of the true handleless kitchen(Hockley). It is very nice and came in at 7.5k for around 22 units which is a large lshape with 3 230cm tower units and island. There were loads of blum drawers included that also bumped the price up.
Quite happy with the quality. Seems better than Magnet and not much different to Wren.
Most kitchens are just chipboard even 50k ones.
Quite happy with the quality. Seems better than Magnet and not much different to Wren.
Most kitchens are just chipboard even 50k ones.
I have decorated extensions where the kitchens were Wren. I was impressed with both the quality of the doors and the fitters...
And then she what scowls at me decided to pay Wren for a new kitchen and fitting.
The job started late 2019 and finished late 2023.
4 different sets of fitters.
During the second snagging, one of the fitters tried to adjust the oven alignment by pulling the slide-under door of the oven, and pulled the door off. It took Wren over a month to get an NEF engineer out to fix it. Yeah, we had no main oven for about 5 weeks. Fortunately, we had the micro-combi steam oven above, but if we wanted to cook pizza, we could only do one at a time.
Numerous doors were replaced because as high gloss white doors, you could see the glue lines.
Our kitchen design had no door handles, meaning that there is a metal profile under the worktop that you put your hands in to pull the door forward. The downside is that there is a 2+inch gap above items such as the integrated fridge and freezer. Each time you opened the door, the whole unit would tilt forward.
As I mentioned earlier, she rarely talks to me but I did feel sorry for her and spent ages developing a final snagging list. It ran in to several pages (given the way that she had been treated, I mentioned things that we would have otherwise ignored- that said, I was fair in that I only listed things that were wrong) . The final fitter rectified most, but not all of the problems. Using a roofing square, I discovered that the worktops weren't at 90 degrees even though the walls are. I only noticed it because the units did not line up with the worktops. They replaced the worktops. I mentioned that the manual for the steam oven explicitly states that an air vent must be fitted in the kickboard. One of the earlier fitters said "ignore that, they always say that" I then showed him the manual for the lower oven, which makes no such stipulation. I then told him that my mum's £1300 Siemens oven had rusted at the top because her kitchen fitters hadn't bothered to real the manual.
I ended up doing the bits that the final fitter didn't and hope that she got a decent amount of money back from Wren. Their customer services were pretty poor.
Based on our experience, I would not recommend Wren. I accept that the whole covid thing contributed (in part) to the 3.5 year resolution process but quite frankly they treated her as being a stupid woman. She may be grumpy, but she isn't stupid.
And then she what scowls at me decided to pay Wren for a new kitchen and fitting.
The job started late 2019 and finished late 2023.
4 different sets of fitters.
During the second snagging, one of the fitters tried to adjust the oven alignment by pulling the slide-under door of the oven, and pulled the door off. It took Wren over a month to get an NEF engineer out to fix it. Yeah, we had no main oven for about 5 weeks. Fortunately, we had the micro-combi steam oven above, but if we wanted to cook pizza, we could only do one at a time.
Numerous doors were replaced because as high gloss white doors, you could see the glue lines.
Our kitchen design had no door handles, meaning that there is a metal profile under the worktop that you put your hands in to pull the door forward. The downside is that there is a 2+inch gap above items such as the integrated fridge and freezer. Each time you opened the door, the whole unit would tilt forward.
As I mentioned earlier, she rarely talks to me but I did feel sorry for her and spent ages developing a final snagging list. It ran in to several pages (given the way that she had been treated, I mentioned things that we would have otherwise ignored- that said, I was fair in that I only listed things that were wrong) . The final fitter rectified most, but not all of the problems. Using a roofing square, I discovered that the worktops weren't at 90 degrees even though the walls are. I only noticed it because the units did not line up with the worktops. They replaced the worktops. I mentioned that the manual for the steam oven explicitly states that an air vent must be fitted in the kickboard. One of the earlier fitters said "ignore that, they always say that" I then showed him the manual for the lower oven, which makes no such stipulation. I then told him that my mum's £1300 Siemens oven had rusted at the top because her kitchen fitters hadn't bothered to real the manual.
I ended up doing the bits that the final fitter didn't and hope that she got a decent amount of money back from Wren. Their customer services were pretty poor.
Based on our experience, I would not recommend Wren. I accept that the whole covid thing contributed (in part) to the 3.5 year resolution process but quite frankly they treated her as being a stupid woman. She may be grumpy, but she isn't stupid.