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DIY Forum >> Carpentry Questions >> EasyJet magazine - Kitchens https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1162067063 Message started by AndyOlds on Oct 28th, 2006, 9:24pm |
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Title: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by AndyOlds on Oct 28th, 2006, 9:24pm Hi, Just flew on EasyJet yesterday and whilst flipping through the in-flight magazine, came across an advert for a kitchen company - called 'Kitchens'. The advert shows a photo of part of a kitchen with solid wood units and a granite worktop. To quote the advert (I nicked the mag): "For example, all the real wood cabinets, doors, cornice, pelmet and accessories featured above, including solid granite worktop can be yours for only £1495.00" Pretty cheap. As the wife has been starting to ask about a new kitchen lately, I was wondering if any of you have heard of this company. Are they any good, or should they be avoided like the plague? My main worry, stupidly enough, is that there was no website address on the advert - very strange for any reputable company nowadays. Cheers. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by Scrit on Oct 28th, 2006, 10:12pm Sound awfully like our old mate ***** from ***** Kitchens, again....... ::) Do we have a skull and crossbones smiley, please? If you do go that way check if this firm is in Oldham, and then ring Trading Standards there....... Most of the firms in Oldham are really straight, there's just this one who's been on watchdog, been in court umpteen times, etc, etc. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by trowelhead on Oct 28th, 2006, 10:16pm http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/homes/homes_20061010.shtml :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by Scrit on Oct 29th, 2006, 12:25am That's the man, Vance Miller. Famously arrested whilst leaving the UK with a suitcase full of readies to pay his suppliers in China where they (in his words) "think I'm a god". So loved is this man that when he recently bought and renovated a farm house near Ripponden, the locals (?) got together and arranged a housewarming whilst his other house in Ramsbottom warranted a leaving party in the same vein. He even warrants his very own entry in Wikipedia Scrit |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by AndyOlds on Oct 29th, 2006, 8:53am Thanks for the warning - sounds like a nice bloke, this Vance! There's no way of telling whether this is the same company, as the phone number in the advert is an 0871 one, so I can't tell where they're based. Anyway, if it is a different company, they probably want to change their name sharpish! Cheers. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by CWatters on Oct 29th, 2006, 10:13am AndyOlds wrote on Oct 28th, 2006, 9:24pm:
I haven't seen the photo but is it too cheap to be credible? Granite prices have come down a lot in recent times. There are many companies that have an online quotation service. Just bang in the dimensions and add details about polished edges and drain channels and get a few quotes for comparison. Google found a few easily.. http://www.qstoneworks.co.uk/quote.html http://www.gwd-direct.co.uk/autoquote.html The granits alone might cost £800-£1500 for an average size kitchen. A site visit to make a template and delivery can cost £350-£450 alone. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by Scrit on Oct 29th, 2006, 1:23pm CWatters wrote on Oct 29th, 2006, 10:13am:
It's the old "you get what you pay for" thing, though (all that glisters is not gold?). There is granite and granite, and just like so many things you don't know the difference unless you've compared items side by side (or seen them after they've been in a place for 10 years). Templating is still a skilled job, though. As to granite delivery installation - if you want to do it yourself, then fine, go put your back out. It has often been said that a good joiner can make a even a second rate kitchen fit well and look good - that's still true. Scrit |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by woodsmith on Oct 29th, 2006, 5:16pm I bought a piece of granite for an island unit, 2ft x 4ft last year and it cost a whopping £650 from a monumental mason. Fantastic quality though, no chipping or bits of quartz popping out which is what happens with the cheaper granites. Incredibly heavy though, I pulled a couple of muscles fitting it. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 29th, 2006, 11:13pm Quote:
Oh, how "SHELLfish" of you , does your wife know!!??? :o :o and cheap Granite, probably the old MDF with a bit of "granite" type sticky backed plastic on it!!! |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by woodsmith on Oct 30th, 2006, 3:55pm TIMBA-WOLF wrote on Oct 29th, 2006, 11:13pm:
I didn't get this straight away ::), I've been doing the VAT return [smiley=fryingpan.gif] so brain dead, [smiley=dizzy.gif] It was both calf muscles :(, now I can't see a joke in that ;D |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by jasonB on Oct 30th, 2006, 4:27pm TIMBA-WOLF wrote on Oct 29th, 2006, 11:13pm:
You may not be far off the truth Wolf, you can buy sheets of 10-12mm granite to overlay your existing worktops with and strips to glue to the front edge, only giveaway is the sheets come 1000-1200 long so there are loads of joints, even Screwfixare selling them, hope they use stronger boxes that their usuall ones ;D They are probably chinese granite which is grey stone with a black resin dye that will start to fade in a couple of years. JAson |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 30th, 2006, 5:16pm a few years ago on a job we carried out a professional cheat, just as the client had ordered! , and i must say it came up a treat, used a mix of gloss painted ply with chicken wire stapled to it, then applied a ply face (temp one!) where upon we filled the "TRAYS" with a mix of sharp sadn/semi course ballast /cement, all pre mixed with black cement dyes, and after tamping off to bring the fat up, we added loads of freshly ground/smashed quart chipping (garden centre special order!) all over the tops, and as it was finally going off, it was "power" floated with a mini float, and then buffed up /abrasive sanded.. a few coats of an oil a few more days later, and hey presto, a cheap granite effect... still looks good now by all acccounts!!!!... ferkin heavy though!!!!! :-/ |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by jasonB on Oct 30th, 2006, 5:51pm The client had obviously been inspired by Fu -tung Cheng, have a look at the gallery, I really like the combined wood/concrete countertops. Jason |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by scotspark on Oct 30th, 2006, 6:17pm Quote:
This is true but it won't last. fine if you are doing up to sell but if it's in your own house and you are planning to stay there for years and have it endure the stresses of everyday living then these will start to show on a poor quality kitchen. the opposite is also true how many times have you seen a customer wreck a beautiful installation that they have spent a fortune on by fitting the units themselves or trying to do something else themselves like plastering, tiling, painting, or even bits of joinery. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by woodsmith on Oct 30th, 2006, 8:35pm scotspark wrote on Oct 30th, 2006, 6:17pm:
Not entirely true, I've fitted a few cheap flat packed kitchens for people I know don't have a lot of money and if all the joints are bonded and sealed even a relatively poor cabinet should easily last 10 years, maybe a lot more. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 30th, 2006, 9:05pm Quote:
Make that at least 18 years and counting dear chap!!!, the house next to my parents, has some units that i installed when the O.A.P lived there, now a young couple have it , and they kept the kitchen as it was still sound!! Ahhhh!!!! got the units from ... "TEXAS" (now HomeBase!!!) :o :o :o :o :o :o |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 30th, 2006, 9:06pm oooops! nearly forgot, thats the sort of idea W/S... the guys wife was/is a Yank and it has been the IN things for ages over there in Yank land!!!! Hence the requirement!! |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by scotspark on Oct 31st, 2006, 8:31pm Quote:
maybe so I will bow to your expertise in this matter. but I have seen poor quality kitchens where the drawer units fall apart or the melamine facing on the doors seems to chip/peel after a few years. |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 31st, 2006, 9:42pm Quote:
and a few of us have seen mega bucks units disintigrate within a few months!!!! theres a place not too far from me (and they shall remain name less , but its in CHISLEHURST!!!!) ;D and a 1000 base unit, in "timber" not chip/mdf board starts from £860 .. YEP!! EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY QUID!!!! and they lasted all of 10 months before warping, splitting etc etc etc, and a hinge broke within a fortnight!! real class too!! (NOT!!) |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by Scrit on Oct 31st, 2006, 10:00pm TIMBA-WOLF wrote on Oct 31st, 2006, 9:42pm:
And cheap at half the price, sir! Don't you know that it's a piece of art? You're not actually supposed to use it! Scrit |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by WOLF on Oct 31st, 2006, 11:09pm Quote:
Knowing the pompus ass who's home they are in , THAT would not surprise me!!... |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by woodsmith on Nov 1st, 2006, 8:09am scotspark wrote on Oct 31st, 2006, 8:31pm:
You're absolutely right, there are cheap kitchens units, usually flat packed that need a lot of care in building but will then last for years and there are crap kitchen units that need burning ;D |
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Title: Re: EasyJet magazine - Kitchens Post by Scrit on Nov 1st, 2006, 9:59am scotspark wrote on Oct 31st, 2006, 8:31pm:
The melamine edging is pretty much the same wherever it comes from - universally nasty. It is true that the better quality manufacturers use a better quality MFC, such as Egger, for the carcasses and nowadays use a PVC edgebanding instead of melamine (although it's still sub 1mm thick) - both of these can make some difference to longevity. But drawer quality these days is pretty good in most cases - even the cheapest kitchens use Blum Metabox drawers (or copies of that design) and they are very durable indeed. The door quality issue is still with us (although very few people have used melamine-faced doors since the early to mid 1980s) - if you buy cheap foil wrapped (really just printed paper) MDF doors they are not going to have the lifespan of a decent vinyl wrapped door or a wooden door, but even there it depends how you treat them. This year I've refaced several kitchens with relatively low cost units where the original installer had taken the time to add extra screws, glue joints and seal the backs and exposed edges and I was surprised to see how well they've actually fared, whereas a 12 year old "quality" kitchen had to be ripped out and redone once I got the tops and plinths off - the maker hadn't used adjustable feet (the carcasses went down to floor level), so several floods had done for a number of the carcasses whilst there wasn't a single sealed edge anywhere in sight. Had that kitchen been properly installed it would have lasted longer (up to 20 or 25 years) and cost the customer less. Scrit |
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