Wickes Kitchen problems

It was the apparent smug satisfaction that someone else had wasted such a huge amount of money, which is so obviously sickening.

 

I bet you're a right laugh down the pub it was hardly on the scale of the Ponzi scheme was it, putting aside the fact that a woodworkers skills were obviously good enough in the 1930's to create and imitate a piece of furniture that decades later sold for a staggering amount (why doesn't that make it as good as the original if no one bar the maker can tell the difference?) there was nothing forcing the person who purchased it to buy it, indeed if he forked out ninety odd grand for a piece of furniture then I'd imagine he had more money than sense and was probably regularly dealing with sums like that. A fool and his money are soon parted.

 

Hi Jonathanc

I should really have said notifiable but can be signed off by a competent/qualified person I believe.

Regards

Brian

 

Hi Woodbutcherbower

I didnt mean anything personal to anyone offering advice on this thread, i was simply offering an alternative view. £15,000 is a great deal of money to be spending on a kitchen although I appreciate some people spend a great deal more.

I would not accept the standard of the work shown in the photos and the OP should not either. That is my view. The issues with the legs for instance are more than just chipboard which I agree would have been more acceptable if it had actually been flooring chipboard but I dont believe that is the case here. The legs are not vertical and therefore some fixing screws would likely have pulled out.

The state of the floor could be a real issue and piles of **** is not a good indicator.

Just to clarify, my kitchen is being fitted in a new room which includes the new extension and the existing. While the extension is pretty square and has a block and beam floor, the existing has about 6 layers of flooring and screed and is at a different level to the block and beam And no i didnt install the extension shell or floor, it was built by experts.

I am not sure which parts of your criticism were aimed at me,but let me respond to a couple in case.

The worst contractors I ever employed are those who see customers as a nuisance unless they bow and scrape to the contractor as if they are doing them a favour. My worst was probably the kitchen fitter in my recent new build house who had fitted all of the cabinets at the wrong height when i dropped in one lunchtime to check on progress. The empty lager cans gave a clue to the level of professionalism.

The issues this "customer has" could well lead to contractual issues later and there is an issue of whether Wickes or the subcontractor should be the goto person. On a new build for instance i would in the past deal with the housebuilder rather than individual contractors. I appreciate that this isnt a new build but for me the same issues arise.

The hole in the floor is clearly an issue for the customer and could indeed cause problems in the future. It has to be rectified or at least inspected and assessed. issues such as damp could crop up in the future if proper action isnt taken. To argue that this is not an issue for the kitchen fit is I believe incorrect.

Quite often amateurs do know just as well as the "expert", most of these things are not rocket science. Quite often the "amateur" will do just as good a job if not better as they will take time and ncare, although i agree that this is not always the case. The worktops are an example but the plumbing work and fitting of cabinets can easiy be done by most averagely competent keen DIYers. Electrics and gas clearly not.

The big differences between the average professional kitchen fitter and the competent DIYer is that the professional has the specialist tools and sometimes experience to do the job quicker to an acceptable level of quality. I get the impression that you guys here are not average kitchen fitters you are above average skilled craftsmen and many average/below average kitchen fitters actually give you a bad name. The reason people pay such high prices for this stuff is because they expect people like you guys to be doing the job but Wickes do not always employ the best, they often employ the cheapest.

The issues the OP has are for me concerning as a fellow customer. He could chat to the kitchen fitters himself and try to resolve his problems but in my view he is setting himself up for future grief. The issues here could all have been sorted and will only be some of them and some he will not see. The state of the floor and the gap caused by lifting the tiles should in my "amateur" view be surveyed and sorted in consultation with Wickes.

I am not questioning any of your advice which is all given on the back of much experience and expert knowledge. I just have a different perspective.

Regards

Brian

ps....i had read every post on this thread and several of the ideas i thought were really useful and i will remember when i do my kitchen which will actually be much more problematic than you imagine. I have already posted on here and elsewhere asking for advice on various things and will do in future, including my kitchen i imagine.


Have a good one, you sound like one of the good guys.

 

If there was any fraud going on it was being perpetrated by the seller and the Auction house at the time. It was up to them to make sure the cabinet was as they had described it, not up to the cabinet maker that had made it on commission 70 years beforehand for another customer.
A cursory glance under any drawer box would have told any idiot who had made it, and that it couldn't possibly be 18th century.

 

Just curious as to what determined the 'wrong height'............ and "all of the cabinets".....meaning literally all, or just the base or just the wall cabinets???????

 

Was sort of wondering this myself actually. When i fit a kitchen, i know the supplied plinth height (normally 150mm). Always starting from a corner, i work out the lowest corner (1.8m spirit level) and that's where i start fitting a kitchen. I do it that way because the plinth has already been supplied and paid for and at that stage all i have to do is cut it suite any slope in the floor. That decides the height of the worktops, any tall housings and by default the height of any wall cabs. It's not rocket science and in the UK it is normal practice. Unless you are fitting for someone very very tall, or a wheelchair access kitchen.............in which case i would know beforehand or would know because i had sold it in the first place. If it was for a very tall couple...................i would expect 200mm plinth and to be told before the fit and for the cab legs to be able to extend that far.

 

Agreed 100%. Howdens plinths are 165mm, and most of the time I cut those down to 150mm as well. Only exceptions are on ancient flagstone floors in barn conversions etc. where the extra 15mm is sometimes useful for scribing the plinths to a floor which is all over the place. I've never met a kitchen fitter who doesn't aim for somewhere around the 870mm mark for the top of base carcasses. Regarding wall units - as you say, the height of those is more than often determined by a tower unit somewhere - the tops sit at the same height to maintain the line all of the way round.

So I also have absolutely no idea what the 'the wrong height' means.