Who are the bees knees when it comes to kitchens

Am in the same position, looking around for new kitchen, was to a place on swords road, no names mentioned, wife loved a certain kitchen gave measurements and was told they will do up drawings and give a price, 3weeks later no word from them rang up the guy i was dealing with and says they are very busy and he has to give priority to people coming into the show rooms, ahhhhhhh thats what i did and gave all the information they required, anyway after a few more calls go drawings and a partial price, told he would get back with price of worktop etc, now another 4 weeks later still no word on price of work top, how do these places stay in business. Got another local guy in to measure up took all the details, everything was straight forward told he will get back with in a week, 4 weeks later still no call. have about 15k to spend on kitchen which would cover what we want and cant seem to get any body to do it. what does it take for someone to install a kitchen these days, Anyway have put the kitchen on hold for a while, dont want to hand money over to some firm and then have another lockdown with the chance of them going out of business and never seen my money again. Plan to do it myself in the future with the exception of the work top. Support local business, these guys do not need support if they are turning down work like this.

@Tickers, best of luck with The panelling centre

I agree with you about the standard of current stuff.
Would you consider replacing the counter top, keeping the carcass, replace the sink/s and add new doors?

I’m not sure if I can name names but we will shortly be getting a kitchen installed by a company with a showroom in Monkstown. They were recommended by friends.

They’ve been great to deal with and have been able to tailor a few bits to suit our needs which wasn’t possible with some of the other companies who do seem to rely more on “flat packs” for the structure of the kitchen.

I’ll report back in a few weeks when it’s in.

I'd recommend Woodworkers in Terenure, speak to Ken there, really knows his stuff. They can source most things if they don't readily supply it.
We got our hardwood counters there.

(also, don't go by their website, it's shocking)

Adaline Swift Battalion wrote: »

Woodworkers don't fit, supply only afaik?

Yea that's why I mentioned Ken, he knows all the carpenters they supply so he'd recommend a fitter.

Any kind of chipboard is utter sh!te, in my opinion, for a kitchen. I wouldn't even use it in a bedroom.

Painted MR MDF is what you want. MR = moisture resistant. It is both more dimensionally stable and has greater pull-out strength for fixings, and can be accurately machined to various profiles.

Peter Millard has loads of Youtube videos on it. I think he uses Medite, but PanelDespot (for instance) claim to supply MR MDF from various sources.

It only costs about a tenner per square meter, so I've no idea why all kitchen companies don't use it.

Am shopping around for a kitchen too at the moment and each of the 6 suppliers we have spoken to so far are still dealing with the glut of enquiries they received during lockdown.

We have, after 4 weeks received prices and drawings from 4 of the 6, with the other two expected this week.

It's nothing personal, they're just out-the-door busy with enquiries at the moment. I have noticed however that phoning up or arriving in person gets a more prompt response than a Facebook or website enquiry. I know people on Boards tend to prefer an online interaction, but there are also lots of people that send out dozens of enquiries with zero intention of ever buying anything too.