Services for installing a kitchen

Hi All,

My husband and I just got a flat and there is (surprise, surprise) no kitchen in it. Someone told us that we could look on eBay to get some decent deals on kitchens and it seems like that was a good suggestion. The only problem is that we are in no way able to pick up a kitchen and get it to our apartment, let alone install the kitchen ourselves. Does anyone know anyone who does this or who we could look up to get this done? Any estimates on how much we should expect it to cost?

I figure that some Germans must pack up their kitchens and take them with them when they change apartments, and therefore there must be some service out there that would do something similar, but I really have no idea.

Thanks!

Sylvia

TT advertisers Huntcrest Services can do kitchen installations. I don't know the costs but you can ask them for a quote.

Try the handyman at your place of business. When I moved here, Ikea wanted over €500 to install my kitchen. I paid the handyman at the institute where I work €200 to do it. It was very much worth it.

If you're not in a hurry for a kitchen, I'll have one for sale in August, asking about €800 obo/ono. It's the Ikea Arlig kitchen, about 3m long, plus a 1.4m high fridge with freezer and an LG microwave. Kitchen includes sink, oven, stovetop, hood and an older model dishwasher. It's got the Birch countertop. There's a picture of it (though you can't see the fridge and micro) Beautiful 3-room apt in Ismaning.

Thanks for the kitchen offers!

Actually, we're looking for something as soon as possible (call me crazy, but I just feel strange living in a flat without a kitchen) and something less than 2000 Eur. They are both part of the reason we're looking at used ones: we're not interested in paying out our nose, nor are we interested in waiting 1-2 months to have it put in.

I also noticed that there are tons in Kurz und Fundig. Has anyone every tried that route?

Thanks!
Sylvia

Sylvia,

I don't know if this is too far out for you, but I have an Ikea Värde set for 1300 that you can take in 3 weeks, which is much faster than you can get it if you have something new delivered from any of the furniture shops. There is an extractor hood, new fridge, ceramic stove, dish washer and convection oven.

The pictures are at:

http://www.scowl.de/wordpress/moving-sale/

Because the pieces are free standing, all you will need is a plumber to connect the water and someone who can plug the oven in. Plus, you can expand the set with pieces from Ikea whenever you want.

The only challenge is that you have to get it from Cologne to Munich. I could arrange with a moving company to take it from here, move it to Munich and bring it to your apartment for you - and it would probably cost 500 or so. Still, this gives you a 6 month old kitchen and you can have it delivered the week of 14 June.

Interested?

I've been looking around for kitchens lately...The best quality kitchen for your money seems to be Ikea. They're not too bad...I also agree that the installation dude they send around can be pricey. But they know exactly what to do and they don't screw around. The downside of Ikea is that the electrical appliances (i.e. Whirlpool etc.) aren't of the best quality. HINT: If you want that brand new sweet induction ceramic stove top...don't buy it from Ikea buy it from Siemens!!

there is a place in Fürstenfeldbruck which sells used kitchens. You can have a look at them in a big barn. They'll also install them if I remember correctly. Bit more pricey than kurz und fündig (which is great if you are able to pick it up).
The problem is: I can't find/google the address. Maybe some other TTer will know it?

So, I noticed that there wasn't any in-depth description of the kitchen buying process on TT. Since I think it's such a foreign concept to most people, I thought I would describe my experience. I hope this post isn’t too long!

The first problem was trying to decide between used or new. Our kitchen is a little bit of a strange shape, but it has one wall that could fit a 2.7 meters long kitchen. To get an idea of the price range for installation, I called a couple kitchen installation services (one from my husband’s work and the other being Huntcrest Services from TT). Huntcrest gave the better quote (you can PM me if you are interested in knowing any specific prices). Our first thought was that we wanted to spend as little as possible to have a simple and functional yet comfortable (for example, decent counter space, 4 burners, etc.) kitchen. We started looking at used, complete kitchens on Kurz and Funding and on eBay. Immediately, I realized that this was going to be a lot more work than it first seemed. I felt uncomfortable buying a kitchen that I had not already seen, because it’s difficult to judge the condition of something from photos. However, going out to visit all the potential kitchens in person was a lot of legwork. In addition, our selection was limited because many of the kitchens were simply not the right shape or layout to fit the space we had. We even had to turn down a kitchen that we would have gotten for free (!) because it did not fit our space. In the end, I called about 20 different ads over a weeks time for used kitchens without really finding something that we were happy with.
Since the used kitchens we were looking at were in the 600-1000 Eur range, and the installation costs (including disassembly, delivery and installation) were around 200 Eur higher for the used kitchens than buying one new, we decided that it was worth the extra money to buy a kitchen that we knew would be in good shape and was exactly what we wanted. We looked at ads from Segmueller and Ikea and decided that Ikea was the better deal. (Note: at this point we were quickly getting tired of not having a kitchen and spending so much time looking for one. If you have the energy, I would definitely go out and check out Segmueller in person.)
Once we decided on Ikea, we designed our kitchen with the program that we downloaded off their website (a very nice program!). We took the info into the store and they made up a list of all the items that we would need as well as giving us a few pointers on layout and design. They told us that delivery would take 3-5 weeks and would cost a flat rate of 99 Eur. Assembly would then be 140 Eur/meter of kitchen with floor and hanging cabinets, 100 Eur/meter of kitchen with floor cabinets and 54 Eur for installing the oven. All together, the price would have been around 600 Eur. (Note: another person that I talked to recently had his kitchen delivered from Ikea for 79 Eur with a week’s delivery time. I’m not sure why there was such a dig difference between his experience and ours.) At this point we called up Huntcrest Services and they gave us a quote that was much better than that (again, PM me if you are interested in what we paid). There was a little bit more sweat involved when we didn’t use Ikea to deliver, because we then had to go through the store and pick up all the kitchen pieces ourselves. However, for us it was worth it to get the kitchen in 2 days rather than 3-5 weeks. If the delivery had been faster, we probably would have gone with the Ikea delivery.
We were very happy with the installation job that Huntcrest did. It took them about 2 full days to install the kitchen (including cutting the counter tops to fit the sink and the stove burners) and they did a great job. Our oven was a little difficult to install, so they suggested an electrician to come out on a separate day to do that. They found an electrician for us that was quite skilled and a better price than the quotes I got from calling electricians in the telephone book. After the electrician was done, Huntcrest also made sure that the oven was properly fixed in place.
In the end, we paid a total of 2600 Eur for the kitchen, which included appliances (stove, oven, fridge, sink and vent fan), installation & delivery and 4.4 meters of cabinets. The whole thing from designing the kitchen to happily sitting in it with a cup a tea took about a week. I still don’t understand why apartments here don’t have kitchens, but now at least we’ll know what to do if we ever face this situation again!

Any other questions? Want to see pictures of the final product? PM me and I can try to help!

Hi - does anybody know of a guy who can fit a kitchen professionally? We've had some pricey quotes so would be looking to get someone 'on the cheap' if at all possible. Cash in hand for a bit of extra work kind of thing. We're planning on picking up and disassembling the kitchen on Tuesday and would look to begin installing at our end on the same day. We wouldn't need them to do everything but difficult stuff (and legally necessary) like the sink and the oven would be perfect. We've pushed the boat out pretty far already with this move so would like a professional but cheap-and-cheerful person to step forward...

Thanks a lot in advance.
Andy

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We used Huntcrest for exactly the same type of task. We put the main bits of the kitchen together and they came in to finish it off, do the sink, plumbing and electrical. We found them cheerful & helpful and they were also able to make good suggestions about how to set things up, what was workable or not so workable.

Hi there,

I’ve just signed for a unfurnished apartment in Schwabing and am looking to install a new kitchen. However, as part of the deal I have to find get it installed by ‘professionals’. This would be the kitchen unit, lighting, white goods etc. Just wondered if anyone could recommend someone who could do such a job and do it ASAP.

Cheers,
James

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Try Benchmark, I used them to install a kitchen recently and they were fantastic.

There are other companies as well if you do a search!

Have you bought a kitchen from Toytown?? Who fixed it for you? In other words can anyone recommend someone who can do it.

thanks

Topics merged by admin