Ikea kitchen installation service
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Anonymous
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Hi, We are going to remodel our small kitchen using Ikea cabinets and the $199 planning service. Has anyone used Ikea's DC area contractor for installation? If so, would you recommend the installation services?
Thanks! |
Anonymous
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We used them and were happy with the end result and much of the process, but you will need to be very involved with the planning.
The $199 design service -- you get what you pay for. They have a familiarity with Ikea products and dimensions, so will be able to quickly tell you what fits where. But they will not spend the time with you as you figure out what you like, what will work for you, what works well from a functionality process, where do you want cabinets versus drawers, etc. Bottom line, they are not kitchen designers. You are your own designer and you will need to spend time figuring that out. We revised our design 3 or 4 times before the installation began, and thank god we did. The Ikea self-service online design tool sucks. It is not at all user-friendly. Fortunately their "designer" patiently entered all of our design changes for us, though we had to do a little bit of hounding. In the end it worked out. Nice guy, it's just a process. They want to hurry up and get started on the work, but for you, you want to make sure the design is right first. That has to be finalized, and the drawings and material lists generated, before you buy the materials and demolition starts. It is a problem to make changes on the fly after you begin. Once they get started, plan on taking a fair amount of time off to be there to make decisions. Stuff comes up. (Like what's under your floor when they rip it up, and how to deal with that, or what happens when a measurement is off and a trim won't work, etc.) If you're not there to decide it may get done differently than you want it. (Example: we went from a single to a double sink, and now our disposal is on the wrong side because no one ever asked, and once it was done it was too expensive to undo.) The Ikea install is a great value, but they make it that way by doing it high-speed, high-volume. You save money but you are your own general contractor. (For instance, they do not do the plumbing, electric, or HVAC, you have to hire and manage those folks yourself. Hiring the ones they recommend helps because they're all using to working with and around each other, though the electricians they recommended were not as on-time and detail-oriented as their main team was. The main team does the cabinets and counters, and if you want them to, the tile and floors, though you can hire your own for that if you want to. If I had to do it again, I'd use the main team for the tile and floors; they were good and using our own folks just slowed stuff up.) We would do it again. But know what you're getting into--it is a lot of work on your part that you are not paying a designer or general contractor to handle for you. |
Anonymous
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Ikea has 20%-off-the-whole-kitchen sales 2 or 3 times a year. Make sure you get in on one. It is a great savings and they really do give you 20% off everything. (Materials, not installation.)
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Anonymous
Thanks...this is VERY helpful. Exactly the kind of information I was hoping for.
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Anonymous
| Question for the PP who wrote the great detailed post: who was the contractor who did the cabinet install? |
Anonymous
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does ikea kitchen installation only work if you're using your existing footprint. That is, if you were planning to open up the kitchen by knocking out a non-load-bearing wall, could their contractors handle that (obviously for a higher fee?) and could their design software handle that?
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Anonymous
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PP here. It was Carnegie Kitchens. Yes, they can do your other stuff as well. There's a process.
Ikea has a national installation service called Traemand. Traemand's process is cookie-cutter, assembly-line. You sign a Traemand contract, you get the basic cabinet installation for the Ikea-guaranteed price. Carnegie can do whatever kind of carpentry you need. They knocked out a non-load-bearing wall for us, reinforced a half-wall in its place, took the floor all the way down to the joists and then re-built the subfloor, and moved a wall and door for us elsewhere in the house. All of that work was good quality and as far as I could tell reasonably priced. But because of Ikea's deal with Traemand, they won't give you an estimate for any of that, or sign a contract for it, until first you've signed the Traemand contract for the basic cabinet install. So then you have 2 contracts, one with Ikea/Traemand (national) for the cabinets and one with Carnegie Kitchens (local) for the rest. There were some communications issues, and some scheduling issues, but the quality of the work was good in the end. None of the extras are covered in Ikea's design deal. And Carnegie will not give you design or working drawings. If you need drawings, you need an architect. Our work was done without drawings, but it was very simple. I wouldn't do that if you're changing a footprint or doing anything complex. The Ikea countertop installer is Norwood. We heard some bad things, mostly about scheduling, but our experience was almost all positive. The schedule was good, the installation was precise, and the counter looks good from above. They patiently worked with us while we got one custom angle particularly right. My only beef is that on the bottom of the counter, there are stenciled-on markings (like there are on plywood) that they did not bother to polish off -- I guess figuring no one ever looks at the bottom. I didn't notice them until the job was done, all the papers signed, and they were gone. Now no one ever sees that stuff (unless they're on their hands and knees looking up), but I know it's there. Grrr. I think Carnegie's carpentry and cabinet work was excellent. I wish we'd used them for the tile work; our tile installer did a poor job and by the end I came to trust Carnegie's guys better. But as I said you're on your own for the plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and floors. Their recommended plumber was good; their recommended electrician not so much; and we used our own floor people, but I'm not sure -- I think using theirs might have been a better move for better coordination. They really wanted to be hands-off about the HVAC, which was frustrating because we ended up paying a lot on that end on our own for just a few key pieces. At the end, when the exhaust hood had to be hooked up, there was a carpentry piece to it, an electrical piece, and an HVAC piece, and no one wanted to touch anything that wasn't their specific thing. I was like, really? I have to have three different trades in the room at the same time, to do something that's really just twisting a couple of wire nuts and taping the duct in place with flash tape? We got through it but the multi-sub coordination was a hassle. Like I said, you will be your own general contractor. Be prepared to be very involved, on a daily basis, or to have unforeseen stuff happen that you didn't know to ask about. The alternative, though, is to hire a general contractor or project manager to do that stuff for you. For your very small kitchen, you probably don't have that $$ in the budget. This is the tradeoff you make. We would do it again, but have your eyes open to how much time and energy you are going to spend in place of money. And if you're not a handy type, how much you are going to have to learn. |
Anonymous
| I should add that the appliances and the sink were part of the Traemand (Ikea) deal, and part of the Ikea 20% off deal. We thought the prices and choice on the Ikea appliances and sink were excellent. The Ikea-brand appliances are made by Whirlpool, I think. We got our own custom faucets and a higher-end oven, but did the Ikea fridge, cooktop, dishwasher, hood, and sink, all good. |
Anonymous
| PP again. BTW we are in MD. I don't know how many local installation companies they use; the answers might vary if you are in DC or VA. You could call Ikea and ask how many different installers they use. (The kitchen department probably won't be able to answer that, but Diego in Customer Service would know.) |
Anonymous
| Try INEX construction. They specialize in IKEA kitchens and we just loves them. |
Anonymous
| One last thing, I think I wasn't clear: the whole install ends up being done by the local company (for us, Carnegie). Traemand is the national coordinator but they don't do the work--you will never see them. They sub the work to the local. So if you get Carnegie like we did, Carnegie is doing all the work, but there are two different contracts to read/sign and two different payment streams -- one with Traemand for the cabinets, counters, and appliances; and one with Carnegie for everything else you add. (Plus one each for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, floors, tiles, etc....) |
Anonymous
Ditto! We used INEX and they are fantastic. Chuck, the owner, is very honest and great to work with. |
Anonymous
+2. INEX did a fabulous job for us 3 years ago. |
Anonymous
| This is probably a better IKEA thread to ask the cost of installation of an IKEA kitchen? |
Anonymous
| inex has switched and now just does bathroom installs. |