27 August 2026
Three Kitchen Quotes, Three Different Prices: How To Compare Them Properly In Liverpool
Ask three Liverpool fitters to price the same kitchen and you will very often get three numbers spread over several thousand pounds. That is not a sign that two of them are trying it on. It is usually a sign that all three have quoted for slightly different jobs, and nobody has told you which parts were left out. Citizens Advice suggests getting three prices before any home improvement work precisely so you have something to compare, but three prices are only useful if they cover the same ground. With VAT at 20 per cent on a fitted kitchen and the labour element of a full refit typically running to a third or more of the total, one missing line can move a quote by a month’s wages. This is how to take three sheets of paper and work out what each one is actually offering.
Why Three Quotes For The Same Kitchen Land Thousands Apart
The single biggest cause of a wide spread is the brief, not the fitters. If you walked one round the house talking about quartz and walked another round talking about “a nice worktop”, they have priced two different kitchens. Same with appliance specs, handle choices, and whether the wall between the kitchen and the back room is staying.
The second cause is scope. A kitchen refit in a Liverpool terrace touches plaster, electrics, plumbing, flooring and often the back door. Some fitters price all of it. Some price the kitchen and assume you will sort the rest. Both approaches are honest. Only one of them tells you what the room will cost.
The third is the unit itself. A rigid 18mm carcass with a proper back panel and soft-close hardware costs meaningfully more than a flat pack 15mm equivalent, and neither quote will necessarily spell that out. Before you compare anything, write your own one page brief - unit count, door style, worktop material, appliance list, flooring, who does the plastering - and send the same one to everybody. If you want a sense check on the total before you do, the kitchen installation cost calculator will get you within range of a realistic figure for the size of room you have.
Split Every Quote Into The Same Four Buckets
Whatever format the three quotes arrive in, rewrite them yourself into four columns: units and doors, worktop, appliances, labour and trades. Nearly every quote can be forced into that shape, and once it is, the comparison stops being guesswork.
Units and doors is where the showroom discount games happen. A 40 per cent discount off a list price nobody pays is not information. What matters is the pounds figure and the carcass spec behind it.
Worktop is its own bucket because it is the line most likely to change after templating. Laminate is priced per length, quartz and granite are priced per square metre with extras for cut-outs, upstands and drainer grooves. If two quotes both say “quartz worktop” and one is £900 higher, ask how many square metres each has allowed and whether the island end panels are in or out.
Appliances are worth separating because you may well buy them yourself. Labour is the remainder, and it is the number most people never see broken out. Ask for it. A fitter who cannot tell you how many days the job takes has not planned it.
The Lines That Should Be There And Usually Are Not
Run down the three quotes with this list in your hand and tick off what appears. The gaps are where the cheap quote got cheap.
Electrics first. Moving sockets, adding spurs for integrated appliances, a dedicated supply for an induction hob. Adding a new circuit is notifiable work and comes with a certificate, so it has a real cost attached and it should be visible. Plumbing, if the sink is moving even 600mm. Plastering and making good, which in an older Liverpool house is rarely a small job once tiles come off a solid wall. Floor preparation. Waste removal, which for a full strip out means a skip or several grab loads, not a couple of bags. Tiling or splashback fitting. Making good the back door reveal, if the kitchen wraps into it.
Plastering is the one that catches most people out. Then the small items that add up: cooker hood ducting, plinth heaters, end panels, cornice and pelmet, scribing to out of square walls. Older housing across Old Swan, Walton, Garston and West Derby is very rarely square, and scribing takes time that has to sit somewhere in the price.
Who Buys The Kitchen Matters More Than The Discount
Two of your three quotes may be supply and fit, where the fitter buys everything. The third may be fit only, with you buying the kitchen from a retailer. These are not comparable until you add the retailer’s price to the third one, including delivery and any missing fillers.
There is a real difference beyond the money. When the fitter supplies, one person owns the problem if a door arrives damaged or a unit is the wrong size. When you supply, the fitter downs tools and waits for your replacement, and the day still gets charged. That trade-off is worth thinking through properly, and the supply-only versus supply-and-fit comparison goes through where each one genuinely saves money and where it quietly costs more.
If you do supply your own, order everything before the start date and check the delivery against the plan the day it lands. A missing 300mm base unit found on day one is an inconvenience. Found on day four, it is a second visit.
Deposits, Stage Payments And VAT
Money should move in step with the work. A deposit covering materials is normal. A demand for 70 per cent before anyone has turned up is not, and it is the clearest warning sign in this trade.
Tie payments to things you can see: units delivered to site, first fix signed off, worktop templated and fitted, final walk round complete. Hold back a meaningful final payment - enough to matter - until snagging is done. Citizens Advice sets out what a written agreement should cover in its guidance on getting building work done, and it takes about five minutes to read before you commit five figures.
On VAT, a quote should state its position plainly. The current standard VAT rate published by HMRC applies to kitchen fitting in an occupied home. A trader below the registration threshold will not add it, which is perfectly legitimate. What you are watching for is silence, because silence is where a 20 per cent argument gets born at the end of the job.
The Ten Minute Checks Most People Skip
Ask for the public liability insurance certificate and look at the date on it. Ask for a full trading address, not just a mobile number and a van. Ask who is doing the gas work if a hob or a boiler is being moved, and confirm they are Gas Safe registered - you can check the registration number yourself in a minute.
If the quote mentions a scheme membership, verify it rather than taking the logo at face value. The government endorsed TrustMark register of tradespeople is searchable, as are the trade body registers most fitters belong to.
Then look at recent work. Not a gallery of stock photos. Two addresses within a few miles, fitted in the last year, belonging to people you could actually ring. Any fitter working steadily around Liverpool will have them. Hesitation at that question tells you more than any number on the quote.
What Each Price Band Buys In Liverpool Right Now
Rough bands help you spot which of your three quotes is the odd one out. For a standard eight to ten unit kitchen in a Liverpool semi or terrace, supplied and fitted, with modest electrical and plumbing changes:
Around £5,000 to £8,000 buys entry to mid range units, laminate worktop, standard appliances and a straightforward layout with services staying roughly where they are. £8,000 to £14,000 covers better carcasses and doors, a solid surface or quartz worktop, integrated appliances, and a layout that moves things around a bit. Above £15,000 you are into bespoke or in-frame doors, a larger room, an island, or structural work.
Labour alone on a full refit typically runs a week to a fortnight for two trades, and that time does not compress just because a quote is cheaper. If one price is 30 per cent below the other two, the honest question is not “why are they so cheap” but “which days have they not allowed for”. Walking through the full kitchen renovation sequence with each fitter usually surfaces the answer.
Before You Sign, Ask These Four Things
Ask for a start date and a finish date, in writing, with a note of what happens if the worktop template slips. Ask who will actually be in the house each day, because subcontracted labour is normal but you should know about it. Ask what happens if something is found behind the old units - soft plaster, dead wiring, a pipe run nobody knew about - and how variations get priced. Ask for the guarantee terms on both the workmanship and the units, separately, since they are almost never the same length.
Four answers, ten minutes, and the quote that felt like a coin toss usually resolves itself. The one you want is rarely the cheapest or the dearest. It is the one that already knew what you were going to ask.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many kitchen quotes should I get in Liverpool?
Three is the number worth aiming for. Two gives you no way of telling which one is the outlier, and beyond four you tend to be comparing sales patter rather than prices. Ask all three to quote against the same written brief - same unit count, same worktop material, same appliance list - or you are comparing different jobs and the cheapest one is simply the one that left the most out.
Why is one kitchen quote thousands cheaper than the others?
Almost always because of what is not on it. The usual absentees are electrical work, plastering and making good, floor preparation, waste removal, and the cost of the appliances themselves. A quote can also be cheaper because the units are 15mm chipboard rather than 18mm, or because the worktop is laminate rather than the quartz you asked about. Put the three quotes side by side line by line and the gap normally explains itself within ten minutes.
How much deposit should a kitchen fitter ask for in Liverpool?
A deposit that covers materials is reasonable, and on a fitted kitchen that usually lands somewhere between 25 and 40 per cent depending on whether the fitter or the supplier is holding the units. What is not reasonable is most of the money before anyone has lifted a tool. Agree stage payments in writing against visible milestones - units delivered, first fix complete, worktop templated, snagging signed off - and keep a final payment back until you have walked the finished kitchen.
Should a kitchen quote include VAT?
It should say clearly one way or the other. A VAT registered business charges 20 per cent on kitchen fitting in an occupied home, and that needs to be shown as a separate line or stated as included. A smaller sole trader below the registration threshold will not charge VAT at all, which is legitimate and not a discount they are giving you. The problem is only ever a quote that stays silent on it, because that is where a 20 per cent surprise arrives at the end.