Ok guys there must be some of you who have had kitchens refitted. Any tips? I am planning on having the wall pulled down between the existing kitchen and breakfast room to make one big room. Only really 2 problems 1. It is big so it will be expensive (i will need something like 30m sq of flooring) 2. I earn my living from my kitchen and so it is really importaint to get it right and get it done quickly, not least because cooking is my stress relief and I may just crack wiht not being able to cook for a few weeks. 

For what it's worth, from my experience when we had to have an emergency kitchen refit (had a fire in the kitchen ) I would give the following advice:-

1.    Have a turn out first, get rid of all the "rubbish" that lurks in the kitchen drawers - you know - the sachets/wipes etc from fast foot places.

2.     Try and use up as many of your stores as possible before embarking on the refit.

3.      If you have a utility room, set up a microwave & a baby belling (if you can find one).

I certainly wouldn't advise moving out whilst its being done - or you might not find it back to your satisfaction.

And Good Luck!

Margot

Thanks for that Margot. I have already been through and cannot find any rubbish, it is more a question of me not having to run up to the loft for less used sauce pans and packaging :0 The rubbish went when I started having to buy my flour 60 odd Kg at a time :D

Maybe, if it is a big enough space you could get the fitters to just take half of the cupboards out and then fit the new ones in their place, then take the other half of the old cupboards out? It may just give you enough space to get by. Our kitchen is fairly small, but it still took two fitters to get it done in a week, and that was just the cupboards and sides, all in all it took about 4 weeks to do absolutely everything - and I mean everything! We had to have a new ceiling, new plaster, new electrics, new gas points, new plumbing, and then of course it was all the floor and wall tiles and the cabinets and sides themselves, then the sink, oven, hob, hood, intergrated fridge and freezer, ceiling lights, cupboard lights, even things you don't think about like door ways and skirting boards/coving, light switches and plug sockets (watch out for the cooker switch - £30!!!!!) LOL

I know there is SO much to think about and no doubt you guys on champdogs will bear the brunt of it - you are such good listeners!

I think I can get the wall taken down without entirely loosing the use of the kitchen and I should be able to have the back door moved and the lighting done (that just requires emptying the office and spare bedroom and lifting the floors ) BUT they cannot measure for the work surfaces until the units are in and then they take 3 weeks. I hope to be able to get a friendly carpenter to set up all of the units in his workshop down the road to make sure they are all OK before we rip out the old ones.

That sounds a bit odd about the work tops, why don't you have a quick look around where the work top will be and have a rough guess at what you will need then add another one - you can always get a refund for any surplus, as long as it hasn't been cut into, but that way you should be able to get the work surfaces in the same time as the cupboards :D

Ah trouble is Nat these are moulded/cut to your requirements so that there are no joins - much more hygenic with teh amount of cooking I do. 

Oh I see! :D

Good luck with it :D

Had mine refitted back in February although i must say my son took my old units out. I had a local kitchen company to plan and install and i can say i was very impressed, the lads started at 8am on the monday morning and by 4pm friday everything was in and working extra plug sockets quarry tiled floor all the splash backs everything. so if i was you i would look around and get some quotes and different plans from various companys.

Im in the process of doing that. Sadly I have just had 2 plans done where they had clearly not listend to what I had said :(

When I first moved in here, I bought a combi grill/microwave - it was INVALUABLE for preparing hot meals - these days I use that, a steamer and a George Forman grill for 90% of my cooking...

In our last home I lived with a combi micro and 2 ring hob for 8 years. But then there was a really good eaterie down the road and I didnt make my living cooking.

It is really all in the planning good planning will make it an easy transition.

It shouldn't take a week to fit a kitchen either ;-)   Unless you include all the flooring, painting, tiling etc etc.

The modular work tops can be measured up IF the walls and the exact locations are there.  This may be a problem if you are moving walls etc but once they are finished that bit the worktops can be measured up no problem.

My OH fits about 2-3 kitchens a week.  They are organised and don't start one unless they have every single item required so they do it and don't have to go back.  

Friday they use the whole day ( well about 5 hours) for planning the following weeks work and doing checks on the kitchen etc.

The combi micro is a good idea, or live on take aways for a week .

I have lost count how many kitchens I have fitted..

Your OH sounds brilliant bet he is fully booked Only got a tiny kitchen(lol only got a tiny house)I love my micro combi good for loads of stuff . Reckon it wouldn't take a full day to do mine  ;)

LOL Moonmaiden.

He is chocablock till Xmas time. 

He is my second OH :-)  and after being married to a white collar first time who was not the best DIYer when I met New OH and he said he was a carpenter I thought "hello you will do just nicely" LOL

Don't ask how many houses I have built, kitchens I have fitted and how many walls I have moved 6 inches ;-) since then.

Pity you dont live a bit nearer or I would be booking him ;) My OH is white collar but has lots of ideas :rolleyes:

If you are having a wall knocked down, you will not believe the brick dust that gets everywhere.

In hindsight I wished I had packed away all my bits and bobs from all the rooms in the house before the work started.

As annoying as it is, be there while it is being done, although the company I used was very good and I was thrilled with the end result, I dread to think what would have happened had I not been there for every step.

Good Luck
Sandra

OOh I know about brick dust. We had an extension done about 4 years ago and I swear Im still finding it.

I have to say that Im very tempted to go away for the duration but again experience with builders and animals would indicate that this is not a good idea.

I don't know if it's too late, but my best tip is to get more drawers than cabinets with shelves.   I love having a drawer for pans, a drawer for covers, another for cling film, and so on.   So much easier to organise and find things!

My house had a small kitchen with a breakfast bar, no room for a table.  The dining room was next to the kitchen, there was a serving hatch, but to get into the dining room you had to leave the kitchen, step into the hall, then into the dining room door.  I closed up the hatch and opened up a large archway between the kitchen and dining room.

I'm never going to win any prizes for being neat, so I could never live with a completely open kitchen.  I need to be able to hide the mess!

Stacey

LOL yes one of my specifications is NO open shelving 'cos I know it just collects clutter that needs constaint dusting!

I agree about the draws and I also like wall cupboards that are floor mounted as they are not deep enough to make you remove all of the front layer to get at the back. Although Im told that the pull out larder type cupboards overcome that.

Hi,

We are about to make our kitchen bigger again i'm lucky as my partner is a cabinet maker(very few have the qualifications that he has in this country ;-) ) and makes
and fits bespoke kitchens and fine furniture, also ends up refitting kitchens where other companies have done terrible jobs of fitting and completely rip the customers off.
At present we have solid wood worktops and solid oakdoors on the units.May be a delay in starting as hes making my daughter a beautiful solid cherry warbdrobe hes also a highly qualified french polisher and furniture restorer ;-)
Having said all that he on a career change and will soon only make kitchens and furniture for friends , family and long standing customers here and abroad and special commisoned pieces.

Although my kithen won't be massive it will be lovely to have it  bigger so i can have my farmhouse table in the middle.With 5 children to me my kitchen will never be big enough :-D .

I bet you can't wait to have yours finished :-)

Briony :-)

Briony It is the bit between now and when it is finished that bothers me! 

Hi,

Using a good company or cabinet maker etc it should take no time at all certainly less than a week and my partner works on his own when fitting kitchens ;-)
A good combination microwave is good perhap borrow one?

Briony  :-)

Hi Briony I earn my living from my kitchen so it has to be fully back to standard befroe I can start work again. I am having a load bearing wall removed and a door moved. Then I have to have the carcases in to have the work tops measured, then 2 to 3 weeks wait for them. Personally Im putting money on 6 weeks :(

I had to wait several weeks for worktops too so my kitchen designer arranged for a cheap, temporary surface while I was waiting. Mind you, by this time I had been without a kitchen at all for 10 weeks and the only running water in the house was an outside tap but that's a very long story...*shudders at the memory*

A good microwave is a must. Prepare lots of easily reheatable meals in advance and freeze them....soups, stews, bolognese, chilli con carne, curries etc. etc.

By heck that is the sort of thing Im having nightmares about - 10 weeks! 

Yep, 10 weeks

However, you are only removing a wall and moving a door. I had to have the entire extension demolished and rebuilt as the house was a shack and a total renovation project. When we moved in, works to the kitchen extension hadn't even started as the builders were concentrating on getting the main house 'habitable' but we still lived in two rooms upstairs for about 6 weeks :( NEVER AGAIN!!

Hopefully yours will all go more smoothly than mine did. Oh, and I have one of those pull-out larders that you mentioned earlier. Fantastic invention...you can see nearly everything that's in there without having to rummage and that's even in mine which is always disorganised and crammed with stuff (I LOVE cooking and always have enough in the store cupboard to be able to throw together a thai/indian/chinese/italian/mexican or whatever other sort of meal I happen to fancy, at the drop of a hat) :)

Oh in that cast 10 weeks isnt too bad. I often listen to a local consumer program and it is not uncomon for the people on there to be without a kitchen for many weeks or months :o Think I would go totally deranged if I couldnt cook for that long. Know what you mean about having all the ingredients for all your favorite dishes :D 

Hi Bleebell,

What kind of worktops are you having?

If its granite or corrian then yes these have to be measured  afterwards (wall knockeds down and plastered).
Which depending on the company how much work they have on, may take few weeks.

Obviously if they are solid hardwood worktops this is not the case .

Your joiner should be perfectly able to put the units  all together in your home without his workshop.

My partner takes kitchens out and puts them back, in 2 days he uses his workshops for actually making the doors and any special work or requirements everything else is done on site.
He does all his own drawings any plans which are discussed in great detail to exactly what the customer wants in their home so there are no mistakes and measurements are dead accurate because he does them and does not rely on someone else taking them.His attention to detail is second to none ;-)

Briony :-)

Hi,

Not so long ago my partner built a bespoke kitchen for a lady who ran cookery courses from her own kitchen she actually chose solid wood and granite it took my partner 2 days and my partner organised the plasterer for her as well.Her kitchen was 15 x 12.

Briony :-)

Like I said its a pity ypu are not nearer! Yep I was planning on corrian. Although I bleive that there are other similar things on the market now.

I have 'fake' corrian. I prefer matt finishes and couldn't find a granite or corrian that I liked that wasn't too shiny (I was the worst customer ever when getting my kitchen, soooo fussy!!). My kitchen designer finally managed to source a product called Minerelle (I think) which is basically synthetic corrian. It's beautiful, hard wearing and a little bit cheaper than the real thing (but not much!) and can't be damaged as easily as real granite etc. Looks pristine almost 2 years later!

That is the stuff that my carpenter friend was talking about. It dosent look a lot cheeper on the face of it but with the amount of worksurface I need it could make a lot of difference.

Forgot to mention the pull out larder.   Mine is narrow, but runs from the top of the wall cabinets to the bottom of the floor cabinet.  It's brilliant.

I have an integrated rubbish bin too, it pulls out from the bottom cabinet and is next to my sink.  Really like it.

Stacey