Where do I start - when will it be over?? Kitchen refit angst

[girloutofglasgow]

Having lived in the same semi for the best part of two decades with dingy pine units and brown tiles floor to ceiling, we have finally screwed up the courage to spend the necessary 0000s on a total refit for the kitchen.
Our bathroom/cloakroom refit six months ago took three times as long as the fortnight which the plumbers quoted and the prospect of a similar delay for the kitchen fills me with dread.
It's a galley style kitchen (L 3.9 x W 2.3) with an extension at the back (L 5.5 x W2m). Basically want to tie the two together better so it's more of an integrated kitchen/diner rather than two disparate rooms. Will have to get a firm to do the whole job. What I'd like your advice on please is - 1/ how long should it take? and 2/ does anyone have any recommendations for kitchen fitters in the North London/Hertfordshire area??
Very first thread - is it ok for me to ask for 2)??!
Please message me if not OK to recommend in public.
Many thanks for reading!
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[wendybird77]

Well I was told 2 weeks for the kitchen (as part of larger renovations). They took the old kitchen out about a month ago and it it still isn't usable. Delay on the granite and electrician mean we still don't have a connected cooker / hob or any kitchen sink. I expect it would have been less had I used worktops that didn't need templating once the units were in and if it had been a separate job. Best advice is to have everything in before they start so no delays on parts / taps / worktops etc. The work itself went pretty quick.

[girloutofglasgow]

Thanks Wendy - that's kind of what I feared - doubling the time they quote and then some. Hope it's not too long now!

[annalouiseh]

In and out should allow around a week, if having a solid top then a template and about 7 days till the fit.
All depends on the work involved really

[Babysamrocks]

We had our kitchen and laundry done last year. We knocked down a wall which made the finished kitchen bigger than the original. The guys who did mine took 3 weeks. Best of luck. Have you looked at /chosen units yet?

[greenfolder]

Ours took 3 weeks. Friends who were a bit nervous got a kitchen from john lewis entry level range-might be worth you having a look?

[herbaceous]

Our builder quoted four weeks, and it took nine. Admittedly it was quite a big job - involved knocking out a big part of a wall, putting doors in, replumbing, rewiring, etc - but it was hideous.

We had all the old appliances, all the new appliances, the flat-pack new kitchen and 4m of worktop in our sitting room for weeks on end, which is where we had to cook. In the microwave. There was half an inch of dust over every single thing in the house.

But our builder was shite. Get personal recommendations, and go and see the finished job.

[girloutofglasgow]

Thanks to you all for the words of advice, encouragement and warning! Will take a look at John Lewis - might spare us at least some angst. Been looking at so many units, can't remember all their names now. Wanting mid-range painted wood in cream or something similarily anodyne/classic, something that will bring some light into the kitchen. We could knock through into dining room and create really big kitchen/diner but don't have big family and don't entertain much so not much point. Plus would prefer not to knock any walls down!! But judging by your comments, I think with replumbing, rewiring, removing old and installing new appliances, it's going to take best part of a couple of months. Time to gird my loins I fear...

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

book a very long holiday. i hated every second of it. cooking in a microwave with dust everywhere and all my kitchen stuff piled in my living room for three weeks was murder. it was worth it but id never do it again. really do your homework on fitters. mine was shit.

[herbaceous]

I second the holiday notion. We booked a week away for, supposedly, the worst bit. However, because the builders were running late we returned from our holiday to a bombsite, making it doubly depressing.

And yes - we used our builders to fit our kitchen, to avoid any co-ordination difficulties with fitters. I thought 'how hard can it be to assemble an Ikea kitchen'? The answer would seem to be 'very hard', if you're a half-wit. One of the doors has already fallen off.

Can you tell I'm bitter?

[flow4]

Our builder said 3-4 weeks... It took 10! :( It was a total rip-it-out-and-start-again job, but he was unbelievably slow: he took 6 weeks to gut it and tank/damp-proof it, then electricians took 2 days to re-wire, and I got someone else in to help him board it ready for plastering, then 'sacked' him, basically because I had lost patience with him. It then took 2 days to plaster, and we had to leave it a week for the plaster to dry... Which took us to a total of 9 weeks... However, it then took just a week to get the joiner to fit the worktop, a plumber to fit the sink and gas hob, and my son and I to build and install all the IKEA units... :)

10 weeks of cooking on a camping stove in the sitting room and washing up on my knees in the bath nearly killed me... NEVER AGAIN!

[WildThong]

Try Rated People for recommendations, I've used it twice now for different tradesmen and been really pleased with the work both times.

[herbaceous]

We got ours through Rated People, as I'd previously got some excellent tradesmen through the site.

However, they were shit. When I looked more closely at the reviews, the last one was a couple of years ago, and some of them were so ridiculously effusive I suspect they were written by relatives, or similar.

I wrote a 'truthful' review of his work, and he wrote me a really shirty email, complaining. I told him I'd edit my review if he came back and fixed the long list of things that are wrong. I have yet to hear back.

[LittleMilla]

We're a week in to our job. Similarish level of work required - knocking thru kitchen diner. French doors where windows currently are. New kitchen window and new doorway for utility. In a week they have:

Knocked down the wall and fitted rsj
Stripped walls and ceiling
Taken plaster off two fireplaces
Got the floor up and replaced joists and done damp proofing
Bricked up a doorway
Made new opening outside

We left them Friday am so not sure what they've done since then. Most scared about windows coming out as we've got a two week wait until new (custom made to measure doors) will be ready. Brrrrr. Kitchen is being made in Poland.

We're anticipating another 5 weeks before the kitchen is properly in. But we should have doors, windows, plastered etc in the next couple of weeks? Our biggest delay is the six weeks to make the kitchen which has dictated the entire build tbh.

I've been impressed with what they've done in a week.