Have you had a painted kitchen installed recently? Need advice/ perspective

[IDismyname]

Have had mahoosive row with kitchen people. They've been so obstructive with the installation and painting of my new kitchen. If it's not the temperature or the moisture levels it's the dust from somewhere else that's causing a problem. The moisture/ temp situation was fine when they actually came to fit it, but put us and the builders under extreme duress on the run up. Now it's the painting.

It's going into a new build that was finished about 3 weeks ago, and it's chipboard carcasses with tulip wood doors if that makes any difference. Apparently the doors would warp?

I'd appreciate any advice or stories concerning your own installation. Good or bad.

[Nepotism]

I've had one fitted this week but I'm afraid I don't understand your question!

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

What is your question?

My doors were painted off site and any knocks were touched up after installation. There were only 1 or 2 tiny ones though in a very large kitchen with a lot of units and the touch ups are invisible.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

tulipwood (poplar) kitchen doors apparently normally have mdf panels, as it is less affected by humidity.

No flexible paint invented yet, so if humidity varies seasonally, the paint will crack on the wood.

I don't really understand the question though, tbh.

Our kitchen was finally finished last week and it took three months. I think construction issues are common to the point of being routine. Frustrating, but the job gets finished eventually.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

Oh, maybe you didn't understand that the wood will change but the mdf won't? It's not an issue for unpainted stuff, as it's the inflexibility of the paint that causes the problem, not the wood itself. The door construction won't be compromised, but the paint might.

Having an entire house of hardwood lying in the hall waiting for it to acclimatize before it can be fitted is a pita though...

[MaliceInWinterWonderland78]

We've had one fitted recently. It was painted offsite with some touch-ups done on the day of installation. There has definitely been movement though, and they'll have to come back to do som more touching up. It's quite minor though.

[Marmitelover55]

Ours is painted MDF and was fitted last summer. Again it was painted off site. We have had no movement, but one chip. They have supplied me with a little pot of paint and brush and you can't see where I have touched ig up. I chose MDF as, unlike wood, it shouldn't expand or contract.

[IDismyname]

I'm sorry. I should have been clearer. I had the red mist descend on me this morning as a result of all the shenanigans going on.

The kitchen people are being exceptionally precious about painting my kitchen. It's chipboard carcasses, and tulip wood doors which have arrived primed in the final colour of my choice, and need painting on site.

My question was to ask how other companies have arrived with their stuff - painted or not- and what conditions they had demanded prior to the kitchen going in.

I can't work out if I'm working with a pair of prima donnas ( which my builders seem to think is the case) or if they are correct in being so demanding and we are being unreasonable ones.

I hope that makes sense.

Thank you for your replies.

[Eastwickwitch]

To be fair to them, I can see they'd want to paint in as dust free environment as they can.

Mine was installed in the summer and had the final coat after installation. The painter chose to come when all the big building work was done to minimise dust.
There was talk about the wooden doors being stiff until the central heating came on but I can't quite remember the reasoning

[lilttlemarvel]

Ours were spray primed off site and then had two coats painted on by hand after installation (for installation all the electrics and plumbing had to be in place, the floor laid and all decorating completed - so plaster had dried out weeks ago by this point).
During painting there had to be no dust-rising activity and no other trades working in the kitchen area.
Don't know if it makes any difference but we had melamine MDF carcasses and oak doors and drawers (I think).

[msfreud]

I don't understand it either - why have they not painted it at their workshop?

I had a solid pine kitchen fitted in October, painted in F&B at their workshop so no painting required once installed.

[kayessbee]

Ideally they should be painted offsite - and also sprayed to give a clean, streak-free finish (unless that is what you are wanting). On-site, they can only use brushes or rollers and I've seen it take forever to do a friends built in wardrobes, as they kept re-doing bits! the joiner did admit to me privately that he should have done them off-site... Stressed me just watching them for 2 minutes....??

They might be just inexperienced - as it probably can't be deconstructed and removed to be sprayed, then you will need to wait until all build work dust has settled and, yes, moisture in the kitchen from day to day use will likely cause issues so if you are going away for a week or two, plus dry weather in the spring would be a better time than now - imagine that there is moisture in the wood (it is a former living thing after all) and you cover that with non breathable waterproof paint, then the water is trapped, has now where to go, so....

Who is the project manager? This should have been flagged earlier, I'm afraid....

[martymcfry]

Just finishing up our painted kitchen this week... You do need a dust free moisture free environment. Our tulip wood fronts, expanded with the paint and had to be redan des for a perfect fit and repaired once hung. We've had a building site here too, so there has been alot of dust, we've had to be really careful and clean alot!

Ours was painted on site, but you'd always need final coat on site especially if inframe.

Hope it looks good once in!

[Marmitelover55]

Sorry but not sure why it needs a final coat on-site? Ours was also spray painted in the workshop and its a perfect finish. I can't see how a final coat on site would improve it? Sorry if I'm being thick though!

[IDismyname]

Yes, the project manager was pretty aghast at the installers demands, especially as they ( the demands) came only a month ago; he's seen loads of kitchens installed and these are by far the trickiest people to deal with.

It's quite interesting to hear of the different ways of installing a kitchen. Will know the right questions to ask if we ever do it again.

Thanks for all your help.