Ikea kitchen owners, I need your help! (Urgently!)

[whiskyowl]

As many of you will have read, through my saga of woe, I'm having an Ikea kitchen fitted.

This kitchen involves cover panels.

My builder is refusing to cut any of the cover panels, because he says water will penetrate them and they will expand/blow.

The whole design of the kitchen is based on them being cut.

I rang the Ikea kitchen installation team, and they said to cut and seal the edge with PVA.

The builder is adamant that they will blow if we do this.

Can anyone who has had an Ikea kitchen for a while give me advice? Did you cut the cover panels? If you did, have they been OK?

I need to sort this out before tomorrow morning, so help/advice/hand-holding appreciated.

NB Just about every Ikea kitchen I can find online, and most of them instore, have cut panels.

How will it finish will the cut end be skywards or groundwards?

We have cut and sealed Ikea end panels in our kitchen (5 years) no problems at all

Thanks angry! That's helpful.

How did you seal the panels? PVA? Varnish?

Cut end may be either side, depending on the panels it is abutting too. Obviously, we're avoiding visible chipboard.

Do you mean end panels? Dh is a kitchen fitter and he says that your builder talking nonsense. The end panels can be cut. Some of them can be sealed with a plastic sealant strip but normally they're just left as they are.
You just need to be careful if you're mopping the floor, the but that meets the floor isn't saturated with water. Most people don't do that anyway with laminate flooring etc. Any areas such as round the sink or anywhere exposed to water would be sealed with sealant. I don't understand where else they would blow?
How else is the builder planning on fitting this kitchen.
This has nothing to do with Ikea and everything to do with the builder.

regardless of kitchen supplier panels need cutting.
You always have the cut at the top if this can not be helped he can seal the raw material with some silicone or iron on edge strip.
The only way to have no cut panels is to have a bepoke kitchen and even then they are over sized in depth as walls are not straight so the panels are scribed.
i bet he wouldnt of had a problem cutting panels if you brought a howdens through him

clara - what sealant does your very knowledgeable-sounding DH use, please? Ikea don't seem to sell plastic sealant strip?

I am having quartz worktops, so these are just end panels, not bits of worktop.

I'm really disturbed that my builder, who has been really competent throughout the extension, suddenly sounds like he doesnt know what he's doing...

"i bet he wouldnt of had a problem cutting panels if you brought a howdens through him"

This is partly what is worrying me. There's been a LOT of complaining about installing an Ikea kitchen.

You can buy the strip from B&Q if he insists. Is your kickboard sealed on all sides? Somehow I doubt it. Show him that it is supplied not sealed because that is the norm and he's talking through his hat.

Mine are all cut, don't even know whether they are sealed and they have been no problem whatsoever . My kitchen has been in for coming up to four years and lots as good as new.

Maybe he's just not happy fitting a make of kitchen he's unfamiliar with. Not because his skills aren't up to it, but he doesn't want his work to look shoddy and have you blame him if the kitchen isn't up to the standard of kitchen he usually fits. Could you sign a disclaimer saying that you will accept responsibility for the panels if they deteriorate at a later date?

I want to have my top cupboards framed with a cover panel surround, as in the picture. The builder says he can't cut the panels!!

We cut our cover panels last year and have no problems. It’s a Ringhult panel we used...four on our island, and one at the end of the room too. They’re not chipboard, they’re MDF and cut perfectly with a jigsaw.
I even bought an extra long cover panel and cut it up to make a wine rack and book shelves...no bother at all.

Thank you magicstar - these are Ringhult panels too (utility) and then Ekestad/Kungsbacka for the kitchen. So EXCELLENT to know it can work!

Can I ask if anyone has cut small pieces of them and used those to fill smaller gaps? I need a 20mm piece either side of an inset, and again the builder says it's not possible, but I can't see why??

I can show you the cut edges on my bookshelf if you like? Give me a few minutes

Thank you so much, that would be super helpful!

Time and again I have come up against builders and plumbers and so on, who are obsessed with the brands they know or the materials they know (which I can understand to some extent, but Jesus, move with the times!). There's always going to be new types of tiles or different types of grout or different manufacturer's. I've had the most awful whingeing and whining about fitting moscaic tiles (on a sheet, not individual pieces!) - the guy drove off in the middle of the morning and I found he'd hidden about three of them covered in adhesive and all scrunched up under the bath! And the moaning I had from a floor fitting guy because I'd asked him to fit Ikea flooring. The flooring is FAB and has lasted 8 years absolutely brilliantly.

Lesson to self after this one: Tell them where you got the product(s) from and exactly what they're like or this is what can happen.

And whilst I don't think it's the case in this case (he's just unfamiliar with this brand of kitchen (and to be fair, Howden's are a well known brand that lots of pro's including housing association use because they are very well made and very hardwearing)), sometimes they do prefer a particular brand not only due to familiarity, but because they know that the products they buy from a particular supplier will always perform properly, not leak, all that sort of thing.

I hope you can get it sorted with him OP.

Here’s the long panel we cut down at the end of the room:

Also the edge of the island....shows the front edge of the panel

Last one is the cut edge...shows that it’s very solid inside

My husband doesn't seal the end panels. He just leaves them. They don't blow from water. They don't really need sealed. Especially if they're up high. He says for the builder to use the finished end if it's such a big deal for him.
Dh has fitted kitchens for 20 years and the stuff is all the same. Every kitchen company has the same stuff. Occasionally you'll get better hinges etc but it's rare.
Ikea does work slightly differently due to getting the waste pipes behind the units as they're flush to the wall but it's not something that can't be worked around.
He should be able to do it. Unless this is the first kitchen he's ever fitted?
I laughed at the howdens comment above. I bet he wouldn't have any complaints then?
Breathe deeply. It can be done.

i'm on my 2nd Ikea kitchen.....because we moved not because it failed.

Fitters to a man complained about the "non-standard" ie non English fitting and moaned about non-flat walls and etc etc. I just shrugged and said that this was the job...miraculously they all coped!!!!

Don't buy the dishwasher though...not nearly as good as Bosch, sadly.

PS had first one 12 years...no problems.

@Bufferingkisses it's normally the base boards that blow if they ever do. Again due to mopping (this happened to me in my old b and q kitchen due to overzealous mopping on my part)
They were cream gloss and easily replaced.

I’ve never had a problem with any of my IKEA kitchen units or panels, cut or not
Maybe you can express your regret to your builder that as he doesn’t know how to do it you’ll pay him for the work done so far and find a more experienced builder/fitter who can finish the job.