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Kitchen: what order would you?

11 replies

Neeenaw · 15/04/2018 21:27

Our kitchen needs a full refit.. floor to plaster and everything in between.

We have been doing up the whole house and not one single room has ran to budget or without issue and so now i face the kitchen with anxiety and no enthusiasm.

Im wondering about doing it tiny bit by tiny bit. Since we will keep layout, so no moving plumbing etc, would it be mad to say.. rip it out and store away as much as possible, leave what we use daily. Put in the base units and new oven/sink.

Then a while later plaster.... maybe add wall hung cupboards... tile later etc. So it would be very slowly done but with v little time of it being out of action and also giving us lots of buffer for financials if things arise, spreading cost by adding in bits as and when we can?

Is this nuts? And if not.. I've never done this before, so is there a logical order to this?

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 15/04/2018 21:38

Reading with interest as we are in the same position. We have the money to do it all in one go though but I just don't know what gets done first ! Are there companies that will just come in and do everything - fitting, floor, plastering etc ?

MacaroniPenguin · 15/04/2018 21:48

The first kitchen we did, we did exactly this and had a baby in the middle. But it was a double galley, so it fell naturally into doing it in 2 halves, and all our appliances were freestanding.

When you start fitting kitchens you do start to see them more as just separate pieces. We moved wall cabinets into the dining room, on the floor, and continued to use them for storage (prop up on something so they open free above the carpet.) We kept the old worktop and base units as needed so they could go back in as temp "freestanding" kitchen. The sticking points really are the plastering - you need to talk to your plasterer about exactly how stripped back it'll need to be - and flooring, depending on what you do with that. We left flooring and tiling to the end, and actually lived without either for quite a while.

Cost wise, if you're fitting it yourself the big costs are the units, plasterer and worktops if you go for posh ones, so not loads of opportunity to spread costs. Temp worktop is not ideal safety-wise.

We are planning to similar with our next kitchen refit. Our kitchen is freezing so we will pull out the units and use a subset of them freestanding for a bit while we sort the underlying problem.

Ikea has very basic freestanding kitchens. Worth a look for inspiration of how little you actually need for a functional kitchen. But of course this way will take a lot longer, when is a stressor in itself. Whether it's easier in the long run, maybe not. For us it's cheap!

I would start by ordering the kitchen and booking a plasterer, I think. Kitchen delivery can take a few weeks at least, depending on supplier. Ours also delivered a month late, which wasn't ideal when I was 7m pregnant...!

glorious · 15/04/2018 21:51

I would recommend doing flooring first as then you can have it running underneath your units. Much better if you need to get appliances in and out. Otherwise you end up with a lip which is a complete pain.

Angryosaurus · 15/04/2018 21:51

What is your budget? I think I'd want to rip out/plaster/electrics etc all in one go. For this you will need your full kitchen plan. Could you install cheap carcasses and integrated appliances at this stage? Then in phase 2 get nice doors/tile/flooring/decorate.

Worktops ideally in phase 1, but I guess you could possibly save up for them if budget is squeezed!

PigletJohn · 15/04/2018 23:20

as dust, paint drips and hammers fall downwards, I'd start with the ceiling. Have it replastered if necessary, then paint and add lamps.

Take off the old wall cabinets and fit hanging rail after painting the wall down to the old worktop. Hanging rail means you can easily lift up your old and your new cabinets and hook them on, it is no trouble to move them around the kitchen, or sideways by an inch or a yard, because there are no particular points where the cabs have to be fixed. The hangers adjust a bit up and down, in and out. You may need to trim the wall cabs at the back if your walls are badly out, and drill holes for cables for lighting and extractor.

You can then hang the old wall cabs back up while you have a rest, or fit new ones.

Unfix all the floor cabs from each other and from the wall (you may have to unfasten the worktop). They can then be moved around or taken out individually.

I agree about preparing the whole floor, even under your future cabinets and appliances. It is no more work, and enables you to move things around or change sizes if you wish. In my own house, I stained and varnished the floors under the cabs first, so that it wouldn't matter of the central floor got chipped or scratched or had a few paint drips, as it would be sanded clean before finishing. If you are tiling, it is very difficult to lift a heavy appliance over the step caused by tiles that have been laid after the appliance was in place.

Again, you can put the floor cabs back individually if you wish, no need to screw them together until finalised, and the worktop can just lie on them, but add a few screws if you have climbing children.

You next have to do wiring and plumbing, fairly easy as you can move individual floor cabs out of the way to work, then fill and repair the plaster. You will want to finish painting the walls, and take the paint below worktop level to avoid any unsightly gaps or lines (I'd paint all the way to the skirting, but I am not a kitchen fitter). When funds permit, buy your cabinets (you can buy the boxes in advance of the doors for economy), hook them onto the wall and stand them on the floor. Verify that your new cooker hood fits with the cabinets before fixing them. Walls are never straight and rooms are never square.

A tip: have the wall cabs out of the way while you are doing the floor cabs, or you will bang your head on them.

Only when you have finalised the cabs and appliances, and fixed them to each other and to the wall, do you need to take your final measurements for the worktop. If you have the correct size and shape it will simply lift and slide into place (unless you have stone, which will need twenty strong women to lift it). You don't want to be working round your new worktop, or taking it off once its down. The sink and taps are fitted to the worktop before it is put in position, to avoid trying to lie on your back inside the sink unit and reach up behind it.

Then cut your plinth.. trial fix it... finish the floor as there is now no reason it should get damaged... fix the plinths.

You can then do your tiles or splashbacks, only after you are certain that nothing will need to move.

If you lose energy, or run out of money, you can take a break part way through. The cabs work perfectly well without doors, so add them last to avoid accidental damage.

Neeenaw · 16/04/2018 07:51

Thanks so much for taking so much time to explain John!!

Ok so I'm not as nuts as I thought then.

I often see the tiling under units and appliances (or not) argued over here. It makes sense to me to tile wall to wall.

So I think:
Rip it all out.. tile /floor entire floor, plaster walls and have ceiling spot light's and plaster done.

Put in base units and dining table. Live with it a bit and decide what wall units we need, if we want to tile wall and how much etc.

Does that seem reasonable.

OP posts:
MacaroniPenguin · 16/04/2018 12:05

I would fit wall cabinets before worktop myself. I am not a kitchen fitter, but I don't want breeze block dust on my nice new worktop thanks. Tiles I agree can wait.

PigletJohn · 16/04/2018 12:24

fixing hanging rail to the wall in advance means you can just hook the cabs on when you feel like it. No additional holes required in the wall because the rail is already fitted. I like to paint mine to match the wall.

Neeenaw · 16/04/2018 12:42

Off to google these hanging rails so i can visualise.. first time owners so this is new to me!

OP posts:
Ariela · 16/04/2018 13:08

We stick a hoover nozzle under the drill while drilling holes = no dust

KitchenGary · 04/05/2018 11:42

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