Petrified about DH fitting a Kitchen

[reichenbach]

We are buying a house. Days away from completion and as we draw closer I'm starting to get serious doubts about DH putting in the kitchen.

He's exciting and looking forward to the challenge. He's pretty hands on and generally quite good at DIY.

BUT he's not a professional and he's never done a kitchen before.

I've seen him fit a bathroom. But it was quite basic. Replacing bath, sink and toilet, like for like and in the same place. No touching plumbing or wiring. No tiling, etc.

He's fitted a new kitchen sink in the past and replaced a base unit that had rotted. Though, when he did the kitchen sink, although it worked perfectly, it was quite messy with the sealer... he's also fitted laminate in the past and it looked good but it wasn't professional looking iyswim.

I've been looking on Instagram at people renovating their kitchens and it's just scared me, it looks like such a massive and daunting task.

But we haven't got the budget to have it professionally fitted and we've only got about two weeks to get it done.

Anny tips or advice?

DH fit our large kitchen last year (excluding worktops) whilst between jobs. It took him about 4 months start to finish including retailing the floor. Very handy with bits of DIY but certainly nothing on this scale. It looks great. It's all about the levels apparently (a laser level was invaluable). If you get those right it all comes together. Be wary about floors and walls that aren't flat and straight. Start in the corners and work outwards. It was stressful but saved a few £k.

shamelessly bumping

@cptartapp Thanks for the reply! Glad it worked out for you. You have filled me with a bit more confidence now.

Will mention a laser level to DH. It's not a large kitchen but not small either and DH is planning on booking two weeks off work and working day and night on it for those two weeks to get it done.

Does the kitchen need replacing straight away? If it's serviceable, but not to your tastes, why not wait and see what needs doing once you're in the house and prioritise. That way you can best decide where to spend the money you have. If other jobs mean you are left short for the kitchen it can be done in stages or you can save or get a loan. If he's done lots of other jobs he might not be so enthusiastic about doing it himself.

My BIL fitted their kitchen and he's done a fabulous job. He's not a professional, but you'd never know.

Its a great skill to be able to diy and will come in so useful for years saving you thousands. It sounds like he is reasonably handy if he can install a bathroom, so I would say he will never learn if he doesn't have the chance to do the work. Just make him promise to be 100% honest about any problems and redo the work as soon as possible.

One of the beauties of DIY is it de-mystifies things that initially look daunting. When you get a kitchen delivered, you see it's just a set of boxes to assemble and put next to one another. The wall cabinets need to be attached to the walls and not fall down, but as long as you do your research and follow good practice, you'll be fine. Trust him. Even better, get stuck in and help him out a bit. Unless the old kitchen is hiding some horrors (which I admit is quite possible), it's just a question of eating the elephant one bite at a time. And when you do discover problems, then you Google it, YouTube it and call someone in if you need to.

And you can't replace a bath, sink and toilet without touching the plumbing. He's done plumbing. The trickiest bit is the worktop and he's already had a bash at one before. It sounds to me like he's ready for it. I'd just say be nice to him if it does end up taking longer, and/or help him out - assemble a few units if they're flatpacked, lay some tiles, paint some walls, fit the handles. Pitch in with the clearing up at the end of the day - that last half hour is always the hardest.

@TheMincePiesAreMine Thank you. That is exactly what I needed to hear.

My ex fitted our Ikea kitchen. The hardest bit was the worktops. He dropped a big section on his foot and broke his foot on Xmas Eve 2009 and spent Xmas unable to walk.

It was harder disposing the kitchen and checking that the right boxes were delivered than installing it tbh.

We have fitted a few kitchens, like putting lego together. As others have said above, levelling is crucial. The only thing we paid for was a man to fit the worktops.

I agree, the worktop is the hardest bit. Just get someone to come in to do that. The sink and hob cut out is doable. I've never attempted the nice neat joins they do though. YouTube is you friend . You'll save £££.

Yep I'd agree with others, cupboards not so hard, for competant person, but worktops, get someone in who's doing that all the time.

Totally fine! I’ve done a couple. First one with no previous experience. We even did our own worktop, it was... snug. Not coming out again in a hurry.

He’ll be fine, new kitchen win! If you want to giving him a hand and learning a bit might help your worry?

If I can fit a kitchen I'm sure anyone else can, it's not rocket science. Key things are a) to ensure everything is level before you start - floors are notoriously never level, if not a lot in it to level and you have a bare floor I can recommend the pour on floor leveller - pour it on and it levels itself, filling in any low bits, obviously uneconomic if there's massive differences in levels.
& b) measure twice cut once.

My husband did our IKEA kitchen and found it fairly simple. My brother is a joiner and did the worktops. We paid someone to tile.
Only issue we had was that it never really felt properly finished. There are a few difficult areas that look botched if you know where they are. E.g. the worktop is not entirely level and we had to pay someone else to box in pipes as it didn't look good when my husband tried it.
It saved us money and looks good, but husband says he's scratched the itch and will not do it again.

Ps. The point about the floor is a good one. We had ours levelled and it still presented problems. IKEA have produced some good videos that show you how to deal with this.