Kitchen extension - give me your tips?

[whatnow41]

We're getting a much anticipated kitchen extension and building starts in 4 weeks.

I'm a total novice to all this - what are your top tips?

2 external walls are to be knocked down to extend, under permitted development.

Bifold doors and velux windows plus a whole new kitchen.

What do I need to know, be aware of or think about now? TIA

Move out. Makes life much easier all round.

Are you staying in the house? Do you/will you have a temporary kitchen set up somewhere? If not then start planning your temp cooking facilities now. Ikea plug in hob for example (sometimes available on ebay). Washing machine needs to be set up to drain to bathroom. Etc.

Your garden is likely to be trashed at least in the bit around the kitchen, so save any beloved plants now and consider if you want to mark out an area that the builders can store their stuff.

Dust. Think about (discuss with builder) how you’re going to stop dust seeping into the rest of the house. Ideally they will be able to board off the whole back of the house - do you have side access so they don’t have to go through the house?

What will they do about loo facilities- will they have a porta loo or will you let them use yours...

Have you already ordered the kitchen, glazing, and flooring?

@minipie I found that useful too, thanks

Yes, I'd add ensure you've got a schedule of works from the builder so you know what to order and when. Things e.g. appliances seem to be taking longer at the moment but unless you've got a lot of storage, you probably don't want things arriving weeks early, particularly things like worktops which are tricky to store and can bow etc if stored incorrectly.

We have the back end of the current living room that will become the open plan kitchen that we will use as a temp kitchen.

Washing machine is in a separate room already so we'll be good for that.

We do have some plants in the garden we will need to move, thanks for that.

Glazing/kitchen/tiles/appliances - nothing ordered yet. What kind of lead times am I looking at for bi-folds? I didn't want to order until the builder actually arrived and starts work, so little trust!!

Kitchen I'm going to let from Howdens. I assume that won't be a massive lead time. I do have a garage so can store some things but not a massive amount.

Will ask about a loo - as we don't even have a downstairs one yet. Unless they fit that first!!

And my microwave is a convection one, plus I have an electric camping stove, a slow cooker and a popcorn maker. All the cooking essentials covered I think!!

The portable induction hobs @minipie mentions are amazing. They sometimes have them at Lidl too.

The builder starts in 4 weeks and you haven’t ordered anything yet? That gives me the fear! They’ll be able to book you a future delivery date if lead time too short but your builder won’t be happy waiting around on stuff. Get it ordered!

We are doing the exact same- removing 2 external walls to extend out and make it the kitchen. We are currently in a static van in the garden though, so no issues with dust etc. We are only at planning stage, but MIL gave me some good tips from her new kitchen:

• she has large drawers in all her lower cupboards. It means being able to pull out the drawer and see exactly what is there, without having to squat down and forage into a fark, endless cupboard
• Get more electrical plugs that you think you'll need and don't forget them in the island. It really adds up- coffee machine, mixer, charging phone, radio, electric can opener, toaster, kettle etc
• Ideally get cooktop you can sit hot pans onto directly and don't melt!
• I'm going for non-shaker style cupboard doors with an integrated handle that doesnt stick out. I had shaker style previously, and they just collect dust and grim inthe corners. Go for the easiest to clean you can.

*dark, not fark!

Oh my god you need to start ordering things, right now! Appliances are very difficult to get at the moment. Have you ordered the kitchen and doors and velux windows? I second that you need to try to keep the rest of the house boarded off and just have everyone go round the back. You will not believe the dust. Where are you going to wash your dishes? I would strongly advise getting two washing up basins, one for dirty washing up and the other for clean cutlery and crockery. Have you got a small fridge for the makeshift kitchen?

Don’t be afraid to double check what your builders are doing as the build progresses. I used to go around with a tape measure after they were gone. They were actually pretty good overall but I did have to ask them to change things as they went along some of which was due to me changing my mind along the way and a couple of mistakes on their part. There seem to be hundreds of choices to make as it goes on, exact positions of sockets, grout colours, whether to lay the tiles brick style offset or not etc etc. Keep bothering them so they don’t just go ahead and do stuff you don’t want. Also ask for pictures of the windows they are buying. My builder drew me a picture of the window he’d ordered and it turned out to be much uglier than I realised.

Omg the dust! Seperate everywhere you can!

I just agreed to the build date this evening, hence why nothing is ordered yet. Should I panic about ordering the bi-folds then? The builder obviously knows I don't have them ordered.

I intend to keep most of my current appliances for the new kitchen, it's literally only the oven and hob that will need to be replaced.

Forgot about the dishes - shit.

@Eleoura you must let me know how you get on!

Great tips for the draws. I have a disability and will be very carefully designing my kitchen area for the future.

I'm going to have full slab doors with no handle groove either, just push to open. My hands don't work so great and I don't want dusty grime collecting edges anywhere.

We didn’t finalise the order for doors and windows until the openings had been started. So all demolition done, foundations in and brick work started. It was only at that stage that precise measurements were possible. There was a 4 week lead time then from ordering until they were delivered. Another company we looked at had a 9 week lead time so we didn’t use them.

I’m at a similar stage. Our builders were due to start three weeks ago but the weather has prevented it so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Monday. Our kitchen and range are ordered but the wait time is really long. We already have tiles but need to crack on with ordering the flooring. Prices have risen a fair bit since we were planning before Christmas.

Make sure you have more heating (radiators/underfloor) than you think you need

Everything Eleoura said, plus if it's to be a kitchen diner/living room have some sockets with USB ports in areas that will be used with devices. Especially in an island or a breakfast bar. If you're going to have a wall mounted TV get the socket and ariel/ satellite coaxial built into the wall, no trailing wires then. Work out where the kettle, toaster will sit to avoid a bottleneck.

I'm going to have full slab doors with no handle groove either, just push to open. My hands don't work so great and I don't want dusty grime collecting edges anywhere.

I would be cautious about this. A friend has these flat push to open cabinets and they open if you so much as lean against them, it’s really annoying. Also this won’t work for drawers, I think, and I agree you want mostly drawers.

I agree about flat front but maybe go for a very comfortable cabinet knob or big bar handles?

There is a long thread entitled something like “kitchen lessons learned” somewhere - if you can find it, it has pages of excellent advice.

In the middle of something similar, and our glass is delayed, despite ordering it weeks ago. Brexit and Covid are playing havoc with supply chains. Kitchen is taking 8 weeks instead of 6 and one of the appliances we’ve ordered is taking 9 weeks.

When you move furniture/boxes etc stack them so that you can get access to all the radiators. The plumber may need to check they are all working.

Go through all the details with a fine tooth comb and don’t be afraid to quibble everything. Builders often suggest changes as you go along, and each and every time query the price difference.

Sit down with a cup of tea and have a really good think about where you want light switches, and sockets. What lights do you want on each switch - which ones should go on the same switch and which should be kept separate? I’m getting sockets put in over the top cabinets for Christmas lights. Will you want a lamp (socket), to charge phones (socket), maybe sockets inside cupboard or under island? Have a good daydream about what you’ll do in the kitchen, day to day and on special occasions. Where would you plug in the hoover?

Where is your bin going? Where will you store big boxes of cornflakes and multi packs of water?

Prep your house for an earthquake - remove pictures off walls, delicate lamps and Lego sets!

Ask them to lay plastic covers on floors and stairs. You start off with the impression that they’ll be on one side of the door, and you’ll be on the other but there’s always some reason for them to come tramping through in their boots!

Hide your hoover!

On ordering and timings, we just had all of our windows done and the lead time was about 8 weeks, normally they were looking at 2-4. Last year we had a velux put in that was pretty quick (4weeks) but the flashing kit (relatively specialist due to the angle of the window) was on back order for months as the factory had shut down.

A couple of years ago we ordered our Howdens kitchen 6 weeks before - that was 2018 though so no issues there.

This is why I'm so glad my friend is a builder and does most of the ordering for us!!