How easy is it to fit a kitchen?

[Teepeg]

The team I had in to fit my kitchen last year made it look EASY ..

 

[Richard_C]

The first question to ask for a diy job us "where will the new stuff go when its delivered" - especially if it is pre assembled.

I fitted my own about 12 years ago - IKEA. Big-ish Kitchen. Just counted, 25 doors and 10 drawer fronts. Full height fridge and freezer, decided on freestaning - why make it difficult to replace stuff you know won't last forever. Took about 8 days spread over 3 weeks around work comittments. Not too bad a job, I made sure the cooker, hob and power points were where they always had been and carefully planned the rest of it. Although the house was only built in 1987 not much of it was properly square so there was a bit of 'messing about' to get some things looking good.

Some things to consider. When you empty the old cupboards you end up with an astonishing amount of 'stuff' which you have to put somewhere. Same with getting fitters to do it but diy takes longer and diy you also need your shed/garage/access to tools so can't put pots and pans there. On the plus side you remain in complete control. I did mine in sections obver about 3 weeks so we were only without the hob for part of one one day and the sink for a couple of hours. I made up the flat packs in preassembled sets in the garage - essentially a walls-worth at a time - but you do need plenty of space for that. A section of old stuff came out - put on the front drive, you need space for that - new went in. Every 2 or 3 days I had an old unit smashing session apart from the few I kept for the garage. and went to the tip, happily only a 10 minute drive but disposal might be more difficult in some places. I think the biggest challenge was managing workflow and space. (And losing pencils - in the end I bougt a dozen and left them everywhere.)

Nothing overly difficult in fixing the units, I made a simple marking gauge for the top cupboards mounting holes. Took great care with levels and used loads of those little plastic wedges because the floor wan't that even. IKEA cupboards don't have a space behind so give much more useable capacity but you do need to run all the pipework that was fitted behind the old units right down to skirting board level and along the bottom of the units - well worth doing for the end result. 12+ years on they are still like new so happy with quality. The scary bit is at the very end, drilling and fitting for all the handles - no going back - but I didn't do anything stupid like putting one on the hinge side of a door or having them 'clash' when open. I made a drilling guide and checked, checked and checked again before making holes.

Tiling can be done 'at leisure' when the kitchen is back in use. Happily the family went away for 3 days soon after completion so I just sat and tiled, grouted, tiled, grouted drank tea, tiled, grouted .... etc.

If you get professional planners/fitters do take your time trying to imagine everything in use. Imagine yourself getting up and making tea, imagine making sunday lunch with visitors. A double oven - do you put it so the bottom is at worktop height in which case a shorter person may have trouble with loading the top oven, or half a unit down which might be awkward lifitng things out of the main oven. How high and how tall should the top cupboards be. Personal choice and we all differ, just think it through. Don't leave it to the salesperson. A relative has a new multi ££££ flash looking kitchen, great but if you take a heavy hot casserole out of the oven you have to carry it past the freezer and fridge and round a corner before you find a place to put it down. A pain if you are just taking it out for a stir and check. I suspect the designer had never cooked anything. My neighbour had a JL kitchen planned and installed a few years back - including one of those fancy ice making fridges. Sadly the designer (dragger of drawings round a grid to make a pretty picture to sell you stuff) neglected a water or power supply. It was on the opposite side of the room to all the plumbing, no nearby sockets. It sat empty and unloved until they came back 8 weeks later and ran a water pipe around the ceiling and stuck coving up and brought power through from the other side of the wall. "But you signed ot off sir" "But it's not my job to check your designer isn't an silly person". So think detail and think about how you will use it all every day.

 

[Bingy man]

The first question to ask for a diy job us "where will the new stuff go when its delivered" - especially if it is pre assembled.

I fitted my own about 12 years ago - IKEA. Big-ish Kitchen. Just counted, 25 doors and 10 drawer fronts. Full height fridge and freezer, decided on freestaning - why make it difficult to replace stuff you know won't last forever. Took about 8 days spread over 3 weeks around work comittments. Not too bad a job, I made sure the cooker, hob and power points were where they always had been and carefully planned the rest of it. Although the house was only built in 1987 not much of it was properly square so there was a bit of 'messing about' to get some things looking good.

Some things to consider. When you empty the old cupboards you end up with an astonishing amount of 'stuff' which you have to put somewhere. Same with getting fitters to do it but diy takes longer and diy you also need your shed/garage/access to tools so can't put pots and pans there. On the plus side you remain in complete control. I did mine in sections obver about 3 weeks so we were only without the hob for part of one one day and the sink for a couple of hours. I made up the flat packs in preassembled sets in the garage - essentially a walls-worth at a time - but you do need plenty of space for that. A section of old stuff came out - put on the front drive, you need space for that - new went in. Every 2 or 3 days I had an old unit smashing session apart from the few I kept for the garage. and went to the tip, happily only a 10 minute drive but disposal might be more difficult in some places. I think the biggest challenge was managing workflow and space. (And losing pencils - in the end I bougt a dozen and left them everywhere.)

Nothing overly difficult in fixing the units, I made a simple marking gauge for the top cupboards mounting holes. Took great care with levels and used loads of those little plastic wedges because the floor wan't that even. IKEA cupboards don't have a space behind so give much more useable capacity but you do need to run all the pipework that was fitted behind the old units right down to skirting board level and along the bottom of the units - well worth doing for the end result. 12+ years on they are still like new so happy with quality. The scary bit is at the very end, drilling and fitting for all the handles - no going back - but I didn't do anything stupid like putting one on the hinge side of a door or having them 'clash' when open. I made a drilling guide and checked, checked and checked again before making holes.

Tiling can be done 'at leisure' when the kitchen is back in use. Happily the family went away for 3 days soon after completion so I just sat and tiled, grouted, tiled, grouted drank tea, tiled, grouted .... etc.

If you get professional planners/fitters do take your time trying to imagine everything in use. Imagine yourself getting up and making tea, imagine making sunday lunch with visitors. A double oven - do you put it so the bottom is at worktop height in which case a shorter person may have trouble with loading the top oven, or half a unit down which might be awkward lifitng things out of the main oven. How high and how tall should the top cupboards be. Personal choice and we all differ, just think it through. Don't leave it to the salesperson. A relative has a new multi ££££ flash looking kitchen, great but if you take a heavy hot casserole out of the oven you have to carry it past the freezer and fridge and round a corner before you find a place to put it down. A pain if you are just taking it out for a stir and check. I suspect the designer had never cooked anything. My neighbour had a JL kitchen planned and installed a few years back - including one of those fancy ice making fridges. Sadly the designer (dragger of drawings round a grid to make a pretty picture to sell you stuff) neglected a water or power supply. It was on the opposite side of the room to all the plumbing, no nearby sockets. It sat empty and unloved until they came back 8 weeks later and ran a water pipe around the ceiling and stuck coving up and brought power through from the other side of the wall. "But you signed ot off sir" "But it's not my job to check your designer isn't an silly person". So think detail and think about how you will use it all every day.

That s my point about designers don’t always get it right . The last one I was involved in was wren - the customer changed his mind a few times admittedly but the final design saw the washing machine moved to the opposite side of the kitchen to facilitate a dish washer . The designer then ran a 3 d simulation and said that everything is good and nothing clashes. Great I said but what about the cold water supply and more importantly what about the 1. 1/2 waste pipe that now has to be run around the skirting board ( on show btw ) on 2 walls . 2 tools not yet mentioned but essential are a cable/ pipe detector and a decent laser level …

 

[--Tom--]

Depends on how big a kitchen, how good the current condition is, and how willing they are to put up with any mistakes.
My own kitchen I had fitters in as wanted it all done as close to perfect and as quick as possible as Christmas was looming.

Have fitted them for friends and the units/ worktops are all straight forward. Adjusting cupboards for pipes is fiddly - worth having a plumber get everything ready for you in the right places unless they’re really willing to learn a new skill.
Electrics and gas as everyone has said leave to the pros.

Bits like tiling and flooring are diyable. First try at tiling is going to be a bit wobbly though so again depends how good they are at living with mistakes/quirks.

If they do start and then give up will likely cost more to have someone fix than it would to get a pro in at the beginning. A friend always wants to try to do things himself first- I wish he’d just let me do it as working with rounded out fixings pieces with bits missing and holes in the wrong places is a recipe for creative problem solving that could have been avoided.

 

[mg123]

So many variables here. However, I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying to fit their own kitchen so long as they're aware that it's a big undertaking and to be prepared for lots of hiccups along the way. There are lots of required skills, but if they have the time to work on it, it's a great feeling to know you've done it yourself. Is it a simple remove and replace, or are they going all in with plastering, electrics, plumbing etc. YouTube is an amazing resource too.

I've installed only 2 myself, my first house around 19 years ago, and the one I have now earlier this year. The first one was an off the shelf deal at MFI IIRC. At that time, I had zero experience with anything of the kind, but i still managed to complete this to a satisfactory standard. This also included a masons mitre. It was far from a professional finish, but the cost saving was well worth it.

The recent one i installed was from DIY kitchens. They would certainly be my recommendation for price vs quality by a long way. I have used b&q, wickes and howdens for other small projects, and they're not even close to DIY kitchens. Their online planner is a little clunky, but perfectly usable. The benefit is the price is on there and each time you add an item, you can see the running cost.

Be nice to know how they get on with this project

 

[xy mosian]

If DIY is attempted:-
Don't drill handle mounting holes until the doors are fitted to the units.
Don't put the units too far back from the front of the worktop, you will lose effective access to the draws.

done both too often *****
geoff