DIY Kitchen, should I even try?

Jonny0000

LittleMonkey wrote: »

We're desperate to replace our Kitchen, we've been looking at buying the units and all the fittings and I'd instal it. I've got a basic grasp of DIY (putting up shelves etc) do you think it would be too difficult?

also, where's the best place to get kitchen units, worktops etc cheap but decent.

Cheers for now!

My prents recently bought a brand new kitchen to go with theor new wooden furniture in the lounge (open plan), and the kitchen company wanted as much again to fit the kitchen.

My step dad had a good level of experience in DIY and managed it, but it is a huge undertaking and you should really think about it. If you feel confident and have the support around you should it go wrong then go for it. If not think twice. It was a real strain for them and caused them much distress.

sparky883

Its not just the skill involved its having the right tools as well,a kitchen fitter would have these but you will have to buy them all.DIY is only easy if you know how to do it in the first place,Its also good if you got back-up from Family/Friends.Good Luck!
My DIY skills are Excellent but i still made loads of mistakes fitting my own kitchen,Took ages,And throughly hated the whole experience,It looks ok though,and saved me about £2000

ic

I had the same experience as sparky, it was good fun, the week off I had I did really well ripping out the old and installing the new. However its taken another two months working weekends and odd evenings to get anywhere close to finished.

Along the way I did however make mistakes installing the worktop, cutting an end panel, cutting holes in a unit for pipes and drilling holes in a drawer front for the handles. The old addage of measure twice cut once really does apply! (or in my case, if you're tired, stop!) I probably had to spend maybe £150 replacing parts that I'd cut wrong, however I've easily saved ten times that in installation costs. Plus I walk away with the experience ready for next time.

thechocho

We bought our kitchen at Ikea and fitted it ourselves. It has been really fun, we work on it in our free time. However, it's not easy and we've had to re-make some of the cabinets to make them fit in our kitchen. If you really enjoy DIY-ing, I would say give it a try. You can always call someone in if you feel like you can't finish it.

Scoobs72

thechocho wrote: »

You can always call someone in if you feel like you can't finish it.

Most kitchen fitters won't touch a half finished DIY job, so don't assume you can fall back on this approach if it goes wrong. If you want to do it yourself it's not difficult, but you need to do plenty of research and reading up - the book recommended by majjie is a very good start. The most important/difficult/neglected issues in my opinion are:
- setting out the inital layout to take into account sloping floors (floors are never level), e.g. set your height from the lowest point and your plinths could have a big gap at the top at the highest point
- dealing with walls that are not true vertical

Getting the initial layout right and everything else will follow nicely. Alledgedly.

will2208_2

I fitted a B & Q kitchen 12 months ago. I've done most of the work on our house and fitting the kitchen and plumbing in the sink in a different position was reasonably straightfoward.

I would recommend taking your time and double checking measurements.

philip_l_2

Hi

After the nightmare we are having as next doors neighbours from an improperly fitted kitchen next door (noise transfer between the party wall that was never an issue before) I would say if you are joined to a neighbours house and will be working with the party wall to get someone in who knows what they are doing.

Also if doing plumbing or electrical work you need to get certificates now to show the work was done by a 'competent' person, something you will be asked to show if selling the house. The local council website building regulations FAQs should provide the information.

Regards

Phil

barnaby-bear

27col wrote: »

It is not as easy as people think to put up shelves properly. If you can do that well then I would think that you would be able to tackle installing a kitchen. Remember, wall cupboards have to support a great deal of weight, especially if they have crockery in them, so they need to be really well fixed to the wall. It is probably a good idea to fix a temporary batten to the wall to ensure that the bottoms of the wall units are accurately in line. It might also be a good idea to get someone in to joint the worktops, if they need it. If you try to fit worktops yourself you would have to buy a jointing jig to do it properly, and also run the risk of ruining expensive worktop. If the worktops do not require a corner then no problem. A lot of it is just common sense, just don't try to rush it.
Best of luck if you do decide to DIY.

Buy? HSS hire! http://www.hss.com/g/3166/Worktop-Jig.html

Scoobs72

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Buy? HSS hire! http://www.hss.com/g/3166/Worktop-Jig.html

No point hiring. By the time you've spent a few days practicising joints on worktop offcuts you'll have spent £50+ on hiring one, for which you could buy a decent jig for that price (e.g. Trend T-Tech £50 jobbie, or one of the HIB jigs off Ebay when they're available). And when you're done with it, put it on ebay and get some money back. There's also a risk with a hired jig that it can have some damage.

ic

My lesson from using a jig is to clamp it everywhere you can without blocking the path of the router. We used off-cuts of wood that pushed against the jig from the opposite side of the worktop. When ripping out an old kitchen, keep the worktops to use for practice. Do a few cuts first, perfect it, only when you're confident, then go for the new one. Don't rush it - it'll easily take a day to do. You'll also need two workbenches to put everything on, and if you can do it outside, there's a *lot* of dust. Hiring a jig, router and clamps from HSS costs about £45 for a weekend, if hired online. Note that you do need a powerful router - the one from HSS is 1600W, typical DIY routers are only 800W. You can find the clamps and router bits on eBay nice and cheap.