Methodically replacing kitchen?

Swishy_bell

Hi there

Just wanted a bit of advice really. We have just bought a house which could do with a new kitchen. It will be years before we could afford to just pay someone to have it all done at once, plus we like DIY so would like to do as much as we can ourselvess as and when we can afford it.

Just wanted any tips people had on what order it is best to do things so as not to upset previous work. The house will have just been rewired and a new boiler fitted plus plumbing for a dishwasher as well as the washing machine so there should be anymore major disruptions.

Any advice apreciated!

Patricia

cons

you could replace all the cabinet doors and get a new worktop etc for a modest budget

Swishy_bell

To be fair the cabinet doors are not in bad nick. The problem is the carcass is cheap and falling apart and the lay out of the kitchen in just not what is most practicle for us. We want to remove a cupboard to fit a dishwasher, however this is a double cupboard under the sink so would need to replace both. The whole of the corner space at the moment is completly blocked off and wasted. To replace both of these is in fact replacing all of the kitchen cabinets in actual fact as it's only a small kitchen with an original victorian built in cupbaord we are keeping.

It's all livable with, we would just rather replace things as soon as we can than save up and do it all at once. But we don't want to waste any money by not being methodical and having to rip anything out we have only just changed.

adrian_bond

hi swishy_bell,

im doing pretty much exactly the same thing as you right now. our flat has a U shaped kitchen and has simply been fitted in a way where there was no real thought put in. subsequently, we have the gas hob 2 inches away from the sink edge (which is hugely illegal!) and have the oven (which is in the smallest part of the U shape butted up agaisnt one side of the kitchen instead of central.

we started last weekend by removing a corner unit (which was a straight 1000mm half door affair laid wrongly and converting it into a corner unit (looks like a capital L shape from above now by removing some length from the 1000mm and adding some to the 600mm width.

we now have a corner unit which the oven can but up agianst which is also in the centre of the U shape. we plan to fit a "carousel" unit into the corner base unit to maximise the space in there as its not hugely accesible in its current guise (the kitchen is very small). this will maximise storage.

we now have a central oven, with a 150mm pull out unit on one side, and a 150mm door which is part of the corner unit on the other. it looks so much better!

we are doing a very similar thing with the wall units (moving some, splitting others to create two units) to align the gap for a cooker hood / extractor with the oven. in the end we should have a fitted kithcen with central symettry and useable space. so far its cost £20 for wood (for the internal shelves ive made) and looks great. once its all in place we should be able to replace all our doors with standard sized units (eg 297, 497, 597 widths) from any of the internet based replacement door companies for about £4-500 hopefully all in and it should look great. then we gonna replace the oven and hob and sink with new good stuff in the sales (check any units you like on reevoo then find them cheaper in the january sales!) then replace the worktops so its all integrated. i work for a glazing company so glass splashbacks will be installed once everything is in place too. then sorting some facy lighting. budget cant really exceed £1000 for the whole project but i think we will be well within this with some carefull ebaying and research.

just remember, all modern kitchens are modular anyway (cheap chipboard carcasses) and are easy to re-shape, just find the doors you like online first and see how much a suitable standard sized door is, and cut the carcass to suit it. takes time, patience, a steady hand with a saw and drill, but thats it. B & Q wanted £2500 last year for the kitchen, without fitting, or appliances. so probably close to £5000 all in!

take lots of measurements first, draw them up from top down (accuratley) and its much easier to see what will fit where best. there is loads of sortware to make this easier, and if you know where your kitchen came from then its even easier as you can buy its directly from them!

hope this helps! cheers

Atelier

I would suggest starting at one end and implementing your plan as you move round.

Also, have you thought about building your own custom carcases? If you work out the sizes for the sides/base/back etc then you can go to somewhere like the B&Q Warehouse and but some sheet material (eg 18mm plywood) and get them to do all the cutting.

Taking your sink unit for example, you can replace the double unit with a single and cannabalise the original for the hinges, door and feet. Not a very hard job is you use simple butt joints and screw it together solidly. Cost wise, you will get 2 units per £30 sheet.

The drawback is that you will need to paint the insides to get a nice finish.


HTH

Swishy_bell wrote: »

Hi there

Just wanted a bit of advice really. We have just bought a house which could do with a new kitchen. It will be years before we could afford to just pay someone to have it all done at once, plus we like DIY so would like to do as much as we can ourselvess as and when we can afford it.

Just wanted any tips people had on what order it is best to do things so as not to upset previous work. The house will have just been rewired and a new boiler fitted plus plumbing for a dishwasher as well as the washing machine so there should be anymore major disruptions.

Any advice apreciated!

Patricia

27col

My experience of getting sheet materials cut in-store is that you have to be very careful that they cut it exactly to the size you want. Seems obvious, but I have been handed sheets that were not the exact size. It would be interesting to know what tolerances they work to. I suppose it all depends on the experience of the operator.

Swishy_bell

Thanks for all the help. Getting a bit more excited that we might be able to get on with things a bit quicker than expected from the idea of canbalising carcasses. The doors we have at the moment can probably be re-used till we can replace with nice ones.

So here is my vague plan, please point out anything that might cause issues.

1st off.......

The cooker will be set into the chimney breast (it's already cut out etc) It currently has a concrete floor in this bit (the rest of the kitchen is floor baords). Dodgy plaster board up to the level of the cooker but reasonable proper plaster above.

We thought we could maybe tile or brick the floor to look like a hearth, doing this bit seperate from the rest of the kitchen floor.

Tile behind the cooker.

Not sure what to do about the dodgy plaster board yet. Currently the gap is 99cm wide so we are going to get either a 90cm range and have to tidy up the plastering and tile all round or if we remove the plaster board we may get the extra cm for a 100cm cooker which for some reason are cheaper!

Doing the fireplace is probably not the first job but we want to plan it as it is the main feature of the kitchen and can be done pretty much seperatly from everything else.

Swishy_bell

In terms of the rest of the kitchen my guess of the order of things needs to be.....

Tidy up plaster work where it has been routed out for electrics.

fit carcass, work top and sink (this all needs to be done in one?)

Tile splash back

paint

fit new flooring.

Doors can be added replaced any point after sorting the carcass and wont affect anything else.

Putting up cupboard to hide boiler should be after or before painting or is it of no real consequence?

Likewise any shelves?

Swishy_bell

Oh the other question I had was ideally I would rather rip all the plaster out of the fireplace bit and have exposed stone/brick work. This would be easy where the plaster board is but may be quite difficult higher up. Dh is very worried the stonework would be just too hard to clean up, at this point we dont even know if it is brick or stone as the from of the house is stone built the back is brick (kitchen is on the back).

Don't want to start messing with it too much if it means we have to pay a plaster to come in and sort it as this would be expensive. Dh says you could tile straight onto the wall, or he could plaster as it doesn't need to be too perfect to tile over the top. Is this right? He has done some plastering before and is planning to do all the tidying up after the electrics but isn't good enough to do a whole room if you see what I mean.

Sorry that all turned a bit epic!