Having kitchen done - no idea how!

jonnygee2

So, I recently bought a house, and it needs a new kitchen. It's a 45 year old council flat and the kitchen is in dire straits, so it needs quite a bit doing to it. There's bits I can do myself, and plenty I need help with (DIY beginner here! but I can paint )

It's a 5.4 * 2.6 m room. At the moment, the ancient units are all down one side and the other wall is bear. I plan to buil the new kitchen on both sides about half the way up the room, and leave the other half for a larger dining table.

- Current kitchen needs removing, including back splash tiling (possibly DIY - it's easy to remove apart from the tiles)
- Walls need stripping and painting (DIY)
- Cheap viynl floor needs taking up and replacing with tiles (I can remove the floor in minutes, but not tile!)
- A radiator needs moving further along a wall
- New plug sockets need adding on the wall that's currently bare
- All the piping under the sink needs replacing
- New kitchen needs fitting

My question is - what order should I get everything done in? Will kitchen fitters do everything? Or do I need separate tradesman in at separate points, if so what's first? For the electrics, it's an old house and everything was badly done, so it'll probably need new fuse boxes etc.

I'm guessing I need to remove the kitchen and strip the walls down first? Feels like this would be difficult after it's installed. And does the floor go in before or after the units??? (I know nothing basically)

Warren1989

Are you living in the house while doing it?

If time is no issue you should be able to take everything out yourself and end up with the bare bones of the room. Youtube can give you the answers for any problems you get stuck on.

Flooring will be last as you only floor around the units, not underneath them.

The kitchen itself, appliances and the fitter can be expensive. Adding sockets shouldn't cost too much depending on what the walls are made of and how pretty you want them to be.

pinkshoes

We are currently doing our kitchen ourselves.

We got the kitchen supplied by DIYkitchens.co.uk who are great quality but much cheaper than B&Q, Magnet, Wren etc...

We removed the old kitchen, sorted out the walls, changed the radiators (using pipe freezing kit and did ourselves) and got an electrician in.

We then fitted the units on he walls and around the sides.

We have floorboards, so tiling would require far too much preparation and as I'm clumsy and drop things not the best idea. We have gone for high quality vinyl. It is much nicer nowadays!

Once the flooring is done, we will build the central island, then will get the quartz company in to template the worktops then Fit them.

So far so good...

jonnygee2

Are you living in the house while doing it?

Yes, I'l have to. It's just me, though, and there's a launderette and several small restaurants around me, so I can go a while without a kitchen.

If time is no issue you should be able to take everything out yourself and end up with the bare bones of the room. Youtube can give you the answers for any problems you get stuck on.

Flooring will be last as you only floor around the units, not underneath them.

The kitchen itself, appliances and the fitter can be expensive. Adding sockets shouldn't cost too much depending on what the walls are made of and how pretty you want them to be.

This is incredibly helpful, helpful thanks! :beer: I think in terms of budget, we have about 6k max, but we'd like it to be less. The plumbing will be cheap (plumber in the family).

jonnygee2

We are currently doing our kitchen ourselves.

This is really interesting. What level of DIYer would you say you are, how long has it taken you, and how much money is it costing?

We have floorboards, so tiling would require far too much preparation and as I'm clumsy and drop things not the best idea. We have gone for high quality vinyl. It is much nicer nowadays!

I agree! But I just love the look of tiles, especially in a kitchen.

naf123

gutting out the old kitchen - will it damage walls? will you be reboarding it? replaster? You mentioned rewiring? You rewiring the whole place or just the kitchen?

JuzaMum

I am at the end of my new kitchen project - just a few cupboard doors and socket fronts to go
My old kitchen was awful. I put it on freecycle telling its faults and had a few replies wanting it. I chose someone who would take it all. Three guys turned up and removed it (electric and water had been disconnected first) loaded up their van (two trips) and took it away.
I saved a days work and the price of a skip so I would recommend freecycle/gumtree freebies.
Unfortunately the plaster fell of the walls once the cupboards and tiles weren't holding it on!
Good luck

pinkshoes

jonnygee2 wrote: »

This is really interesting. What level of DIYer would you say you are, how long has it taken you, and how much money is it costing?

Our kitchen/diner is 13ft x 18ft.

We are OK at DIY (I can do tiling etc... and hubby very practical) but are quite happy to learn via YouTube videos.

The cost for the kitchen (L shape and central island with units, induction hob, double oven, granite sink, tap, down lights and quartz worktops) was just shy of £8k.

The flooring was £1000 including overboarding and fitting.

£1000 for electrica (needed new fuse board!!!)

Radiators £400.

We will also need the ceiling replastering, and an extractor fan.

Our budget was £11k, but we will come in at around £11.5k as the electrica were a lot more than anticipated.

We even managed plastering a section of wall ourselves, using s decent sander to make sure it was smooth!

jonnygee2

gutting out the old kitchen - will it damage walls? will you be reboarding it? replaster? You mentioned rewiring? You rewiring the whole place or just the kitchen?

The wiring is actually okay I think, a friend who's a spark was over on Friday and said it wouldn't take much to do what we want to do, he'll do it for £50 and a few pints :-)

Will it damage the walls? Overall, the likely need to replaster is currently 'high risk'. At the minute, there are several layers of paint caked onto some lining paper that will all be coming off. Also, there's already a gaping hole in the plasterboard which need to be redone. There are some hideous tiles which need to come off too, I'm certain they'll take the plaster with them (can't tile over all of them - they go beyond where the new kitchen will be built to)

naf123

jonnygee2 wrote: »

The wiring is actually okay I think, a friend who's a spark was over on Friday and said it wouldn't take much to do what we want to do, he'll do it for £50 and a few pints :-)

Will it damage the walls? Overall, the likely need to replaster is currently 'high risk'. At the minute, there are several layers of paint caked onto some lining paper that will all be coming off. Also, there's already a gaping hole in the plasterboard which need to be redone. There are some hideous tiles which need to come off too, I'm certain they'll take the plaster with them (can't tile over all of them - they go beyond where the new kitchen will be built to)

Need to factor the cost of reboarding if the plaster comes crumbling off ....

jonnygee2

Our kitchen/diner is 13ft x 18ft.

We are OK at DIY (I can do tiling etc... and hubby very practical) but are quite happy to learn via YouTube videos.

...Our budget was £11k, but we will come in at around £11.5k as the electrica were a lot more than anticipated.

Again, really interesting and helpful. Sounds like you went for a much higher spec than I will, though, and your kitchen is huge compared to mine! My budget for units + worktops + appliances is more like 2 - 3k. But it's smaller, and they'll be laminate worktops etc. Bet yours looks fab though! Maybe one day :-)