Kitchen Fitter Central London

Emmia

SisterMichael said:

silvercar said:

Having lived through a kitchen fitting in recent months, I wouldn’t try to do it with anyone not in good health. The dust and the noise are off putting, having tradesmen around your house difficult. Managing without a kitchen while they do the work needs careful planning, we ended up washing dishes in a bath! Even with a microwave, mini oven and plug in Hob, cooking wasn’t easy. It may be better to go away. Living in sub optimal conditions away is difficult, but you should be comparing it to unpleasant conditions at home.

Thanks for sharing that silvercar, that is actually very helpful.

Perhaps we need to revisit the whole plan to keep mum in the flat altogether. I am quite worried how it will all be for her (the noise and dust particularly). The issue is also the equipment we will have to bring with us to wherever it is we go, as mum also has mobility issues. If we do this, I will have to find a way to hire a carer to look after her while I stay in the flat for the kitchen refit - it will be distressing for her (one of the issues is dementia) as it will be new surroundings and new people but perhaps overall it might be less distressing than trying to keep her in the flat with everything going on around her...  

I can find ways to cook her meals (we have a Ninja 15-in-1 multicooker that I have learned how to use inside out partly because of the upcoming kitchen reno), but the ability to wash up in a clean space is very important to us and we need good access to clean drinking water for her (I had been planning to get around this by ordering in bottled water on a schedule even though I realise that will be expensive). 

The thing is, I am sure we are not the first to try to do this in our circumstances so there must be tradespeople out there with experience in it but it is proving hard to find them...

How long did it take them to fit your kitchen from start to finish, if you don't mind me asking? Ours is a tiny galley kitchen which is only 4m x 1.9m so we were hoping that would help to cut the time down considerably although we may be fooling ourselves!

We have a 2m x 3m kitchen rip out and fitting took just over a week, but we had to wait for the quartz worktop and glass splashback to be done, which extended the whole process by further 6 weeks to actual completion - but a laminate worktop and tiles would be done more quickly as they don't need templating.

silvercar

SisterMichael said:

silvercar said:

Having lived through a kitchen fitting in recent months, I wouldn’t try to do it with anyone not in good health. The dust and the noise are off putting, having tradesmen around your house difficult. Managing without a kitchen while they do the work needs careful planning, we ended up washing dishes in a bath! Even with a microwave, mini oven and plug in Hob, cooking wasn’t easy. It may be better to go away. Living in sub optimal conditions away is difficult, but you should be comparing it to unpleasant conditions at home.

Thanks for sharing that silvercar, that is actually very helpful.

Perhaps we need to revisit the whole plan to keep mum in the flat altogether. I am quite worried how it will all be for her (the noise and dust particularly). The issue is also the equipment we will have to bring with us to wherever it is we go, as mum also has mobility issues. If we do this, I will have to find a way to hire a carer to look after her while I stay in the flat for the kitchen refit - it will be distressing for her (one of the issues is dementia) as it will be new surroundings and new people but perhaps overall it might be less distressing than trying to keep her in the flat with everything going on around her...  

I can find ways to cook her meals (we have a Ninja 15-in-1 multicooker that I have learned how to use inside out partly because of the upcoming kitchen reno), but the ability to wash up in a clean space is very important to us and we need good access to clean drinking water for her (I had been planning to get around this by ordering in bottled water on a schedule even though I realise that will be expensive). 

The thing is, I am sure we are not the first to try to do this in our circumstances so there must be tradespeople out there with experience in it but it is proving hard to find them...

How long did it take them to fit your kitchen from start to finish, if you don't mind me asking? Ours is a tiny galley kitchen which is only 4m x 1.9m so we were hoping that would help to cut the time down considerably although we may be fooling ourselves!

If you employ trustworthy fitters, why do you need to stay in the flat? Surely you move out with her and make visits to the flat as and when required. 

We took 9 weeks, but we were knocking down a wall, making a window larger and fitting a big kitchen. The actual kitchen fitters took a week to fit. Before that you would have a couple of days for the clearers to rip out the old. Add a couple of days for flooring, another day for worktops, a bit more for second stage and final fitting of electrics. Another day to tidy up. I would think anyone would struggle to have a new kitchen fitted in less than 3 weeks. Even with a galley kitchen it is harder for people to move around and work without being in each others way. Until the new floor was down the dust was uncontrollable! 

SisterMichael

@Emmia - Checking mum in somewhere is something we are now looking into if we can secure funding for this. Dad died (not too long ago) because of medical error and mum once ended up in hospital because of substandard carers, so putting our trust in unknown people to care for her is not an easy option for us. If this proves to be the only viable option, we would delay doing the kitchen so that we could save up to find a short term facility with impeccable standards.


moneysaver1978 - we need an entire re-do, the kitchen is 20 years old and was actually in good condition before we had carers in. Old kitchen needs removing, room re-plastered, new flooring, redo electrics and (if we change the layout) possibly plumbing but as it is a flat we are fairly restricted in this (we had to get formal permission to do the kitchen from the freeholder of the flats). New cabinets (we want pre-assembled to reduce the amount of time needed to do the kitchen) and appliances put back in (we have sourced our own but we still need to buy a new hob and extractor hood). 

We quite like IKEA but our kitchen having a few quirks and the need for something bomb-proof means people have told us that IKEA will not meet our needs on this occasion sadly.

moneysaver1978

moneysaver1978 - we need an entire re-do, the kitchen is 20 years old and was actually in good condition before we had carers in. Old kitchen needs removing, room re-plastered, new flooring, redo electrics and (if we change the layout) possibly plumbing but as it is a flat we are fairly restricted in this (we had to get formal permission to do the kitchen from the freeholder of the flats). New cabinets (we want pre-assembled to reduce the amount of time needed to do the kitchen) and appliances put back in (we have sourced our own but we still need to buy a new hob and extractor hood). 

We quite like IKEA but our kitchen having a few quirks and the need for something bomb-proof means people have told us that IKEA will not meet our needs on this occasion sadly.

Actually, my parents were surprised but their kitchen did have a few quirks which IKEA designer was able to incorporate. Maybe worth a visit so you can at least compare costs and designs.

SisterMichael

@Emmia - Thanks, this is useful. It sounds like your kitchen size is not too dissimilar to ours. We are deliberately looking for kitchen suppliers that sell pre-built cabinets (quicker to install - hopefully days rather than a week - and presumably more robust).

Our biggest expense will be the eye-watering extravagance of a Dekton worktop (you would quickly see why if you see the state of our current kitchen laminate worktops due to previous carers).  We are looking at trying to find a specialist to measure up (once the designs are complete) so that they can make it prior to the kitchen fitters starting, as we have a little bit of storage space left in a storage unit 20 minutes drive away.

We are thinking of a glass splashback and trying to keep away from tiles (much as we love tiles) altogether as it will be easier to clean and maintain. I guess this is something we would have to have made and brought in in real time so may cause a delay.  

Was your kitchen and fitter from one of the big sheds?

We thought the entire thing might take 3-4 weeks if we manage to get the worktop thing done as above....  


 
@silvercar - We routinely read and see warnings from our local Council to not leave tradesmen unattended in our properties. I think living in Central London brings some unique challenges that others fortunately don't have to account for. 

Also, 'please make recommendations for trustworthy fitters' could have been an alternative name for this entire thread!

Hopefully, as we are not allowed to do structural works like taking a wall down, this will help in the speed of fitting the kitchen. 

If we could get it all done in 3 weeks, I would be delighted!

I still have no solution about how to effectively minimise dust....

SisterMichael

moneysaver1978 said:

moneysaver1978 - we need an entire re-do, the kitchen is 20 years old and was actually in good condition before we had carers in. Old kitchen needs removing, room re-plastered, new flooring, redo electrics and (if we change the layout) possibly plumbing but as it is a flat we are fairly restricted in this (we had to get formal permission to do the kitchen from the freeholder of the flats). New cabinets (we want pre-assembled to reduce the amount of time needed to do the kitchen) and appliances put back in (we have sourced our own but we still need to buy a new hob and extractor hood). 

We quite like IKEA but our kitchen having a few quirks and the need for something bomb-proof means people have told us that IKEA will not meet our needs on this occasion sadly.

Actually, my parents were surprised but their kitchen did have a few quirks which IKEA designer was able to incorporate. Maybe worth a visit so you can at least compare costs and designs.

Another issue with the IKEA kitchens is the lack of a back panel, but will certainly give it some thought. 

Emmia

SisterMichael said:

@Emmia - Thanks, this is useful. It sounds like your kitchen size is not too dissimilar to ours. We are deliberately looking for kitchen suppliers that sell pre-built cabinets (quicker to install - hopefully days rather than a week - and presumably more robust).

Our biggest expense will be the eye-watering extravagance of a Dekton worktop (you would quickly see why if you see the state of our current kitchen laminate worktops due to previous carers).  We are looking at trying to find a specialist to measure up (once the designs are complete) so that they can make it prior to the kitchen fitters starting, as we have a little bit of storage space left in a storage unit 20 minutes drive away.

We are thinking of a glass splashback and trying to keep away from tiles (much as we love tiles) altogether as it will be easier to clean and maintain. I guess this is something we would have to have made and brought in in real time so may cause a delay.  

Was your kitchen and fitter from one of the big sheds?

We thought the entire thing might take 3-4 weeks if we manage to get the worktop thing done as above....  


 
@silvercar - We routinely read and see warnings from our local Council to not leave tradesmen unattended in our properties. I think living in Central London brings some unique challenges that others fortunately don't have to account for. 

Also, 'please make recommendations for trustworthy fitters' could have been an alternative name for this entire thread!

Hopefully, as we are not allowed to do structural works like taking a wall down, this will help in the speed of fitting the kitchen. 

If we could get it all done in 3 weeks, I would be delighted!

I still have no solution about how to effectively minimise dust....

Ours was all done through John Lewis - you won't be able to have any templating done for glass and worktops until the rest of the kitchen is in. We had a temporary chipboard worktop whilst we waited for the quartz, and once that was fitted the glass was templated and then delivered and installed later.

You'll probably also find your kitchen is just the wrong size for pre built stuff.

You won't be able to get it done in 3 weeks (unless you're very lucky) if you want glass splashbacks and that worktop.

To be honest though, JL aren't the cheapest, and whilst they're solidly built they're not bomb proof - how long is your mum likely to be with you given her health and caring needs? I'd probably give serious consideration to going for a cheap IKEA kitchen you will mind getting wrecked less than an expensive JL one.

silvercar

I’m not that far from you (zone 6 rather than zone 1). I still maintain if you employ decent tradesmen you should be able to leave them get on with the job. 

MysteryMe

If you want bomb proof you need to see what they use in professional kitchens. It's basically heavy duty stainless steel.

If you want quite niche materials then I think best thing you can actually do is go into local independent kitchen shops and discuss your needs and let them go through what options there are.

Go into several, get a feel for the person you are dealing with. Do they sound like they know what they are talking about or are they just interested in showing you glossy brochures and selling you the most expensive stuff. A good shop will tell you if you are over thinking things or if a cheaper option will suit just as well. There must be quite a few that supply kitchens in central London. 

They will also be able to source fitters and trades for you because that's what they are doing every day of the working week.

 
Edited to add
If you are able to source what you want online and need a fitter and don't have personal recommendations try the Which Trusted Traders website https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk/   The people on that website have all been visited and vetted in person and the reviews genuine.

Emmia

MysteryMe said:

If you want bomb proof you need to see what they use in professional kitchens. It's basically heavy duty stainless steel.

If you want quite niche materials then I think best thing you can actually do is go into local independent kitchen shops and discuss your needs and let them go through what options there are.

Go into several, get a feel for the person you are dealing with. Do they sound like they know what they are talking about or are they just interested in showing you glossy brochures and selling you the most expensive stuff. A good shop will tell you if you are over thinking things or if a cheaper option will suit just as well. There must be quite a few that supply kitchens in central London. 

They will also be able to source fitters and trades for you because that's what they are doing every day of the working week.

 

I live in zone 2 and regularly go into zone 1 - there are very few independent kitchen shops in these parts. People tend to go to one of the sheds e.g. Wren/Magnet/Wickes/Howdens etc. or IKEA 

Of the other types/non shed that are around, they tend to be of the 100% bespoke cabinet maker varieties or upmarket options like PoggenPohl, Nolte, or Harvey Jones. The OP hasn't provided a budget, but I suspect they don't want to spend £20k+ on this refit.