So i finally committed to a new kitchen. Some installers and builders are coming next week to quote for the prep/install.

What non obvious tips have you that I can ask about / mention while they are here?

Are they organising: gas disconnection/connection/commissioning?

Sparky? Appliance rating? Cable from consumer unit sufficient?

Extract routing – extract to outside? or internal carbon filter and recirc?

No gas.

We have an electrician, nothing much is changing except for Lamps to spots in the plasterboard ceiling. Extractor is re-circ.

Wifey is thinking of adding underfloor heating below the quarry tiles as our Rad is inadequate in the winter when no cooking is happening.

Only regret I have when we fitted our new kitchen is not having the extractor feed outside. Those charcoal filters are fine for a bit but I miss being able to vent water vapour and smells out of the house.

We tried, but RSJ’s etc and cooker positioning makes it very difficult without significant building work, which would be over our budget.

RSJ’s can quite easily have a core put through them Kryton without any strength detriment.
The only reason most don’t get installed pre lightened is down to cost and laziness by builders.

Upgrade Rad?

Or howabout a wet plinth heater instead of the rad and free up some wall space?

As budget is of concern the following will be rather pricey

Relocate the boiler if in kitchen? Recently seen where folks have either relocated it to the garage or in the loft and gone for a sealed system ( hot water tank went into lift and gave extra airing cupboard storage)

Or howabout a wet plinth heater instead of the rad and free up some wall space?

Kinda noisy on full trot, but luscious having warm air directed over your tootsies and up your leg on a frosty morn’

Aga for heating, or save money by driving a 1980s V8 petrol range rover through your wall, idling it 24/7 and frying eggs on that instead.

Aga for heating,

Not enough space issues with chimney placement.

wet plinth heater

We wouldn’t gain by removing / moving the Rad, but this would be a good idea to go under the breakfast bar / island onto the other side of the room.

Edit: I hadn’t appreciate an under floor electric heating mat was a cheap as it is, job done!

Payments schedule so that the job is done to your liking before full payment is made
Solid walls? Consider condensation problems behind the units

We tried, but RSJ’s etc and cooker positioning makes it very difficult without significant building work, which would be over our budget.

Buy units etc from IKEA (not whichever expensive outfit you’re looking at), then you’ll save enough to do a proper job.

Know what you want and where you want it kitchen units, tiles, power points, lights, etc, etc. When your builder/fitter has a question and you say ‘I will just go and ask STW’ for the fiftieth time they won’t be happy.

I’d say look to upgrade your rad. Electric underfloor heating works but is very expensive and I know people with it who just don’t use it due to the expense. You can cheaply fix cold tiled floors with a pair of slippers or thick socks. I had a plinth heater in my first house. It was not particularly good. Good for taking the chill off things but certainly not man enough for heating the space, especially on a cold sub zero winters morning where it was next to useless, the warm air just immediately cooled as soon as it left the heater, and it was a small kitchen. It was quicker to heat to just leave the door open and let warm air come in from the rest of the house.

Have you designed your kitchen yet? Spend most of your time thinking about how you use the kitchen – it is after all a practical space over and above everything – there is the Triangle rule – to have a clear line between your fridge, cooker/ovens and sink. We got a new kitchen with our extension last year and I wish we’d spent alot more time on the kitchen design – I would have done things slightly differently if I’d spent more time on the design around storage space and the way we have our cupboards configured.

Don’t be too impressed by naff trendy features too – again its a practical space. We got nice big pan drawers lower down as they looked nice and trendy, but our cutlery drawer is inside a larger pan-drawer which is a PITA as you have to open one drawer to get access to another – a minor thing but you access your cutlery drawer alot so you’re just doubling your effort. Big pan drawers are not very efficient in storing anything other than big pans.

I wish i had incorporated one of those long/tall pull-out jar racks -jars take up alot of space so having a nice efficient jar storage is very useful.

Also think about your bin. For some reason we just had a normal stand alone bin which is useful, but I didn’t thin about recycling or anywhere to put it before we move it into our outside recycle bin so we always have a little pile of recycling on our work tops which just makes things look a little untidy. Again, I wish we’d have incorporated a recycle bin in a cupboard somewhere to put it before we decant it into our outside bin.

As above, a double pull out bin unit is great for separating rubbish / recycling.

Go for a 700 work top. Gives so much more room for services etc running at the back of the units.

Just remeber everyone uses their kitchens differently so design one for your own needs.

The triangle rule is fairly important, I always design them so the hob, fridge, water supply are in close attendance if possible to minimise the walking around the kitchen whilst in use.

I personally like deep drawers for base units and would spec pull outs wherever possible as they are really useful to reach stuff at the back, we keep all our crockery in one, food in another etc. you can pull the drawer out and get to the stuff that would have been at the back of a deep cupboard. The cutlary drawer behind a deep drawer doesn’t bother me as most of the time the drawer is being opened to get the plate,cup, whatever anyway.

Make sure you get the water and power in the right places, I tend to put power for fixed appliances inside adjacent cupboards, make sure you know how much juice your appliances are going to need, some are surprisingly thirsty!

Our under tile heating gets used all the time, but I did go to the trouble of well insulating under the screed before laying.

I don’t like IKEA units much, they’ve probably changed a bit but the cupboards don’t have a service void to the rear which not only allows cables and pipes behind but allows you to scribe to cabinets to out of plumb walls. There’s ways around this but requires deeper worktops. I also found the end panels and finishing to be of poor quality which takes away f I’m the finished look of the job.

As above, planning and keeping the triangle rule, or at least failing that, plate cupboard etc next to dishwasher, cooker next to pans etc etc.

We have a built in oven, so much nicer or no bending down.

Elec under floor heating very expensive to run, as are those fan blowy things which are crap. Bigger radiator IMO or proper under floor heating.

Designing our kitchen we found most of the big boys were completely inept when it came to designing good lay outs.

We bought Howdens in the end. Can work out cheaper as carcasses are already made up so fitting costs are lower.

make a drawing of what you want, drainer/sink location, drawers and wine rack , fridge and freezer, dishwasher and cooker etc.

Do you want under unit lights, cornices, new flooring, tiles,vinyl, laminate or timber splash backs, splash back behind cooker,door types, solid wood, mdf painted, panneled or flush, even stainless steel,worktop thickness, timber, chipboard or granite, handles what type,soft close doors and drawers, more plug points, outside tap,time span for work, parking space outside, residents parking permits and lots more

I spent ages designing our kitchen and it works realy well. The only thing I didn’t think through was placing the bin next to the oven could cause it to go smelly quicker than normal due to the extra heat.

Thanks all – most if that is covered. Design (practical) is done with fitted oven, appropriately placed pan drawers and a corner unit, rubbish cupboard with two separated receptacles next to the sink. I hear the underfloor heating issue. Our rad is a 3ft double, maybe it’s better to change that to a slightly wider “finned” version to pull more air through then.

Buy units etc from IKEA (not whichever expensive outfit you’re looking at), then you’ll save enough to do a proper job.

Sorry if rather have a pretentious gloss handleless German affair and brag smugly about it 😉

We designed ours using the Ikea app, if nothing else it gives the installer something to work with in terms of layout. We finally went to DIY kitchens (actually visited them down in Pontefract) as they were best value for a given quality (comparable to Howdens). Their internals are all German, after that the carcass is as much a muchness.

We got a local joiner to fit ours, local carpet fitters did the laminate floor, neighbour did tiling and I fitted the wet plinth heater (not commissioned yet so cant comment on effectiveness).If your rad doesn’t have convector fins then yes, get one with, you could get a smaller one with the same heat output and it will still be miles more effective due to the circulation.

Currently fitting my kitchen and looking for some advice from kitchen fitters (if they don’t mind) as the plasters haven’t helped me out. My walls aren’t vertical and lean out.

This is what I’m fitting and the corner units are giving me a bit of a headache:

And as the walls lean back I’m left with a reasonable gap:

The problem is I can’t see anyway to profile the back of the units as they are solid panel.

My options appear to be:
1) add a carcass colour filler panel to the carcass (but that’ll still leave me a gap when the door is fitted)
2) add a door colour filler panel to the wall

Any other ideas or opinions on what will look neater? It’s mainly the base units…the gaps on the wall units are minimal and I can live with those.

For radiators, measure the dimensions of the room, and use one of the BTU calculators to work out what size radiator you need.
We’re looking at changing all of ours from 1970’s looooong ones to finned convector rads. The wall space saved is appreciable.

Yeah, those curved corner units are a PITA unless the wall is flat and plumb, or are you struggling with straight ones? It’s good practice to allow a filler up to walls rather than cupboards right up to the plaster for exactly this reason.

Looking at your 2nd photo, a face filler in the door colour would look best, but you’d need a way to attach it as obviously it can’t hover in mid air but it’s tricky with it being so thin. I’d possible cut it as well as I could and then glue it to a 2nd piece of timber at cabinet level which could then be screwed to the side of the cabinet carcass if you catch my drift?

Just had ours done recently, magnet by a local fitter. I think some things are mentioned above but my thoughts are:

– get the designer to look at using all the fancy storage to give you an idea of what you can have, be prepared to pick and choose after as it can be really expensive
– tall larder storage is very useful
– underfloor heating raises the floor quite a bit, so we chose to get a bigger vertical rad that takes up less room than the original. You need to think of the threshold too, do you want a step up?
– if retiling the floor get it levelled first. What colour grout do you want? Will it need sealing?
– use decent quality grout for the walls, it’ll resist mouldy and staining. We had some BAL stuff. Again what colour?
– have you decided where (be specific) about electrical points? Chosen face plates? Remember if something plugs in and it’s inaccessible it needs a seperate isolator
– are you having under cabinet lights? Seperate circuit to main switch?
– are you fitting a range? Is the current supply up to the job?
– are you reprinting? Have you asked when would be best?

Oops reread your post and some of the above if for further down the line.

Cheers Blazin.

Well cut a piece off the filler panel I have and glue as you suggest before fixing to the adjacent carcass. I’ll then caulk the cut line against the wall.