Preparing your room before your kitchen is fitted

The week before

• The services are ready. Water feeds and waste, sockets and electrical supplies: everything must be at the measurements on the plan before fitting. This is the point that derails a job: a water feed 20 cm too far to the right, and the sink unit has to be forced back into place. If I am coordinating your tradespeople, it is sorted upstream; if you are managing them, hand them the kitchen plan, not a spoken description.
• Floors and walls are finished. Painting, tiling or wood flooring are done in an empty room, so beforehand. Keep some paint in the tin for touch-ups after fitting. A new floor will be protected during the job: with me, that is systematic.
• The appliances are delivered and checked. Unpack them, check the references and any transport damage a week ahead: a late oven or a dented dishwasher can be replaced without stress seven days out, not on the day itself.
• Family logistics are sorted. A fitting takes 2 to 5 days: plan for the camping hob and a microwave corner, empty the fridge if it is changing place, and if you can, arrange care for the children and the dog on the heavy-work days.

The day before

• The room is empty. Completely: the old units taken out (or their removal is included in the quote, check that point), the cupboards emptied, nothing on the floor, nothing on the walls concerned.
• The route is clear. From the parking spot to the kitchen: entrance, hallway, stairs. A 3-metre worktop does not negotiate a cluttered corner. Take the picture frames down in the hallway, it takes two minutes and spares regrets.
• Somewhere to unload. In town, reserve the parking space outside your house; in the countryside, leave the yard accessible. Carrying carcasses 80 metres means fatigue and risk for your furniture.
• The panels acclimatise. If delivery comes before fitting, the units wait in the room, at the house's normal temperature, not in a damp garage or against a wood stove. The wood takes on the temperature and humidity of the house before being fixed: a detail that avoids many surprises, explained in why wood moves.
• A decision-maker within reach. There will be one or two unforeseen questions, there always are. An answer within the hour, and the fitting never stops. It is one of the secrets of smooth jobs, detailed in being a good client.

What stays on my side

My honest opinion: this list is not a way of making my life easier at your expense: it is the opposite. Everything above, you can do in a few hours with no particular skill; every point forgotten, though, is paid for in fitting hours, at fitting rates. The rest is my job: protecting floors and walkways, truing everything to the millimetre against your walls that are never straight, the adjustments, the end-of-job cleaning and taking away the packaging. A job well prepared on both sides means a kitchen fitted faster, better, and in good spirits, and that is exactly why I hand this checklist over at every bespoke kitchen signing. To see what that looks like once the fitting is finished, I have gathered my kitchen projects on one page.