Installing the Kitchen Cabinets

With all the plastering complete downstairs, we’re now ready for the kitchen to be installed. The new back room of the house is pretty big and will be an open plan kitchen / family room with dining area and a great view out over the garden thanks to the almost full width glazing and doors in the back wall.

The new kitchen has been custom made and a huge delivery of all the units and panels arrives on site. What was a completely empty room this morning is suddenly chock full of cabinets ready to be installed. The units have been carefully protected with cardboard for transit so one of the first jobs is getting these all unpacked.

The layout of the kitchen looks great. As you can see from the drawing, the main part is ‘U’ shaped with one of the returns in the middle of the room being almost a metre wide. This return into to the room makes a visual break between the kitchen and dining areas whilst still retaining the feeling of space. You can also see how carefully it has been designed – minimal walking distances between key areas, workspace allowed for on each side of the sink and the hob, and positioning the sink so that it faces out towards the garden. At the other end of the kitchen, the wall dog legs where it wraps around the downstairs cloakroom accessed from the hallway. The recessed area here has been cleverly designed to incorporate the classic ‘utility’ equipment. Whilst this keeps these items out of the main kitchen, they are still integrated visually.

The base units forming the centre of the ‘U’ layout are the first to be fitted. These are stood in position along the wall ensuring that everything fits as expected. The height of the end unit is adjusted using the screw up legs so that the top of the cabinet is at the required height. This will form the ‘base’ line and height for the row of cabinets coming out from each side of it. Using a straight edge, the alignment of the front of the cabinet is checked to ensure that the projected line for the rest of the units is correct. Getting this line absolutely right is critical. If the walls are not straight or have a wandering surface, this unit might need to be moved out from the corner and/or turned slightly so that there is enough depth to accommodate the other units further along.

Once the fitter has finalised the position of the end cabinet, it is fixed to the wall with metal angle brackets. Before finalising and fixing the second unit, over which the hob will fit, the end panel is notched out to accommodate the gas supply pipe running along the wall. The gas has been left capped off ready for connection later. The next cabinet is then aligned, adjusted and fitted to suit. The units along this middle wall are now complete.

The right hand return is then assembled in a similar manner. Rather than having a ‘corner’ unit in the design, they have used separate units with a small infill panel set between them. The beauty of this is that any slight deviation from square between the two walls can be readily accommodated. Aligning, adjusting and fixing the units as he goes, the fitter finishes this run with the tall units for the oven, larder, and integrated fridge freezer.

From the other corner, the cabinets forming the run projecting out into the room are positioned. This run comprises a double width base over which the sink will be mounted, and a 600mm integrated dishwasher cabinet. On the reverse side of these, shallower cabinets will provide additional storage space and visually integrate the appearance of the kitchen when viewed from the dining area. However, before these units can be fitted, the kitchen fitter needs to run the hot and cold water supplies to the sink unit as well as the waste outlet. The back panel of the cabinet is carefully cut out to accommodate these services using a hole saw which leaves a neat and precise hole for the pipes. As the fitter explained, more often than not the sink unit will be against a wall making this job a little more difficult. However, on this occasion he has full access to the back of the units making installation of the pipes a bit easier. Once the pipe work has been installed, the shallow cabinets on the reverse are aligned, adjusted and fixed in position.

On the far side of the room, along the recessed area mentioned earlier, the kitchen fitter starts work on installing the ‘utiliy’ units. There will be a freestanding washing machine accommodated in the layout here. As before, the units are aligned and adjusted ensuring that they are square and straight before fixing in position with brackets to the wall. Suitable holes are made in the back panels to accommodate the service pipes for the washing machine which will be housed here.

With all the base units in position, the granite worktop suppliers can now come and make templates for the new worktops. Unlike wooden and laminate worktops which can be cut and joined on site, cutting granite worktops require specialist machinery. The supplier will create templates for each section of worktop using lightweight but semi rigid plastic sheet. This enable an exact template to be made and marked showing all the requirements for cut outs and the like. The sink unit is supplied with a cardboard template detailing the precise shape and position of the cut out needed. This will be used by the granite suppliers in conjunction with their own template and on site measurements.

Above the central section of cupboards, wall units are next to be fixed in position. Starting with the centreline of the hob, the fitter sets out the positions of these units. To the left we have a single and a double. Likewise, on the right we have a single and a double. However, the far right of the double has no door and is blanked off as this forms part of the corner. From the corner here, there is another wall unit taking us up to the full height cupboards mentioned earlier. The wall units have built in mounting mechanisms in each top corner. The kitchen fitter marks the position for the supporting brackets on the wall and drills and fixes these with screws and plugs. The wall unit is then lifted up and simply hung on these brackets. They are then adjusted using the screw adjustment mechanism inside. These allow either side of the cupboard to be lifted or lowered slightly so that they are perfectly positioned. As each one is hung in this way, they can be readily aligned with one another.

The doors for all the cabinets are packaged up separately to protect them. Each one is carefully unpacked as it is required, and the hinges mounted in the predrilled recesses and fixed with small retaining screws. The hinge brackets are mounted on the cabinets and the doors secured to them. These hinge mechanisms have adjustment screws allowing the doors to be raised and lowered as well as rotated a little. This ‘fine tuning’ enables the fitter to line up all the doors perfectly with one another so that the gaps between doors are all even. With the doors fixed, the handles can all be fitted. The holes for the securing bolts are carefully marked out and the doors drilled. As the drill starts to break through, the speed and pressure are reduced so that it cuts through cleanly without splintering the face of the door. Securing bolts are fed through the holes into the handle and tightened.

If you live in the Hertfordshire area and are looking for a professional building contractor, you can get in touch with G L Smith and Sons via their website: http://www.glsmithandsons.co.uk/