Kitchen Renovation in Fulham & South West London

What actually goes into a kitchen renovation

The units and the worktop are the last ten per cent of the job and the only part most people picture. Everything that determines whether the finished kitchen works properly happens before them.

Floors in Victorian and Edwardian properties are rarely level, and a two centimetre fall across a run of units shows immediately on a stone worktop. Old wiring will not carry a modern kitchen's load, so a dedicated circuit and often a new consumer unit is needed. Waste runs have to fall correctly to the stack. Extraction has to be ducted to outside air rather than recirculated if it is going to work. We handle all of it, which is why the finished result sits flat and works.

• Strip out and waste removal
• Structural openings and steel beams
• Floor levelling and screeding
• Rewire, dedicated circuits and lighting design
• Plumbing, gas and waste relocation
• Underfloor heating and manifold
• Kitchen installation and bespoke joinery
• Stone templating, fitting and sealing
• Tiling, splashbacks and decoration

Opening up to the dining room or garden

Most kitchen projects we take on in Fulham, Battersea and Putney involve taking out at least one wall, usually between the kitchen and the rear reception, and often replacing the back wall with glazed doors.

Both are structural. A wall that looks like a partition frequently turns out to be loadbearing on a terrace, and the rear wall almost always is. Our structural engineers calculate and certify the steels, and we handle the building control notification and the temporary propping. Where the opening runs through to the rear elevation the two often have to be designed together as a frame.

Bespoke or supplier kitchen

We install both. A supplier kitchen from a manufacturer works well in a regular rectangular room and is generally faster to get on site. Bespoke joinery earns its cost where the room is an awkward shape, where the ceiling heights are unusual, or where you want full height cabinetry that meets the ceiling line properly, which a modular carcass will not do.

If you have already chosen a supplier we will install their kitchen and take responsibility for the fit. If you want it made, our joiners build it. Either way the same project manager is accountable for the whole job.

How long a kitchen takes

A straight replacement in an existing layout runs three to four weeks. Once you add a structural opening, floor levelling and relocated services, expect four to six weeks. If the kitchen is part of a side return or rear extension it forms part of that longer programme.

Stone worktops add a fixed pause of around two weeks, because they can only be templated once the units are installed and set. We build that gap into the schedule rather than letting it surprise you, and we fit a temporary worktop so the kitchen is usable in the meantime.