Second-Hand Kitchen Install

RoyMi6 · 23 Nov 2018 at 10:54

It's been a looooooooong six month but finally managed to install the new kitchen.

I gutted the room back to the studwork to get rid of old lathe and plaster (hate the stuff) as well as make sure I could put the new cabinets into woodwork rather than coming off the wall :eek:

There's still some snagging, but given that it's coming up to Christmas I'm going to stop there and have a wee break.

I've done everything myself apart from electrics and plastering so really please with how it turned out.

The tiling was an especially daunting task. Previously I'd only replaced a 4m2 toilet floor so having to do about 20m2 with metro tiles wasn't something I was looking forward too.

However, a laser level really helped me out. My biggest concern was definitely that because I was going above the cabinets I'd have a couple of runs of tiles where things could get out of alignment because they didn't come together in the corner - so this gave me the peace of mind that it was all going to work out.

Which it did!

Also really pleased with the industrial look of the extractor pipe and the tiles

It's all from a second hand kitchen from my aunty and uncle meaning that because of a slightly shorter wall length the only big purchase we had to make was the new stove.

Amazing how a bit of paint and new handles brings an old style kitchen to life!

Oh yeah, another fun thing was cutting the granite worktop to fit in the pantry! They had an island originally so we had a spare bit of granite that I cut to size to fit the pantry. My only advise on this is "use the right tool for the job". Borrowed a mates 12inch diamond disk angle grinder and it went through it like butter

So, couple of little things to do, touch up some paint, fill some bits, sort out one of the under cabinet lights and put a pair of shelves above the sink. But that can all wait. It's working and we're happy.

Software Developer as a day job, so considering this is what it was like at one point I'm fairly pleased!

RDCorporation · 23 Nov 2018 at 14:12

Good job man! Looks tidy

We are in process of buying a house and first thing i wanna do is get rid of the wall between the living room and kitchen and put a new modern kitchen in....

Keeps me awake at night thinking how many tools I will have to purchase (as you say correct tools are important) and the amount of work to be done

considering I haven't really done it before :eek:

Was you working on it everyday in those 6 months?

planty · 23 Nov 2018 at 14:16

Great job, well done. The units look so much more modern now!

RoyMi6 · 23 Nov 2018 at 15:12

RDCorporation said:
Good job man! Looks tidy

We are in process of buying a house and first thing i wanna do is get rid of the wall between the living room and kitchen and put a new modern kitchen in....

Keeps me awake at night thinking how many tools I will have to purchase (as you say correct tools are important) and the amount of work to be done considering I haven't really done it before

Was you working on it everyday in those 6 months?

So I worked most weekends. We had the odd holiday, party, family thing so probably actually works out at about 40 working days on it.

Most annoying things is that if I forgot to buy something it's about 90 minute round trip to get to B&Q, Screwfix, Wickes from our place. Really takes a bite out of your dad (and your motivation) when you have to make two trips in one day.

I'd procrastinate tirelessly throughout the week in the evening, much to the annoyance of my fiancee, where I'd stand in the room trying to work out what I'd need next. Then come the weekend, go get stuff, then realise I'd got the wrong stuff, then go get the right stuff.

I'll take a photo of my "man room" once I've cleared it up tonight. I forgot to mention the overall spend actually. Spreadsheet says £5,721.

But that's everything... from drywall, screws, plasterwork, shims, wood, electrician, new fuse board, electrical back boxes, light fittings, socks - to tools like new SDS drill, bits, chop saw - to new pots and pans, chopping boards, cutlery - the works.

All I'd say is don't shy away from anything.

There's plenty of information out there and as long as you learn from your mistakes you'll be fine.

My biggest one was thinking that a 40mm waste pipe fitting would fit a 40mm waste pipe... Some knowledge for ya: solvent weld pipe is a different diameter from push fit pipe. 40mm Solvent Weld fittings and pipe are larger diameter (43mm I think?) so that you can't use 40mm push fit pipe (which is 41mm outside diameter) in them. This is because the solvent won't work on push fit pipe. You can however use a 40mm compression fitting on solvent weld pipes. So good for running solvent in areas you can't reach then compression at the ends where you might do some maintenance

planty said:
Great job, well done. The units look so much more modern now!

Cheers! Cabinet paint is expensive though!

Skillmister · 23 Nov 2018 at 16:50

RoyMi6 said:
Most annoying things is that if I forgot to buy something it's about 90 minute round trip to get to B&Q, Screwfix, Wickes from our place. Really takes a bite out of your dad (and your motivation) when you have to make two trips in one day.

I'd procrastinate tirelessly throughout the week in the evening, much to the annoyance of my fiancee, where I'd stand in the room trying to work out what I'd need next. Then come the weekend, go get stuff, then realise I'd got the wrong stuff, then go get the right stuff.

It's only about 35 minute round trip to B&Q etc for me but that still drove me crazy while I was doing mine

I ended up just calling it a day when I realised I'd forgotten things most of the time but ordering it from Amazon there and then so I wouldn't forget and made sure I was getting the right stuff.

+1 on paint and new handles making a huge difference at such a small cost

I assume the cupboard lighting is wired into the mains? What lights did you use?

Distracted · 23 Nov 2018 at 16:53

Super job. Those tiles reflecting the light really brighten up the space.

Nice work!

RoyMi6 · 23 Nov 2018 at 19:50

Skillmister said:
It's only about 35 minute round trip to B&Q etc for me but that still drove me crazy while I was doing mine I ended up just calling it a day when I realised I'd forgotten things most of the time but ordering it from Amazon there and then so I wouldn't forget and made sure I was getting the right stuff.

+1 on paint and new handles making a huge difference at such a small cost

I assume the cupboard lighting is wired into the mains? What lights did you use?

Lucky bam

but yeah, plenty of days just had to be cut short because I knew I'd make mistakes knowing how irate I was.

Yeah, added the lights inside and under cabinets wired into a new lighting circuit.

Got them from https://hartingtonheath.com

Apart from one of the strips getting lost in the post, it's replacement being broken on arrival and then the 2nd replacement being the wrong colour... They've been great!

Honestly, they did sort it all out without issue, just took six weeks from being ordered and is the reason in the pics the right hand under cabinet light isn't on in the pictures.

RDCorporation · 23 Nov 2018 at 20:54

Did you have electrision come out make "new lighting circuit" or did you do it yourself?

RoyMi6 · 23 Nov 2018 at 22:15

RDCorporation said:
Did you have electrision come out make "new lighting circuit" or did you do it yourself?

So it's always annoyed me that our consumer unit is upstairs in a bedroom. We're renovating pretty much everything and I plan on doing outside lights and power so included in all of it I got him to do a new additional consumer unit downstairs as well as that extra lighting circuit.

Still, learnt enough off him I'd have no problem doing anything like it in the future - I'd just probably choose not to only because there's more at risk with getting it wrong

I've been a keen with electronics since primary school so replacing sockets, switches and runing spurs etc is all child's play - it's more just regs etc I don't know about.