Here at JW McDonald Building services Ltd, the goal for us as a company is continuing to deliver high quality kitchen installation & renovations competitive costs in South London & parts of Kent.
We have repeat clients based in Bromley BR1, BR2, BR3 , BR7, Forest Hill SE23, Greenwich SE10, Blackheath SE3, Lewisham SE13 and throughout south London.
We can supply and install Howdens kitchens and Benchmarx kitchens to all of our customers. They both have the free design aspect to them so you can get in touch with them and then share the 3D drawings and detailed installation drawing with us to help us supply and estimated cost.
I wanted to touch on a subject that we always get asked on every job we potentially are going to start, which is how long will the job take ?
I hope this will also give you an outline of how we think when it comes to any kitchen refurbishment and installation project.
I will break down what we do into typical days and how long these elements should take to complete. We hope this will help you understand why some companies will charge more than others and give you an idea of how long a job could take. This will also give you an idea about the cost of the job because you can figure out the typical day rate you are paying for tradesman who are doing the different jobs to complete the kitchen project.
WEEK (1)
We start all of our jobs by putting down floor protection, this could be something called correx or a off the roll stick down protection or both.
This will normally take most of the morning and will help to stop any damage to the floor when we start to remove the kitchen.
We know some companies use dustsheets, which create more dust that has been dragged from previous jobs into your property. Most dustsheets are not waterproof and will not cover all of the high traffic areas so damage can occur.
The second part of the day is spent removing the kitchen, tiled splash back and flooring then turning off the water to the property. This can be done by the main stopcock tap or in the street where each property should have its own water supply. Before removing the kitchen sink anything. Always check that the water supply is switched off completely and remove the sink tap, washing machine or dish washer feeds.
We always switch off the gas supply to the hob, this can found behind the units or inside one the base units near the hob. If the isolator valve for the gas hob cannot be found, we will switch off the gas supply at the gas meter and cut the gas pipe to remove the hob and install a new isolator valve.
This is when we start to install all the new pipe work in their new locations for new waste connections, washing machines, and dishwasher.
If the new hob is a gas hob this will need to be altered at a later time when the worktop is cut out for the new hob installation. We will move this if its going in a new location, but it will still need to be altered again for the final installation.
The rest of the day is used to start removing the old kitchen ring circuit and only leave you with the 6mm oven feed. In most cases if the consumer unit is easily accessible, we will install a new ring circuit to the consumer unit. If this is not possible, we will use part of the original kitchen ring circuit.
We will use the rest of the day drawing where everything should be installed on the walls
This will then set up for the new plug socket, isolator switches for integrated appliances, hob, extractor and oven feed, we will also look at installing any new under cupboard lighting feeds.
We will always consult the client to ask if there will be any more electrical points to be installed. This will cover things like microwave, toaster, charging points and spare points in general.
When this has all been covered, we will start chase out the walls for the back boxes and cables that will be hidden in the walls. We will then chase out the walls for the individual points and cables to be installed in the walls. When we have checked all the pipe work for leaks, we will close up the floor temporarily and back fill all the of the chases in the walls and plaster the walls to a good finish.
We find that some installation plans will need to be changed because we have plastered all the walls in the kitchen. This can add up to 3-5mm of plaster to each wall that will take away the wall space in the kitchen needed for the units to fit.
WEEK (2)
We will start to install the base units for the kitchen as a loose fit to determine if the kitchen will fit with drawings given by the kitchen company.
When you buy a new kitchen some of them come flat pack, this will take more time to assemble, this is all based on a pre-assembled kitchen, which comes from Howdens or Benchmarks.
We will now start to install the new kitchen base units to the walls using brackets and screws. The appliances will be installed in place as a loose fit as well at this point and we make sure that the height of the units are set out for the plinth and flooring finish.
When the base units are installed, we can start to install the wall units, doors and end panels. This will also gives use a chance to install the extractor fan as a loose fit. When the wall units are finished, we can install the worktops and cut out the worktops for the hob and sink.
The next stage is to measure up for tiling so there are minimal cuts and tile waste. We also start setting up any tile trim, this will make sure that your splash back areas should line up with any specifically tiled areas. This is also the time when the gas supply will be finished off and gas hob and sink will be installed. We also do the final waste and water connections; this will take up a lot of space under the sink so most shelving will need to be removed.
We then remove the loose fitted appliances and second fix all the electrical points; all the points will be tested to make sure there are no faults. We will then proceed install all the appliances which the extractor will be, oven, washing machine. If there is any under cupboard lighting, we will install them so everything can be tested.
WEEK (3)
This is when the tiled splash back areas will be sized up to make sure that we are eliminating any tile cuts that will make tile cutting of our tiles harder to complete to give you the best finish. We then fix in place all the loose floorboards and install the 9mm WPB ply boards on the floor using 25mm screws, but we make sure to pencil out where all the pipe work is below just in case.
We will tile the floor complete using rapid flexible floor adhesive which normally take around 3-4 to set enough for light traffic use just incase you have to finish off any final tile cuts. We normally start to decorate the ceiling wall with a watered-down emulsion paint. Then we decorate the ceiling walls and woodwork to a good finish.
We normally give the walls and woodwork a final coat of paint, grout the walls first and then start to install the kitchen handles. We will also have to take off the original door before tiling then cut it down and reinstall it. The final part of the day is to clean everything and silicon around the worktop, sink and hob areas.
This will be carried in conjunction with use checking to make the consumer was up to date before starting the job we will issue a NIC certificate. We will also conduct a gas test to make sure the gas hob is installed correctly from the gas meter. This is when the gas hob can be tested.
We will normally ask the client to use the kitchen on this morning the day before we leave the job, which gives everything the real-life test and get any feed back about the kitchen and any other fittings we have installed. If there are any final changes, we normally ask the client to give use a list of what needs to be changed. We will then start to remove all the plastic covers from the kitchen units the fittings and floors.
The NIC certification testing is carried out to ensure that everything installed to regulation standard. Any rubbish that’s on the job will be removed by having a skip on site or we take it away by van to another job we have that already has a skip we have hired.
We always make sure the job is left clean and tidy and ask the client to check for any snagging on the job. This will be were the client has the opportunity to check over everything that maybe missed in any previous checks before. We normally give the client another 48hrs to check everything over and we keep the keys to property over that time for convenience.
If you need our help with any kitchen refurbishments & remodeling then please contact us: Email us at jwmbuildingservices@icloud.com or use the contact us link or call us free on Mobile: 0771374102
AREAS WE COVER:
Bromley BR1, Bromley BR2, Bromley BR3, West Wickham BR4, Farnborough BR6, Orpington BR5, Orpington BR6, Chislehurst BR7, Petts Wood BR5 Crystal Palace, Brockley, Hither Green SE13, London Streatham SW16; London Abbey Wood SE2; London Blackheath SE3; London Brockley SE4; London Catford SE6; London Deptford SE8; London Eltham SE9; Greenwich London SE10; London Lee SE12; London Lewisham SE13; London Norwood SE19; London Anerley SE20; London Dulwich SE21; London East Dulwich SE22; London Forest Hill SE23; London Herne Hill SE24; London South Norwood SE25; London Sydenham SE26; London West Norwood SE27; London Thamesmead SE28, South London