The original kitchen was installed back in 1999 by a kitchen fitter named Paul, and he did a very good job of it. Whilst I didn't help with that
job at all myself, I had learned much from him at the time, and the quality of his work was now my target and benchmark.
As it was so well
installed, having first removed all the fixing screws and jointing bolts from below it was still necessary to (rather creatively I thought) employ
a trolley jack to lever out the first section of work surface. The work surfaces would not be re-used, so it didn't matter greatly if they were
damaged a little in the process.
Clearly the first priority had to be getting the hob installed so that we had some means of cooking other than the microwave. Also pretty important, some sort of work surface for food preparation. Given that installing the new work surfaces would be a time consuming and painstaking task in itself, and could not be done until all the carcases underneath were fully fitted, as a temporary measure I placed the old work surfaces loose on top of the newly fixed units.
My intention was to install a brand new sink and mixer tap when I installed the new work surfaces, but in the meantime we had to have a sink, so I temporarily plumbed in the old one, in its original spot in the old work surface which was again just slung loosely over the carcase. This carcase was somewhat water damaged at the rear by a longstanding and largely unnoticed leak from the tap when it was in the old kitchen. Had I realised how bad it was before I ordered the new carcases I would have probably ordered an extra one to replace it, but as it was I repaired it by removing the rotten parts and replacing with new MDF. As this was the back of the cupboard under the sink, it would not be on display so the colour did not matter.
The next wall unit in the row had in the old kitchen been located between the fridge housing and the wall. As fridge housings are the same depth as floor units (600mm), which is much deeper than standard wall units (300mm), this was very deliberately specified at 450mm deep so as not to look strange. Unfortunately, in its position in the new kitchen this would have meant it stuck out by 150mm, so it had to be cut down to size. This was a complex joinery task, not as simple as just running the circular saw round it. Instead the back panel had to be carefully removed, the excess cut off the top, bottom and sides, then the necessary slots for the back panel re-cut using a router before the whole unit was reassembled.
Worktops, done properly, are the most difficult aspect of kitchen fitting, and the ones in this kitchen were more complex than some
because firstly there is a lot of worktop, and secondly I had designed 45 degree sections rather than 90 degree angles at the three corners. In
a simple, cheaply-fitted kitchen, sections of worktop may well be joined with a visible metal covering strip. However, the gold standard is what
is called "butted joints". In these, the edges of the two sections are butted tightly together so that the join is practically
invisible. Worktop bolts fitted into specially shaped cutout slots on the underside pull and hold the edges together, and if really done properly then
so-called biscuit joints additionally prevent any possible vertical movement betwen the two.
If you are going to achieve invisible joints
then first of all the cuts have to be absolutely clean. Any chips made to the laminate surface along the edge will show up badly and ruin the
effect. In order to cut laminate this cleanly, you need first to ensure that you have a decent quality, brand new and very sharp TCT (tungsten
carbide tipped) circular saw blade. Always turn the worktop over and cut it from underneath, and also into the piece from the bevelled edge at
the front towards the back. The shape of the teeth and the direction that the blade spins mean the laminate is much less likely to be chipped if you
do this.
You also need to plan carefully and take care that none of the joins fall in or near an area that will eventually be cut out, for example for
the hob or the sink.
I initially worked round the kitchen in an anti-clockwise direction from the tall fridge enclosure. However, in
this picture I am preparing the left hand side of the long section into which the new gas hob would be cut. The total run was longer than a single
3m piece (the length in which they are supplied), so the shorter right hand portion was done second, meaning that I could get the difficult
angle right first and then the final join was a much simpler straight cut i.e. the angle was known to be an exact 90 degrees. This allowed
just a little margin for re-cutting the angle on the short section if necessary.
Cornice is the trim that runs along the top of the wall units, and pelmet is the trim that runs underneath. These will ideally be single pieces which span multiple separate carcases, bringing them together and making the whole installation look like one single item rather than a collection of separate ones fitted next to each other. Plinth is the board that runs under the edge of the floor units and fills the gap between them and the floor, hiding the adjustable feet and providing a similar unifying effect.