How will I know if my new fitted kitchen will be of good quality?

You will probably obtain more than one quotation so here are some useful tips to help you assess three aspects of kitchen quality:-

1. Kitchen Cabinets; The Inside Story 

What to look for..... "Quality Matters".

Open a door; a good quality kitchen will usually have a colour co-ordinated interior. If it is plain white or porridge coloured, it is probably a fairly cheap cabinet.  Our cabinets are all colour co-ordinated to complement the doors, cornice and light baffle.  Cheaper kitchens frequently have doors fitted to the white side panels to give the illusion of being colour co-ordinated but this results in a clumsy-looking kitchen.

Look inside the cupboards.  Are there dozens of unnecessary holes?  There should be one or two alternative shelf positions, but spare holes are ugly and are there purely to reduce construction costs. 

Now pull out a drawer; does it run smoothly?  Tap the base of the drawer.  Does it flex or does it feel solid?  How much weight do you think it will stand? Cheap drawers can have hardboard bases which can fall out after very little use.  Even the most basic specification of drawers supplied by us have  powder-coated metal sides with long-lasting nylon wheels which will give many years of trouble-free use.  These should not be confused with the old style plastic drawers with plastic runner inserts which contain tiny wheels which tend to jump out onto the floor resulting in a non-working drawer.

2. Kitchen Cabinet Construction 

Kitchen cabinets are made in two fundamentally different ways:- 

RIGID - Cabinets are factory-assembled and squared under pressure using traditional Dowel & Glue joints 

FLATPACK - Cabinets are supplied as separate panels which are then assembled on site with metal fittings. 

(Note) To check whether a cabinet is Rigid or Flatpack look underneath the wall unit.  The Flatpack cupboard will have plastic caps covering the concealed metal fitting or may even have the metal fitting exposed. This type of construction is known as cam and dowel.

A Rigid kitchen is superior to a Flatpack, but is not necessarily more expensive.  Assembling Flatpack units on site can be time-consuming and costly. All of our cabinets are rigid so saving fitting time.

Shelves - should have the same thickness as the side panels to give lasting strength and have metal supports to support heavy weights. Our units are 19mm thick, some cheaper units are only 15mm thick.  Our shelves are all colour co-ordinated as are the outside and inside of the cabinets resulting in a uniform look.

The back panels should be solid and not flimsy hardboard.  All our cabinets are constructed using backs which are at least 8mm thick.  

Drawers - check that there is a solid feel to the sides. The construction should be steel or 19mm thick board. 

Our kitchen cabinets have sides and shelves 19mm thick for extra durability and are edged with matching ABS for maximum durability.

3. How well will your kitchen fit? 

The art of kitchen planning is to make the best use of limited space to create a kitchen that looks great and has a place for everything. This can be achieved only if cabinets are available in a large range of shapes and sizes. 

This means that:- 

You can have cupboards which fit the kitchen walls without the need for large ugly filler panels 

You can have the oven or microwave at the height you want 

Even the worktop height can be varied to suit your preference or special needs

Drawer units of varying depths can be chosen for maximum storage 

Units can be modified for you at reasonable cost

4. Kitchen Worktops 

Worktops vary considerably in quality and consequently vary in price. When looking at new kitchens make sure that the worktops carry the FIRA (Furniture Industry Research Association) Gold Award. This confirms that the worktops have been subjected to a number of demanding tests which include durability tests, heat resistance tests and resistance to abrasion etc. to ensure the worktop is suitable for kitchens. 

Choosing a worktop without such an award will save you a small amount of money but within a relatively short period of time the work surface will deteriorate so this initial saving becomes a false economy. 

Also ensure that the kitchen fitter makes joins in the worktops uses the mason's mitre joint (also called a butt & scribe joint) and using an appropriate colour-matched sealant.  Do not consider metal worktop jointing strips which are a very much do-it-yourself method and have the tendency to trap food under them which becomes a home to bacteria making it a health hazard. 

They are known in the trade as the salmonella strip!

When cut-outs are made in the worktop surface we take care to ensure that the exposed worktop core is effectively sealed using silicon sealant which would dispel any moisture that might find it’s way under the seal between the hob/sink and the worktop surface. Also use self adhesive heat reflective foil which is essential with some worktop manufacturers to maintain their guarantee. Heat and moisture reflective aluminium foil sheets should also be used underneath any worktop area where dishwashers, tumbledriers or washing machines are to be used. 

Granite work surfaces look beautiful and impressive and are well worth the extra cost.  They are highly durable and unlike wooden worktops need little or no maintenance.  Granite is a heavy, natural product so when it is fitted, it should be supported evenly over it’s entire length with only small overhangs allowed. Unevenly fitted kitchen base units would soon give rise to problems such as movement and cracking. Adjustable legs allow our base units to be adjusted accurately and evenly thus ensuring trouble-free use of your stunning, granite kitchen!