Kitchen Renovations DIY

Modernising a Kitchen and Dining Room

Step-by-step guide to renovating an old kitchen and dining room with some tips and ideas for the kitchen sink (granite sink), kitchen units (solid oak doors and drawers) and heating (plinth heaters) etc. Also advice on what might be difficult, when you should get the experts in and what you could do yourself. Doing much of the work yourself not only saves lots of money but also gives you the satisfaction of 'I done that'.

DIY vs Professional builder

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The Legal Stuff

Check out the legal stuff before you start

Check with your local authority for any planning permission you may need and/or if any part of your project needs to meet building regulations, and what you are required to do to comply with those regulations.

This may include 'structural work', electrical work, gas fittings etc; electrical work and gas fittings. In England gas and electrics should only be fitted by professionally qualified persons suitably registered for their trade e.g. gas fittings by CORGI registered gas engineers.

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Dkprincess6 Dkprincess6 Oct 21, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

This is a very useful lens. Nice work! Great information.

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Optimist1 Optimist1 Sep 20, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

Thanks for the advice in this lens...

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spirituality spirituality Jun 2, 2009 @ 5:25 am

Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)

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LaraineRose LaraineRose Mar 28, 2009 @ 4:05 am

My hubby has always renovated everywhere we have lived. When we rented it usually caused our rent to be increased so we quit that and bought our 1st home. We have had several since then and Will loves to fix them up. No botch jobs to tell you. This is the second time I have visited your lenses. I have enjoyed this one also. 5*s

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EternalFlame EternalFlame Feb 10, 2009 @ 6:44 am

Very helpful tips....5*
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The Project - A brief outline

Modernising an old kitchen

This project is to update a kitchen that hasn't been modernised in over 20 years. I wanted to do most of the work myself to save on labour costs; the biggest saving being with fitting the new kitchen units myself. Labour costs for fitted kitchens are extortionate costing up to four or five times the cost of the purchase price of the units themselves.

Following the guidance below I spent three months researching, consulting with interested parties e.g. plumber, builder, suppliers, family and friends etc., all of whom helped me develop an outline plan of the kitchen from which I could start to compile a simple but useful project plan.

Asking your friends for their thoughts can be a two-edged sword. They might have some brilliant ideas, but they are their ideas not yours. You shouldn't let other people influence you, but you should welcome their thoughts because they may have good ideas that fit into your plans and/or maybe they point something out that you wouldn't have thought of, or they may give you some good advice and tips that could save you money and time.

Research and Plan

Do your ground work

The most important part of your Project is the initial research and the Planning, including any Risk Assessment. Get this wrong or don't spend enough time planning it and the whole Project could fail for lack of funds, time or poor quality of goods/services. Get the planning right and closely monitor progress throughout the whole project and your expectations are more likely to be met within the time you expect and hopefully for the costs you envisaged.

What is Project Planning and how does it apply to me? Below is a crash course in Project Planning at its most basic level outlining how it can be applied to a Project such as renovating your old kitchen. The three elements that affects the level of success or failure of your Project being: Time - Quality - Cost.

COSTS - To determine likely cost do your research e.g. price up the cost of all the material you are likely to need from nails, screws, glue, paint to floor tiles, wall tiles, new kitchen units, kitchen sink, and don't forget any accessories such as new chopping board or bread bin etc. In other words make a comprehensive list of everything you are likely to buy, including quantities, delivery times and delivery costs, and price it all up e.g. go window shopping, and get quotes and estimates. Also, where work must be done by qualified professionals get full free quotes well in advance, their likely start dates and estimated completion dates.

Once you have all the cost information listed and added up:-

Tolerance - Add some Tolerance into the costs e.g. add a little more onto the costs in the event of price changes, increased labour costs etc., and

Contingency - Set aside additional funds in your budget for Contingency to mitigate against any risks that could have an impact on costs e.g. the kitchen units you wanted become unavailable (out of stock, end of line etc.) and the alternative units you choose cost more, or due to a last minute change in your plan you need more wall tiles than you originally calculated.

QUALITY - Quality will determine cost, and may have an impact on time, so when doing your initial research e.g. window shopping and getting quotes for work to be carried out also evaluate the quality of goods and services. For example if you're on a tight budget you may decide on cheap kitchen units that are not likely to last more than five years or you may decide to buy kitchen units with real wood fronts and save money by laying a cheaper floor or spending less on decorating etc.

TIME - When doing your initial research also gather information on the delivery times for any ordered goods, when building works should start and finish for jobs that are required to be done by professionals e.g. plumbers and electricians, and where planning permission is required how long that may take etc.

RISKS
There will be risks e.g. an elderly or sick relative may need looking after; delivery of goods might be delayed, builders might start late or take longer than expected, or goods might not be of the expected quality. Therefore make a list off all the probable risks that you can think of and mitigate for them; guess their probability and likely impact in the event of them happening e.g. allow extra time to do a job, add some contingency to your budget, enlist the help of a friend if needed etc.

Your Project Plan

Project Planning

After completing your research then by applying Project Planning, in its simplest form, pull together all the information you've gathered (as described above):-

Allow additional time for each task (all jobs take much longer than you think),

Add additional costs for tolerance (things always work out more expensive than you think) and

Plan your contingencies to mitigate against risks e.g. put aside additional funds and time to cover for any risks that may occur during your Project.

Once the project has started monitor its progresses regularly amending the plan as appropriate; MS Project is ideal for this but for most of us who don't have it then a simple spreadsheet or a program like Excel can be effective e.g. it can be used to list the start date and duration of each task so helping you to plan each phase to ensure tasks are done in a logical order and that any task dependant on the completion of other tasks isn't started too soon e.g. you can't fit the kitchen sink until the worktops are in place and you can't fit the worktops until the base units have been fitted, and the base units can't be fitted until the wall units have been installed, especially if you're fitting corner units where (during fitting) you need space below to push them up into place.

Doors and Radiators

Physical changes first relocating doors and radiators

For mini-project featured on this lens the layout of the existing kitchen was unsuitable. The back door was in the wrong place, there was a small corner that created dead-space, and the existing radiator was where we wanted to put the new backdoor.

Our plumber suggested installing a plinth radiator which is installed under a kitchen base unit utilising spare space and freeing up space on a wall which can then be utilised for something else e.g. another kitchen base unit. After doing my research I opted for a Smiths Hydronic (Wet) mains plumbed system; which we are well pleased with. The plinth radiator not only replaced the old radiator but has proved more efficient e.g. with a 40w fan it kicks out up to 2kw of heat from floor level that rises quickly to heat the whole kitchen far more effectively than the old radiator ever did. It runs off the existing gas central heating just like any other radiator making it very cost effective and in the summer months the 40w fan can be used to cool the kitchen.

Removing the old radiator and installing the new plinth radiator in order to free-up the wall for the new back door meant we had to rip-up the old wood laminate floor in the dining room so that the plumber (heating engineer) could have access to the water pipes under the floorboards. This gave us good reason to consider renovating the dining room at the same time as modernising the kitchen.

Brick Arch

Additional alterations before reconstruction

Another consideration for renovating the dining room was that the access-way between the two rooms, rather than being a conventional doorway, was a 4' (1.22 ms) wide brick arch. The brick arch although architecturally pleasing was also a space waster. Taking down the brick arch and replacing it with a more conventional doorway left enough space to custom build a built in larder, thus adding further strength to justifying renovating the dining room at the same time as modernising the kitchen.

All this forward planning, along with costings and time scales, were compiled into a now detailed project plan, along with all the other details to complete the project over the next eight months, on time and more or less to budget.

The Dining Room - Built in Welsh Dresser

Order of the Day - Sequencing your Tasks

Initial major works completed e.g. the old radiator is removed, the new backdoor installed and the brick archway replaced with a new doorway and built-in larder.

We had some time to spare between these major alterations being completed in the kitchen and while waiting for the electrics to be done including relocating the electric sockets to their new positions. We spent this spare time to renovate the dining room, except for the new floor which obviously you don't want to lay until all other major building works and the redecorating are complete. This part of the project, which took a couple of months to complete, was quite straight forward, I continued with the work on weekends to build a welsh-dresser into the alcove and to re-decorate the dining room.

The Welsh Dresser

Carpentry in the dining room complete

The new built in Welsh Dresser replaced old bookshelf's above an existing built-in cupboard. Firstly, after ripping out the old shelves and taking careful measurements of the space available, it was to the drawing board with a list of requirements e.g. what we wanted to use the Welsh Dresser for. The main requirements being cook books on the centre shelves with storage jars and dishes etc. stored out of sight behind doors, and drawers for table cloths etc.

The carcass (shelves and sides) were constructed from exterior plywood and the the doors and drawers from pine. The glass used for the doors were recycled from when we modernised the front porch.

Once the carpentry was finished the whole unit was wood stained to match the original cupboard underneath.

Dining Room Decorated

Decorating complete, including new archway to kitchen

Making use of Dead Space

Creating wall space for kitchen units and room space for a cloakroom

Having blocked off the old back door we made use of the old dead space at the end of the kitchen by putting up a stud-wall for fixing kitchen wall and base units to and by making access to the area behind the stud wall, from the adjoining living room, to create a useful cloakroom.

Not only did this create an extra useful utility room (the cloakroom) but also by making the kitchen smaller we effectively made it larger e.g. more wall space to work with.

The New Cloakroom

Creating space from dead space

Once this area of the old kitchen was partitioned off with a stud wall with the plasterboard in place over the wooden stud frame, and access knocked through to the adjoining living room, we could then make a start on converting it into a cloakroom.

Access to the living room was easy in that part of the adjoining wall was a wooden stud wall and not a brick wall. If it had been a supporting brick wall we would have had to install a support for the doorway in accordance with building regulations.

Before decorating we added a ceiling light to the existing false ceiling (so fitting the light was easy) and laid floor tiles over the concrete floor. Then all that was left was the decorating and adding the fixtures and fittings e.g. cloak hooks on the sides and shelving at the back.

The Kitchen

Order of the Day - Sequencing your Tasks

After several months of completing the tasks mentioned above, and with the new kitchen units on order, we were then ready to start on the kitchen proper.

The order of the day is getting the sequence right. Obviously you don't want to lay a new floor until most of the other works are completed. And in our case as we wanted to place the kitchen base units on top of a new tiled floor I didn't want to do any of that until I could take a few weeks off work; obviously because when we remove the old units and kitchen sink the kitchen would be out of commission until the new sink is installed. Therefore a phase of the project you don't want to do on weekends only.

With this in mind we put the finishing touches (DIY/carpentry) to the built-in larder, prepared the kitchen walls and decorated them. We then did other little odd jobs (DIY) in the kitchen; and when the kitchen units arrived we put up the wall units.

The Larder

Built in Larder

Creating the larder to fill an 18" gap was an enjoyable and very rewarding part of the project.

The designed was based on an old 1950's freestanding larder that belonged to my grandparents and I even used the enamel bread board from the original larder. The caucus was built with 18mm exterior plywood and the shelves, doors and drawers constructed from pine. Below the pull-down worktop on the left are spice drawers (used for anything but spice, they're ideal for storing all those little things that get lost or get in the way in other more conventional drawers. And bottom right are the vegetable drawers made from pine with vent holes and coated in varnish for easy washing; each of the three drawers is designed to take the weight of 10kg of potatoes. I did evaluate commercial vegetable racks but they were all poorly designed, they wouldn't have taken the weight of potatoes, would have been top heavy if we tried, and they would have been ill fitting for the space.

Painting and Decorating

Getting ready for the kitchen units - The finishing touches

Ahead of Schedule

Ahead of schedule and still on budget

With Good Project Planning we were ahead of schedule and still on budget. By keeping a close eye on progress, ensuring jobs were sequenced so they were done in a logical order and ensuring goods were ordered at the right time rather than letting tasks slip we gained a couple of free weekends. We couldn't bring other tasks forward because I had to wait for my annual leave so that I could rip out the old kitchen sink and replace it quickly to minimise disruption in its use.

Therefore I took the opportunity and used the spare time to knock up a potting shed in the garden. I priced up the cost of buying a tin or wooden one of the same size but it was cheaper for me to make one out of breeze blocks, which is more substantial anyway. So this is what I did.

Final Phase - Floor Tiles and Base Units

All else done - The home run

With everything else done, all that remained was the Floor tiles, kitchen base unit, worktops, sink and appliances, and wall tiles.

The old wall units where ripped out of the kitchen, the water turned off, the old sink removed and the old lino taken up; followed by a good clean and sweep.

The water pipes and fittings were re-plumbed ready for the new sink and other appliances; all to be in different locations to previously. The concrete was repaired and levelled (to within 3mm) in readiness for tiling.

It took four days to lay and grout the new floor tiles and one day to install the kitchen base units. The kitchen units we chose was the usual 18mm chipboard for the caucus (MDF strut supports for added strength where desirable) with solid oak doors and drawers, drawers base and sides being solid metal rather than flimsy wood.

Real Wood. We opted for real wood (solid oak) not just for the kitchen doors and drawer fronts but also for the new dining room floor. Replacing the dining room floor with solid oak wood rather than wood laminate, and buying kitchen units with solid oak doors and drawers added to the cost a little (almost double the cost of using fake wood) so we did go a little over budget; however, fitting the kitchen units myself saved a lot in labour costs so it was still a lot cheaper than if we paid to have cheap kitchen units installed professionally.

Modifying Kitchen Units

Modifying units to fit

If you fit the kitchen units yourself they are not going to be an exact fit. However, the units do come in varying sizes in 50mm steps. So as long as you take accurate measurements of the space where they are to fit, allowing for walls not being straight, with a bit of careful forethought and adding filler panels when needed it isn't that difficult to get an exact fit.

And if you're competent in DIY and feeling a bit ambitious you can creatively redesign some of the fitted units to make even better use of the space.

In our case, because the local council is now hot on recycling insisting that everything has to go into different bins we needed to find space for five recycle bins in the kitchen. Our solution was to buy two base units with drawers (one in each corner at the end of the kitchen) take the drawers out of the units and fix them to the underside of a fitted worktop at the end of the kitchen, thus retaining two useful drawers and at the same time creating space to put all those recycle bins.

The Kitchen Sink

Granite

Once the base units were in place I could then fit the worktops and sink. The sink we chose was granite rather than stainless still; and a very pleasing choice too. The granite is a composite of 85 granite and 15 resin, enabling it to be moulded to shape and also retaining the qualities of granite e.g. a very tough material that doesn't scratch, crack or stain; and in fact the only way you can damage it is by taking a hammer to it.

Once the sink and appliances were in place, and the water to the kitchen turned on, it just left the wall tiles as a splash-back, which took two days, and the final finishing touches.

The Finished Kitchen

Kitchen Renovations DIY

Modernising a Kitchen and Dining Room

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

DIY vs Professional builder

Thanks for voting! Now invite your friends to vote.

The Legal Stuff

Check out the legal stuff before you start

Your Feedback

The Project - A brief outline

Modernising an old kitchen

Research and Plan

Do your ground work

Your Project Plan

Project Planning

Doors and Radiators

Physical changes first relocating doors and radiators

Brick Arch

Additional alterations before reconstruction

The Dining Room - Built in Welsh Dresser

Order of the Day - Sequencing your Tasks

The Welsh Dresser

Carpentry in the dining room complete

Dining Room Decorated

Decorating complete, including new archway to kitchen

Making use of Dead Space

Creating wall space for kitchen units and room space for a cloakroom

The New Cloakroom

Creating space from dead space

The Kitchen

Order of the Day - Sequencing your Tasks

The Larder

Built in Larder

Painting and Decorating

Getting ready for the kitchen units - The finishing touches

Ahead of Schedule

Ahead of schedule and still on budget

Final Phase - Floor Tiles and Base Units

All else done - The home run

Modifying Kitchen Units

Modifying units to fit

The Kitchen Sink

Granite

The Finished Kitchen

The moment we can sit down and relax

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