Kitchen Re-furb

[Robotstar5]

Mrs Robo's parents had the kitchen extended in the 80's, the plans from the time with the original kitchen marked in red and the WC was a pantry off the kitchen.

When Mrs Robo got her NHS pension she took the option of a lump sum and reduced pension and planned to use the lump sum to get the kitchen re-furbed.

After doing the rounds of fitted kitchen suppliers we settled on Howdens and after measuring up produced a plan and an illustration of the finished product.

A few pics of the 30 odd year old kitchen.

The first pic shows the original lounge window to the outside which should have been removed but Mrs Robo's parents fell out with the builders after the new roof started leaking as soon as it was fitted so they had to get a roofer in to sort it and deduct the money from the builder who responded by leaving the extension unfinished.

Next episode: Demolition begins....

 

[Robotstar5]

Day 1

The builders made short work of getting the ceiling down, demolishing the old breakfast bar and ripping out most of the old units.

Pulling the ceiling down revealed some metal straps that seemed to serve no purpose

and ingenious use of garden canes to hold the insulation up

To be continued.......

 

[frank horton]

nice job
7th photo, bit worrying with that new appliance at the edge of the rubble pile.....
bet she's loving it.....
just thinking, mum's cakes and puddings of the future....mmmmmm

 

[Robotstar5]

It was the oven/grill, it took a while find a gas one as everyone seems to be electric these days so I grabbed it quick and left it in the delivery packing so it didn't get damaged.

 

[Robotstar5]

Temporary kitchen set up in the lounge.

Skip turned up so the room got cleared out a bit.

Then it snowed overnight....

The builder didn't turn up due to the snow, but the sparky got through OK, score one for the sparkies

Pulling the ceiling down exposed a mess of wiring.

This was the original builders method of breaking into the upstairs ring main to supply the kitchen extension (the "old" kitchen was still on the downstairs ring main!)

First thing the sparky did was tidy things up.

Then went on to start first fix.

 

[Robotstar5]

I had marked out roughly where the appliances were going to assist the sparky, but when he started measuring there was a 400mm discrepancy, I'd measured from the pillar between the old kitchen and the extension, he measured from the corner so we did a few check measurements and found the drawing was wrong. The builder contacted the designer who asked if we had taken off any tiles or wallpaper, we had, but I've yet to see 400mm thick tiles or wallpaper . The designer came out again and measured, this time with a tape instead of the laser one used before then confirmed the drawing was wrong so they would supply extra cupboards to make up the difference at no cost.

First fix completed.

Insulation in and plaster board going up.

Plastering in the cable drops.

 

[Craig-SM]

The birds nest of wiring is what I found too when doing the kitchen. I guess wire was a lot cheaper then so why bother about wastage when you can just tuck it behind plaster. I must have removed nearly 10m of wasted wire including some that had been left behind from the previous rewire.

Kudos to your electrician for realising the error in the plans before it was too late

 

[Robotstar5]

Ceiling skimmed.

The "old kitchen" ceiling was also boarded and skimmed.

Big delivery day....

Finish plastering the wall that will show above the kitchen cupboards.

The wall between old and new was also boarded and skimmed.

 

[angellonewolf]

they changes the regs on wiring i thought only up and down unless in trunking surface mount ?

 

[Robotstar5]

View attachment 504013

they changes the regs on wiring i thought only up and down unless in trunking surface mount ?

I don't know the last regs I did was 17th edition, I thought you could go horizontal between 2 sockets, the sparky seemed pretty switched on so I assumed he's working to the regs.

 

[dobbslc]

The prescribed zones are up down left right and in the corners although I can't remember the distance from the corner.
Edit: you can also go diagonally if you really want the mother in law to bang a nail through the cable!

 

[Robotstar5]

The prescribed zones are up down left right and in the corners although I can't remember the distance from the corner.
Edit: you can also go diagonally if you really want the mother in law to bang a nail through the cable!

I think the zone is 150mm?

When I rewired my sisters first house I found a previous occupant had run the feed to the immersion heater switch diagonally across the kitchen wall

 

[Welderpaul]

View attachment 504013

they changes the regs on wiring i thought only up and down unless in trunking surface mount ?

No, this is ok.

See: JW

 

[Martinb]

No, this is ok.

See: JW

View attachment 504039

Bands are 150mm

 

[Robotstar5]

For some reason the original builders set the floor height of the extension about 1" lower than the existing house floor so there has always been a "ramp" there.

The floor boards flexed there so the builder dug it out to see why.

So he put some support under it and sealed it ready to fill.

Progress on fitting the units.

They certainly have some clever solutions to avoid wasting storage space, the shelves pivot out so you can access stuff normally out of reach in a corner unit.

Extractor over the hob going in.

 

[Robotstar5]

Oven unit in and most doors fitted.

Breakfast bar assembled.

So it can be used as a work bench

The builder seems to be in the Yellow camp.....

"Dogs cupboard" installed, it didn't take him long to work out where his treats are kept.

The sparky got his measurements right and all the cables were waiting when he drilled the down lighter holes.

Lights working in the old kitchen.

Some interesting plumbing going on under the sink.

 

[Smallfry]

Just looked at the date on the post. Is it snowing in Birmingham then ? Blimmin hot here in Kent.

Could have done with a couple of your old units. Ours have had an accident.

Old wiring looks typically professional. Extra length was left to allow for future changes I'm told. In mums house, wiring wasn't chased into the wall. They hit the plaster with a hammer or something to sink it a bit, and tiled over the top.

Looking under the sink, I'm not sure that socket should be there ? Also the washing machine drain. Ours was like that, with the outlet above an S bend. Stinks when the washing machine pumps out.

 

[addjunkie]

Looking under the sink, I'm not sure that socket should be there ? Also the washing machine drain. Ours was like that, with the outlet above an S bend. Stinks when the washing machine pumps out.

Looks lazy plumbing to me. Id suggest isolation valves to-the tap too, wont belong before you have dripping taps that need new cartridges in.

 

[Robotstar5]

Looks lazy plumbing to me. Id suggest isolation valves to-the tap too, wont belong before you have dripping taps that need new cartridges in.

You will have to wait for the next thrilling episode to see a much tidier job and there are isolators on both lines

 

[Robotstar5]

Just looked at the date on the post. Is it snowing in Birmingham then ? Blimmin hot here in Kent.

It was a couple of years ago, I was backing up some pics of the current lounge re-furb and thought I'd do a thread on the kitchen.