Preparing the room for installation
Published
In short: by the time the fitters arrive the room has to be finished — walls in their final state, sockets and services in place, floor laid, old furniture gone, route clear. The fitting team brings the furniture and their tools, not paint, tiles or cable: everything involving walls, electrics and plumbing is done BEFORE installation. If it turns out on site that a wall is still unfinished or a socket is hanging on its wires, the fitting either moves to another day or goes ahead with the risk that the furniture will have to come off again.
Why this is not a detail
Fitted furniture is made to the dimensions taken at the survey. Between survey and installation a room has time to change: another coat of filler, a floor raised by new tiles, a socket moved. Every such change eats exactly the millimetres the board was already cut to, and on the day it shows at once: the unit will not go into its recess, the worktop will not sit into the corner, the plinth will not seat.
The second reason is simpler. Installation is tool work in a confined space: drilling, fixing to walls, trimming to fit. With old furniture underfoot, bags of rubble on the floor or a screed still drying, the team can neither set a level nor reach the wall. Time goes on clearing instead of fitting.
And the third: some of the furniture is fixed to the walls — tall units, wall cabinets, larder units. The wall has to be in the state it will stay in. A cabinet fixed to a wall that is not quite finished will later come away together with that layer.
What has to be ready
Four things that get checked before an installation date is confirmed.
Walls in their final state
Walls painted or papered, tiling in the working area laid and grouted. Nothing is left to "finish later" where the furniture will stand. If the splashback is tiled after installation, that is agreed in advance: it decides the height of the wall units and where the joint falls.
Electrics in place
Sockets and outlets are where the drawing agreed, and already connected rather than hanging on their wires. What will end up behind the furniture gets checked separately: the oven socket, the lighting supply, the cable for the extractor. After installation those points can only be reached by taking a carcase apart.
Water and waste
Pipes run to the sink and dishwasher positions, isolating valves work, waste is brought out. Connections have to sit beside the appliance rather than directly behind it. If pipework is still going to be moved, installation comes after that: dismantling a finished base unit to reach a pipe is the most expensive way to redo the job.
Floor and doors
The floor is laid in its final finish. Skirting can go on after installation, and is actually better that way, because it then meets the plinth cleanly. The room door has to open its full width: a metre-wide cabinet does not come through a half-open door.
What to do the day before
Remove the old furniture
The old kitchen or wardrobe has to be dismantled and taken away, not pushed into a corner of the same room. The space has to be empty: fitters do not handle removal and disposal unless that was agreed separately.
Clear the route
From the entrance to the room: hallway, stairs, the turn on the landing. Parts arrive as large panels, and a tight spot is better found in advance than with a panel in your hands.
Check the lift and unloading space
Whether a long panel fits the lift, whether the lift is working at all, where a van can stand while it unloads. In new buildings there is also the question of whether building management needs notice and whether there are hours when deliveries are not allowed.
Clear and cover what stays
Rugs, appliances that are not being built in, plants, anything fragile: out of the room. Installation means drilling dust, and it settles on everything within a few metres.
Agree who will be at home
Installation needs somebody who can make a decision: which way a door should open, what height a shelf goes at, what to do about a wall that turns out out of true. Somebody who simply opens the door and leaves cannot answer those, and the work stops at them.
What usually turns up on site
Walls and corners out of true. A truly square corner in a home is rare, and that is normal: units are set to the room, the joint is covered with a trim or the worktop is scribed. Anything substantial is flagged at the survey, so it is not news on installation day.
Plasterboard where brick was expected. A wall cabinet full of crockery is held neither by plasterboard itself nor by an ordinary plug in it. If the wall is plasterboard, say so before installation: the fixings are different, and sometimes the cabinet moves to another wall.
A sloping floor. Carcases are levelled on adjustable feet, so a slope in itself is not a problem. It becomes one when the difference is large: then the plinth no longer covers the gap and has to be cut to the floor, which is better known in advance.
And one more: appliances that are not there. A unit is needed on the day so the fit in its niche and its connections can be checked. If it has not arrived, the niche stays as built but there is nothing to test it with, and that step moves to a separate visit.
The short answers
Can the furniture go in before the splashback is tiled?
Yes, but that is decided in advance, because it sets the height of the wall units and where the joint falls. If the tiling comes later, the gap between worktop and the underside of the wall units allows for the thickness of tile and adhesive.
Do the fitters install skirting?
Floor skirting is normally done by whoever laid the floor, and after the furniture goes in, so it meets the plinth cleanly. The furniture trim along the worktop-to-wall joint is fitted by the installers and is part of the furniture work.
The wall is plasterboard. Can a cabinet be hung on it at all?
Yes, where there is a noggin or a stud in the right place, or where the cabinet is supported by an additional structure. The important thing is to mention the plasterboard before installation: the fixings and the method are then different, rather than improvised on the day.
What happens if the room is not ready?
Two options, both wasteful: the installation moves to another day, or what can be fitted is fitted and the rest needs a second visit. That is why the state of the room is confirmed the day before, not on arrival.
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Built-in appliances
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Where to start
If you are not sure whether the room is ready, show it at the survey or send a few photographs of the walls and services: they say more than a description in words.
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