How to measure your kitchen before ordering
Published
Seven dimensions are enough for a preliminary quote: the length of each wall the kitchen will occupy, the ceiling height, the height and width of the window, the position of the water and gas connections, the position of the sockets and the location of any pipework. A fitter still takes the final measurements — yours exist so the costing can happen before that instead of being guessed.
What to pick up
A tape measure of three metres or more, a sheet of paper and a pencil. A phone is a poor substitute: laser apps running on an ordinary camera are out by several centimetres, and in a kitchen three centimetres is the difference between a door closing and not.
Measure against the wall rather than the existing units: the kitchen standing there now may have been fitted with clearance or into different geometry.
The seven dimensions in order
The length of every wall the kitchen will use
Measure corner to corner twice: at floor level and at about 90 cm. A difference of one or two centimetres is normal in any flat, and it is exactly why a kitchen is never built to the precise width of a wall.
Floor to ceiling height
Again in two places, one at each corner. If they differ by more than a centimetre, floor-to-ceiling units become harder to build, and that is worth knowing before the drawing rather than after.
The window: width, sill height, sill overhang
The floor-to-sill height decides whether a worktop will pass under the window and whether a drawer fits beneath it. The overhang decides whether a door front will foul the sill.
Water supply and waste connections
Distance from the corner to the pipe and height from the floor. These determine where the sink can sit — moving it is possible, but it is separate work and best known at the start.
Gas pipe, boiler, ventilation
Position and size. Gas equipment cannot be boxed in behind sealed cabinetry, so it shapes the design more than people expect.
Sockets and switches
Height and distance from the corner for each one. A socket buried behind a worktop is the most common small alteration after a kitchen is installed.
Doors and which way they open
A door opening into the kitchen eats the space beside that wall, which changes where the run of units has to stop.
Three things almost everyone forgets
The skirting board
It stops a cabinet sitting flush to the wall. If the skirting stays, the kitchen stands off the wall by its thickness — and the worktop no longer meets the wall without a gap.
Corners that are not square
A corner in a flat is rarely exactly 90°. Corner sections are therefore built with clearance rather than to the exact dimension, otherwise the unit will not go into place at all.
Appliances you already own
If the fridge, hob or dishwasher is already bought, their exact dimensions from the manual are needed. Built-in appliances are costed from the aperture, not from «about 60».
The short answers
Can a kitchen be costed from my measurements alone, without a surveyor?
Preliminarily yes — that is exactly what the seven dimensions are for. Manufacture only begins after a fitter has measured, though: they check the corners, the plumb of the walls and the position of the services, and responsibility for the kitchen fitting rests with whoever measured.
Measure before or after the renovation?
Costing can happen before, but the final measurement is taken once the walls, floor and tiling are in place. Tiling and levelling consume centimetres, and a kitchen built to bare-shell dimensions will not fit the finished room.
What if the walls are visibly out of true?
That is an ordinary situation and it is solved at the design stage: a filler strip between the carcase and the wall covers the gap. The important part is mentioning the problem before manufacture, because that is when the allowance is built in.
You may also need
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A child's room
Build the carcase full size and fit only the parts you can later move.
Kitchen fronts
Finishes differ less in looks than in how they survive steam, sunlight and cleaning.
Kitchen hardware
Runners, hinges and dampers wear out first — and they are the least visible line in a quote.
Where to start
Send us your seven dimensions and we will quote preliminarily, then measure properly for the actual design.
Contacts
Call us or leave a request for a quote — we will call you back, clarify the details and arrange the measurements.
- Phone or another contact
- +380 67 498 42 46
- Viber
- +380 67 498 42 46
- MEBLI DIM KUZMENKO
- _andriy_kyzmenko_
- Address
- смт Макарів, Київська область, вул. Димитрія Ростовського 31,1
- Where we work
- Makariv · Kyiv · Kyiv region
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