A kitchen is mostly not cupboards
The showroom sells you doors and handles. The reason a kitchen goes wrong is almost never the doors.
It is the waste that has to fall the right way to reach the drain. The extractor duct that has to reach an outside wall without crossing a joist it may not cross. The floor 18mm out of level, so the worktop will not sit. The fuse board with no spare way for an induction hob.
Cupboards are the easy part, and the last part. So we quote a kitchen as a building job with cupboards in it, itemised down to the fixings.
Book a free kitchen survey. James measures, checks the floor for level, traces the drainage and looks at your fuse board.
What we do
Two routes in, and neither one is wrong. We supply kitchens, and where our merchants give us a trade price we hand as much of that saving across to you as we can. Or you buy the kitchen yourself — a showroom, a national retailer, an online carcass supplier — and we are perfectly happy to fit what turns up on the pallet. Tell us which way you are leaning and we will say what it changes about the quotation, because it changes who carries the risk on a missing end panel.
The work covers strip-out and disposal, altering stud walls, moving hot, cold and waste, re-routing circuits, extraction ducted outside, levelling floors, plastering and making good, fitting units, worktops, sinks, taps and appliances, tiling, skirting, and decorating.
A kitchen inside a new extension is part of our house extensions service. Two rooms made into one involves removing a wall and installing a beam. Made-to-measure storage is bespoke joinery and fitted storage.
We do not design your kitchen. The suppliers do that well and usually free. We will tell you when a design will not build — a corner that will not open, a run with no landing space beside the oven.
The order of work, and why
- Survey — level, square, services, drainage invert, electrics.
- Plan agreed, everything ordered. Nothing starts until the units are on site or a firm delivery date exists.
- Strip-out — units, tiles, flooring, appliances disconnected safely.
- Structure, if any — wall out, beam in, opening made good.
- First fix — plumbing moved, circuits pulled, duct run, floor levelled. The noisy invisible half, where most of the money goes.
- Plaster and dry, then the floor down, before the units rather than after.
- Units set out and levelled, then doors off again for protection.
- Worktop templating. The fabricator templates on top of finished, levelled units, and nothing else can happen until the top comes back.
- Worktop fitted, sink and hob cut in, appliances connected and tested.
- Splashback, tiling, second fix, extraction commissioned.
- Doors adjusted, decoration, clean, handover with certification and warranties in your name.
Building Regulations, honestly stated
A straight kitchen replacement in the same room, with no wall moved, is generally not a Building Regulations application. Three things still apply.
Electrics. Kitchen electrical work is subject to Part P. Circuits are tested and certified, and notifiable work is notified. You should receive an electrical installation certificate. If you do not, ask why.
Ventilation. A kitchen needs mechanical extraction to outside. A recirculating hood venting back into the room does not do the same job, and ducting properly often dictates where the hob can go.
Gas. Work on a hob or boiler is done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
When it becomes an application: taking out a loadbearing wall, forming a new opening, altering the drainage, or building the kitchen inside an extension. By town: kitchen fitting in Chichester, kitchen fitting in Bognor Regis, kitchen fitting in Arundel. By village and town: Felpham, Aldwick, Pagham, Middleton-on-Sea, Littlehampton and Rustington.
What a kitchen costs
- Like-for-like, same layout: from £6,000 inc. VAT, up to £22,800 inc. VAT
- Full refit, services moved, new floor: from £13,200 inc. VAT, up to £36,000 inc. VAT
- Refit that takes a wall out with it: £22,800 – £50,400 inc. VAT
Each of those includes VAT, so the figure you read is the figure to budget for. Units and appliances are outside the band whenever you are the one choosing them. So is the Building Control charge on a knock-through, which you pay the council rather than us. Access equipment, on the rare kitchen that needs it, is on our side of the line. More bands are in our price guide, August 2026.
In rough order of impact:
- Whether the layout stays put. Keeping the sink and hob in place removes most of the first fix. Moving the sink across the room is a drainage job before it is a kitchen job.
- Worktop material. Laminate, timber, quartz and granite are nowhere near each other.
- Appliance specification — one oven and four rings, or twin ovens, induction, wine cooler and a boiling tap.
- The floor — whether it takes a tile, or needs levelling, overboarding or a new screed.
- Extraction route. A hob on an island needs a duct through the floor or ceiling, and that is a structural conversation.
- Electrical starting point. An old board with no spare capacity means a consumer unit change first.
Payment. Five per cent down as a deposit, fortnightly valuations after that, and 5% retained until practical completion.
Included and excluded
In the price: stripping the old kitchen out and clearing it from the room, builder's work in connection, plumbing and electrical first and second fix, ducting, fitting of units, worktops, sinks, taps and appliances, sealing, tiling to the areas specified, making good and painting.
Not in it unless written in: units and appliances where you supply them; worktop supply where you buy direct; floor coverings you are choosing; asbestos-containing floor tiles; a consumer unit upgrade; moving the boiler; new windows; flooring outside the kitchen; a temporary kitchen; decorating beyond making good; and structural work, priced separately along with the engineer's calculations and the council's charges.
The guarantee
All workmanship guaranteed for 24 months from completion. Manufacturer warranties on all materials and installed products passed to you in full — many run to 10 years or more. Structural work is signed off by Building Control and covered by our £2m public liability insurance. We're working towards an insurance-backed guarantee scheme and will offer it as soon as we're eligible.
Questions
Can you fit a kitchen I bought from a big retailer? Yes. Two conditions: we check the plan against the room before you order, and every part is on site before we lift the first old unit.
Can the sink move under the window? Usually. The question is the waste, not the tap. It needs continuous fall to the drain; where the run is long or the invert high, the answer is a pumped waste.
Floor before or after the units? Before, almost always. A floor laid up to the units traps them — the dishwasher cannot come out for repair.
How long am I without a kitchen? Longer than the fitting takes, because of the worktop. Templating cannot happen until the units are in and level, and the top is then made off site.
Do I need a new consumer unit? Only if the board cannot safely take the load or has no spare way. A modern kitchen wants dedicated circuits for hob, oven and sockets.
Can I keep the worktop and change the doors? Sometimes, at a fraction of the cost. It fails where the carcasses are chipboard swollen at the sink.
What if the plaster comes off with the old tiles? It often does. Making good is a stated item, and if the wall needs re-plastering you see the revised figure first.
Next step
Send us your kitchen plan and we will price it line by line — book a free kitchen survey. Employers' liability and £2m of public liability cover. Rated 5 stars on Yell.
Prefer to talk? Call James on 07470 078236 or send a WhatsApp photo of the room. Have a look at kitchens we have finished.
Swanbourne Construction Ltd was formed in 2025 to bring James's building work in West Sussex, which goes back to 2008, under one accountable, fully insured limited company.