Kitchen Fitting in Chichester

A wrap-around kitchen carried in by hand

Just off Whyke Road we wrapped a single-storey extension round the back and side of a 1930s semi and made the whole of it one kitchen-diner. The shared side access was barely 900mm wide, so nothing came through it on a machine. Units, appliances, worktop, the steel and every barrow of spoil went in and out by hand, past the neighbour's wall.

Under it, at 1.2 metres, was heavy wet gravel — extra trench support and pumped concrete before there was a slab to stand a kitchen on. Fourteen weeks, and the contract came to £85,000 to £90,000 + VAT, structural steelwork and bi-folds inside that. Both ends of that are before VAT, and so is the beam, the glazing and every other item costed on this page. That is not the Whyke Close loft conversion: different house, different job, similar address.

Want to know whether your back wall can come out? Ring 07470 078236, or book a free site visit and we will measure it. Itemised quotation, reply within one working day.

Where the money actually goes when a wall comes out

Opening the back of a Summersdale or Parklands semi into one room is the commonest kitchen job here, and it is a structural job with cupboards at the end. Engineer first, beam sized, calculations submitted, then a price — never the other way round.

Padstones, temporary propping, fire protection to the steel and making good the ceiling line each get their own line in the quotation. That is where kitchen prices go wrong: units were the bit everybody priced and structure was the bit nobody did. Full Plans with calculations attached means the steel is agreed before it is ordered; a Building Notice lets work start two days later, and the district's inspectors work as north and south teams. Openings alone sit under removing a wall and installing a beam; the extension around one is extensions in Chichester.

Delivery day is a permit, not a phone call

Controlled parking zones cover much of the city, so the day the old kitchen comes out and the day the worktop arrives are both days we have booked kerb space for. Skip permits come from West Sussex County Council; a trader bay is arranged well in advance. On a house with no drive, a single-piece stone top also has to get down the hall and past the newel post — a templating decision, not a fitting-day discovery.

The lean-to on the back is not yours to flatten

Plenty of city kitchens have a later addition tacked on that the owner assumes can simply be pulled down. Inside a conservation area that is a consent question before it is a labouring one: pulling any structure down needs permission of its own, garden walls included. We check the designation against your address before anything comes off.

City-centre kitchens are a different job again

Behind the walls, people are not extending. The spend goes into fitted joinery, the structural alterations that make a Georgian plan work for the way a family cooks now, and repair of fabric never built to carry a run of wall units. Fitted work is carpentry in Chichester.

Three things we look at on the first visit, in every house here:

• Floor levels. The step between an original room and a later back addition shows up the moment a fitted run goes in.
• Damp. We check whether there is a damp-proof course rather than assume one.
• The consumer unit. A modern kitchen concentrates load into one room, and an old board with no spare way is a job before the job.

Clients here want exact detail and get it: itemised quotes, dust barriers, a tidy site, one person to ring. Everything we do with kitchens sits under kitchen fitting.

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.

Email over whatever the designer has drawn and it comes back costed properly, structure and all. Over 100 projects, rated 5 stars on Yell, and £2m public liability plus employers' liability.