Project: Kitchen Refit – Part 1

Project Specifics:

Projects costs and Difficulty Rating:

So at the start of the Spring 2025 I started my kitchen refit. I won’t bore you here about the circumstances which led up to needing the said refit – all I will say is that it involves the empty cottage next door, horrendous damp and I covered off a lot of that history (including ripping the old kitchen out) here.

For the purposes of this project I started out with an empty kitchen which had been out of action at the time for about four months. I cannot tell you how boring a diet of take away, Air Fryer and Microwave meals get. It was a miracle that by the end of it my lad and I weren’t a good 20 stone heavier!

The idea that I had in my head for the final article was a typical “Cottage like, galley kitchen with a modern take” – yep, that was the whole premise that I started out with and then just started randomly buying stuff that kind of fitted that brief – Ikea made a hell of a lot of money out of me that day!

Anyhow – the specifics of the project were as such:

1. The kitchen was effectively a “greenfield” site – all that was present were freshly plastered walls. All units and electrics had been removed.
2. I needed to (and this isn’t in the order that did the work):
   1. Re-install the new oven and hob feed: and upgrade the termination plate from 25A to 50A (the original Sparky put a 25A plate in which was pointless as the breaker is rated at 40A). You could argue that was for safety – but given that the induction hob could in theory pull 32amps and the oven being rated at 2Kw (around 8 amps) – you’d be over what the termination plate could handle. Of course, in reality using the rules around divergence you should never get anywhere near the full 40amps (limit of the breaker), but with the outlet rated at 25A you could get near that quite easily if cooking a big meal and burn that out.
   2. Re-install the kitchen socket ring: – I had needed to remove the entire kitchen ring as part of the preparation for the tanking work. I had left in place the T & E cable from the board which was the origin of the ring. I needed to install a number of new double sockets as the original kitchen only had two (yes – you read that right – two sockets for the entire kitchen!). I wanted to have at least 4.Given the previous problems that I had with the old kitchen I also wanted ALL of the electrical to be surface mounted and in PVC (trunking) containment – I didn’t want anything chased into the walls again. Whereas you could argue that choice was unsightly it meant that the electrical system was by and large protected from the damp which remained in the walls as taking doesn’t cure damp – it holds it back. It also meant that if there was any future damage to the electrical install it could be repaired with less effort.Finally in the old kitchen setup there were 4 un-fused spurs off the kitchen ring final (used for the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and extractor) – this is a no-no in the UK so I wanted to replace all of them with above counter Fused Connection Units (FCUs) which in theory you can as many as you want as they are protected by their own 13A (for the dishwasher and washing machine) or 3A (for the cooker hood) fuse.
   3. Install a new extractor fan for the hob: The old extractor fan for the hob died after 3 uses. It was truly shit. I couldn’t find one which fitted (back then) exact measurements of the original cupboard layout so I went with some crazy German company called Klastein and quickly found out that their products were cheap for a reason. If you’re ever tempted to use them – just don’t – spend the money on a more widely known manufacturer!
   4. Re-Install kitchen drawer units and counters: This also included a new unit for the oven and counter cut out for the Induction Hob. Originally when I bought the house the fridge was also in the kitchen – but I moved that out into the living space as I wanted more food preparation zones in the kitchen.
   5. Re-Install the cupboards: I had a few cupboards from the old kitchen that I could reuse and I bought a couple more take make up for sacrificing one floor standing unit which the damp had absolutely ravaged.
   6. Fit a new Splash back for the hob: The placement of cupboards that I had planned around the hob meant that whilst I was able to salvage the existing splash back – it no longer fitted so a new one was needed. Just as an aside here I can highly recommend Splashbacks UK – they are a decent company, with excellent customer service and quality products!
   7. Make and fit a number custom shelving units: The layout of both the drawer units and the cupboards left gaps in awkward places as my kitchen is an odd shape and size. Getting ready made units to fit would have been a challenge so I decided that I was going to make some.
   8. Sand and re-seal the existing sink counter top: Out of the old kitchen there was one area which was salvageable. This was the bit of the kitchen where the sink lived – which is along the outside wall. The sink is set into a lovely bit of Ceder counter top, however the previous owner of the Shire clearly treated it with complete contempt! There were burn marks on the counter top where hot pans had been placed down and it clearly needed some love – but was recoverable. So my plan here was to sand it back and then re-seal with Osmo Oil.
   9. Cut, sand and fit counter up-stands:The original kitchen’s work tops were just jointed to the walls using sealant. Basically – horrible. I bought some Ash up-stands and my intention was to miter those inline with the walls on top of the counters. The idea was a semi cosmetic thing – but also practical for spillages and splashes.

The sequencing:

I spent weeks planning out the sequencing as it was very important to ensure that the work that I was doing didn’t interfere between phases. The following was the plan that I was going to follow:

Challenges & Considerations

Whilst I now had all the bits of this project defined and a sequencing that made sense – I had to consider some of the challenges – or – at the very least things that I needed to think about whilst doing the work.

The biggest of which was how to secure the drawer units, cupboards, extractor and electrical fixtures to the walls.

As the kitchen had been tanked and then skimmed – drilling into the walls to fit Rawl plugs could create a bridge between the damp layer and the tank, so whilst knew that I was going to have to drill some holes – I needed to strike a balance between as few as possible, but also ensure everything was secured safely.

My gut feeling was to drill required holes, clean them out, fill with a waterproof silicone sealant, insert the Rawl plug and then carry on as normal with the fixings – but I needed to check that was the right approach with the company who had done the work as I could invalidate the guarantee on the tank.

Thankfully they agreed with the idea and said that was actually the approach they recommend to customers to maintain the integrity of the installation – they even recommended Sika Stixall Extream Power Sealant which, from my experience is very good – it’s messy as hell – but, if you are drilling into slurry based tanking – use this stuff to fill the holes before you put the Rawl plug in.

Just as an aside on Rawl Plugs – on this project, in fact on pretty much every project which needs fixing into a wall, ceiling or fixed structure I use Fischer Duo – they are expensive – but they are worth the money as I have found that aside from being solid with great load bearing per plug potential, the wastage on insertion (e.g where you have to give it a little bit of encouragement with a rubber mallet and the bloody thing collapsing) is very, very low.

Tools used on this project:

Project Part Gallery:

First units arrive.These are the first of the kitchen units which will support the counters arrived and I put them in place temporarily. To the right you can see the kitchen ring running from the CCU.

Units with the draws sort of in.Again this was more of a planning out the layout phase for the kitchen. I wanted to check the clearance behind each unit for the wiring.

Units and uncut counters in place.I needed to work out the placement of the drawer units and the oven / hob whilst planning out the electrical installation. This also involved cutting the end counter to the angle of the back wall of the Kitchen - which, typically is a really odd one!

Cutting the counter hole for the Induction hob.Interesting experience this - I knew roughly how to do it - but in practice there are more variables to think of. Would have been handy to of had a plunge saw - but in the end I opted for the Jig using a rail as a guide.

Hob Cut into CounterIt fitted perfectly! First time that I have cut a counter for something like a hob and it looked nice!

Summary for this part:

Well that is the scene set for what was one of the biggest projects that I have taken on to date!

Between April and July 2025 my lad and I were without a Kitchen which was quite entertaining on so many levels. Our living room looked like a warehouse for Ikea and Wickes, but ultimately we got there. In the next parts I will take you through how we did it.