Custom kitchen units: laminate carcasses, measuring and fitting

What the price depends on

The cost of a kitchen comes from the design: the length of the run, how many cabinets and drawers, the height of the top row, corner solutions, the worktop and the hardware. So there is no fixed rate. The quote is individual, after measuring or from a finished drawing. The table shows how this item is set up.

The board for the carcasses, the doors, the worktop, the hardware and appliances are paid for separately, as are delivery, carrying everything upstairs and taking away the old kitchen. Connecting appliances to water, gas and electricity is a separate item too, covered below.

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Laminate: the upside and the weak spot

Laminated chipboard (płyta laminowana) is the standard material for carcasses. It holds its shape, wipes clean and costs less than painted MDF.

Its one weak spot is water on the edges. If the edge banding is badly glued or a cut by the sink is left bare, the board swells and never goes back. That’s why cut-outs for the sink and hob are sealed with silicone, and a steam guard strip goes under the worktop above the dishwasher.

Doors are made from the same laminate, from foil-wrapped MDF or painted MDF. Worktops are most often laminate. Compact laminate and stone are options too, but a workshop cuts those from a template.

Hardware is where you shouldn’t cut corners. Soft-close hinges, full-extension drawer runners and lift mechanisms for wall unit doors decide how the kitchen copes with daily use. Swapping a door later is easier than rebuilding drawers.

Water, gas and electrics

The kitchen fitter assembles the units and makes the cut-outs. In Poland a gas hob or cooker can only be connected by someone with gas qualifications (uprawnienia gazowe). An induction hob often needs its own circuit with the right cable size and breaker, which is a job for an electrician with SEP qualifications. The sink and dishwasher are plumbed in once the valves and trap have been checked. Ask the handyman to state clearly in the offer which connections they do themselves and what qualifications they hold.

How the job goes

1. Measuring, once the walls are levelled and painted, the tiles are down and the water, waste and socket outlets are in place.
2. Design: cabinet layout, dimensions, materials, appliance models with their installation sizes.
3. Signing off the design and the materials estimate.
4. Panels are cut and edged, usually at a workshop from a cutting list.
5. Carcasses are assembled on site, levelled and fixed to the wall.
6. Worktop: fitting, cut-outs for the sink and hob, sealing the cut edges.
7. Doors are hung, hinges and drawers adjusted, appliances fitted into their housings.

Common mistakes

• Measuring before plastering and tiling, so the units no longer fit the alcove.
• Appliances chosen after the design, and the oven won’t fit its housing.
• Sockets ending up behind a cabinet side panel or right above the sink.
• Unsealed cuts by the sink, and over time the worktop swells.
• Wall units hung without checking the wall, when plasterboard and aerated concrete each need their own fixings.
• A dishwasher fitted without a steam guard under the worktop.

What to prepare

• A floor plan with dimensions, or photos of the walls with a tape measure held against them.
• A list of appliances with model numbers: hob, oven, fridge, dishwasher, cooker hood.
• Marked positions of the water, waste, gas and socket outlets.
• Ideas for the doors and worktop, even just photos of examples.
• When the renovation will be done, since the kitchen goes in last, after all the wet work.

Frequently asked questions

How to order

Describe the kitchen in the app: dimensions, appliances, what you’d like, and add a plan or photos. Kitchen fitters near you will send offers with their own price and timing. Compare them by reviews and pick one; only that person sees your address.

You pay the handyman directly and they issue the invoice. They stand behind their own fitting: they’ll adjust a door that hangs crooked and redo a cut-out they got wrong. Crooked walls that weren’t levelled before measuring, and faulty appliances, are not on them.

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