Kitchen furniture installation (complete set)

A kitchen from IKEA, Black Red White or a local joiner arrives in dozens of boxes. Fitting kitchen units means building the carcasses, hanging the wall cabinets in one straight line and setting the base units so the worktop sits flat along its full length. It is priced per running metre.

What kitchen unit assembly covers

• assembling base and wall carcasses to the kitchen plan;
• levelling the base units on their legs and bolting them together;
• fixing the rail for the wall cabinets and hanging them at one height;
• fitting doors, drawers and handles, and adjusting hinges and runners;
• plinths and filler panels, if they come with the kitchen.

The worktop, sink, hob and cooker hood are the next stages. People often add them to the same order, but the handyman prices them separately, because cutting a worktop or a hob opening is extra work.

Walls, plumb lines and uneven floors

In new blocks walls can be several centimetres out over the length of a kitchen, and the floor may fall towards the window. The handyman starts by measuring: finding the highest point of the floor and running the cabinet level from there. Wall cabinets hang on a rail screwed to the wall, and on plasterboard walls the handyman checks for noggins inside. Cabinets full of crockery are heavy, so this is no place to skimp on fixings.

What to prepare before fitting

• all the boxes in the flat, ideally in a room next to the kitchen;
• the kitchen plan with dimensions and appliance positions marked;
• water, waste and electrical points already in place: moving them once cabinets are up is hard;
• an empty kitchen and a socket for power tools.

Common questions