Kitchen Fitting in Poole
The old kitchen out, the walls and floor put right, and the new one fitted level and square. Priced in writing after a free visit.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
We take the old kitchen out, make good the walls and floor, then fit your new units, worktops, sink and appliances, anywhere in Poole. It can be a kitchen you bought from B&Q, Wickes, Howdens, Wren, IKEA or online, or one you have not chosen yet. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote.
A new kitchen starts from one of a few places. The units are ordered, the delivery date is in your inbox, and you need a kitchen fitter who will do it properly. Or the old kitchen has had it: doors dropping, a worktop swollen round the sink. Or you have bought a Poole house or flat with a tired kitchen.
We look at the room with the old units still in, check the walls and floor, and note where the water, waste, gas meter and consumer unit are. Then you get one written quote, with the strip-out, making good, fit and finishing each on their own line.
The work
What a kitchen fit involves, stage by stage
A kitchen you have already bought
A kitchen from B&Q, Wickes, Howdens or an online supplier, bought without fitting, suits us fine. Send the plan and the order list before the visit, so the quote is built on what is actually arriving, and tell us the delivery date. Strip-out waits until the boxes are here and checked.
Check every carcass, door, panel and fixing pack against the order. A chipped door found on delivery day costs a phone call to the supplier. Found halfway through the fit, it stalls the job.
Strip-out, and why the order matters
The kitchen's water is isolated and capped, and its circuits are made safe by an electrician, before the old units, worktops and tiles come out and the waste goes with us. With the room bare, pipes and cables move while the walls are open: that is first fix, for a sink going under the window or a dishwasher changing sides. Second fix, the final connection of tap, waste, appliances, sockets and lights, comes only once the units and worktops are in.
Walls and floor put right before anything goes in
This is where a cheap fit goes wrong. Pulling tiles off brings plaster with it, and behind old units there are blown patches and old fixing holes. We cut back and patch, or re-skim, and make good the ceiling where lights have moved. Our plastering page for Poole covers that side of the work.
New plaster has to dry to an even pale pink before tiles or units go against it, which takes days, not hours.
A floor that falls away across the room or rocks in the middle needs levelling too, or the worktop joints open later. Around three in ten homes near Poole town centre were built before 1945, and in houses of that age a floor that is out and a wall that bows are normal once the old kitchen is off.
Units, doors and the lines you notice
Base units go in first, level off a datum line round the room. Wall units are fixed to suit the wall: into brick or block with the right plugs, or into a stud wall only where there is timber or a noggin to take the weight. Tall housings for a built-in oven or a fridge-freezer are fixed back to the wall so they cannot tip.
Then end panels, scribed fillers, plinths, cornice and pelmet, and every door adjusted so the gaps run even.
Worktops, upstands and cut-outs
Laminate is cut on site and joined with a mason's mitre or a butt joint, and every cut edge is sealed, round the sink most of all. Solid wood is oiled on every face before it goes down, underneath and inside the sink and hob cut-outs too, or bare end grain round the sink turns black.
Stone, quartz and solid-surface tops are templated by the worktop firm once the base units are fixed and level, then made and fitted by them, so ask their lead time before you choose. Upstands or a splashback finish the wall, and the sink and hob apertures are cut to the maker's template.
Sink, plumbing and appliances
Moving the sink is the plumbing question that matters: the waste needs a steady fall all the way to the stack or gully, and a sink far from it may not get one. The dishwasher and washing machine each get their own isolating valve where you can reach it, so a split hose never means turning off the whole house.
An integrated door fixes to its appliance with the maker's kit. Then extraction. Under Approved Document F a kitchen needs extract ventilation. If your old hood only recirculated through a filter, ask whether the new one can duct to an outside wall. A short, straight duct works. A long one with several bends is noisy and moves very little air.
Gas and electrics: what the law says
A gas hob or cooker must be connected, or disconnected, by a Gas Safe registered engineer, even for a like-for-like hob swap. New electrical circuits in a kitchen, such as a dedicated supply for an oven or an induction hob, and any work on the consumer unit, come under Part P of the Building Regulations, set out in Approved Document P. A registered electrician can self-certify that work through a competent person scheme. Otherwise it has to be notified to building control. Your quote names who connects the gas and who does the electrics on your job, and the certificates are handed to you.
When we would talk you out of it
If the carcasses are sound, dry and square, and it is only the doors, handles and a tired worktop that bother you, new doors and a new top on the old frames can look like a new kitchen for far less. We will say so at the visit.
How we work
How the fit runs, and living without a kitchen
- You deal with one person from the first visit to the handover. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
- A free written quote, itemised: strip-out and waste, first fix, making good, units, worktops, second fix and tiling each on their own line, with anything provisional marked as provisional.
- If something turns up behind the old units, such as a rotten floor under the sink, that part stops. We photograph it and price it, and it goes ahead only when you agree.
- Dust sheets on the route in, the room swept every day, and the waste leaves with us.
- Nothing left unsafe overnight: water capped or valved off, no loose cables, tools off the floor.
Before strip-out day, set up a temporary kitchen in another room: kettle, microwave, a fridge and a washing-up bowl. Only the kitchen's water is capped, and its circuits are off while the electrics are altered, so run the fridge from a socket elsewhere.
How long you go without depends on the stages, not the size of the room: strip-out, making good and drying, units, any wait for a stone worktop, second fix, then tiling.
What decides the price
What moves the price of fitting a kitchen
We do not publish a price, because two kitchens the same size can be very different jobs. What moves it:
- keeping the layout, or moving the sink, cooker and appliances to new places
- the worktop material, and whether it is cut on site or templated and fitted by the supplier
- what the walls and floor are like once the old kitchen is out
- how many units, corner units and tall housings there are
- how many appliances are integrated, and whether the hood can duct outside
- how much tiling and flooring there is
- access: an upstairs flat, a tight stair or lift, parking, and getting the waste out
To compare quotes fairly, ask each firm the same things:
- Is making good the walls and floor included, or extra?
- Is taking away the old kitchen and the waste included?
- Who connects the gas and who does the electrics, and will I get the certificates?
- Are the worktop joints and the sink and hob cut-outs included?
- If a panel arrives damaged, who pays for the extra visit?
Get every quote in writing, as Citizens Advice recommends, and see how we price a job.
Before it gets worse
Delivery booked and the old kitchen still in
If the delivery date is fixed before you have a fitter, do not cancel it. Clear a dry room and check the boxes against the order the day they arrive. Then send us the plan and the order list, or ring 07435 839745, and the visit and the quote are built around the date you already have.
If water is leaking under the old sink now, turn the isolating valve a quarter turn, or the stopcock, and dry out the unit base before the chipboard swells.
Scheduled work Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.
Flats in Poole
A kitchen in a Poole flat starts with the lease
About a third of homes around Poole town centre are flats. If yours is one of them, read the lease before you book anything. It tells you whether you need the landlord's permission to make alterations, and many set working hours and rules for the common parts. Get any consent in writing before the kitchen is ordered.
Then think about the route in. A full-length worktop or a tall oven housing has to get up the stairs or into the lift, and a stone top is carried in by the fabricator, so tell them the floor. Where there is no drive for a skip, the old kitchen goes out by van, and we protect the communal hall and stairs on the way. Find your stopcock before strip-out day: in an upstairs flat, escaped water goes straight into the ceiling below.
Older buildings have one more check. Much of the Old Town, the High Street and the Quay sits in the Town Centre Heritage conservation area, on the council list of conservation areas. That alone does not control a kitchen refit inside your home, but in a listed building internal alterations can need consent, so check the council listed building records before an original feature is touched.
Who you are dealing with
The company fitting your kitchen
Poole town sits 6.7 miles west of our base in Boscombe. We fit kitchens across Longfleet, Parkstone, Oakdale, Hamworthy, Creekmoor and Canford Heath, and the Poole page shows everything else we do in the town.
The business is Thomas Hannen's, and he comes out to measure and price the kitchen himself. We trade as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. We have a verified 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and so is the written quote with every stage set out.
Questions
Questions about kitchen fitting in Poole
Will you fit a kitchen I bought from B&Q, Wickes or Howdens?
Yes, whether it came from B&Q, Wickes, Howdens, Wren, IKEA or an online supplier. Send the plan and the order list before the visit so the quote matches what is coming, and check the delivery before the old kitchen comes out.
How long does fitting a kitchen take?
It depends on the stages more than the size of the room, and most of all on the worktop: laminate or wood is cut on site, stone or quartz is made to order after templating.
Can a kitchen be fitted in a day?
Not properly. Squeezing it into one day means skipping the making good, and that shows later as open worktop joints and doors that will not line up.
Do you do the plumbing, electrics and plastering too?
The plumbing, plastering and tiling can all sit on the same quote. Gas and electrics are controlled by law, so the quote names who connects the gas, who does the electrics, and the certificates come to you.
How long after plastering can you fit a kitchen?
When it has dried to an even pale pink with no darker patches. That takes days, and longer in a cold, damp week or over a thick backing coat. Tiling or fixing units to a wet wall traps the moisture.
Do I need permission to replace the kitchen in my Poole flat?
Check your lease first. It says whether you need the landlord's permission to make alterations. Get any consent in writing before you order. In a listed building, internal alterations can also need listed building consent from BCP Council.
Nearby, and next door
Kitchen fitting and our other work in Poole
- Kitchen fitting: the full guide, and fitting in Bournemouth
- Plastering in Poole: making good before the units go in
- All our services: everything we do
- How we price a job: what goes into the written quote
- Contact us: ring, email or send the plan
Our other trades in Poole
Builders in Poole: all our building work Everything we do in Poole Kitchen fitting, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Send us the plan, or just the room
If you have bought the kitchen, send the plan and the order list. If not, tell us what you want from the room. We come and measure, and you get a free written itemised quote.