Kitchen and Bathroom Fitters in Warlingham (CR6)
Most Warlingham kitchen work on the family homes is a knock-through, and most of it hinges on one question asked early: is the wall you want to remove holding the house up, and what is sitting on it upstairs?
Taking the wall out properly
On the 1960s and later houses the wall between kitchen and dining room is very often load-bearing, and it is frequently carrying a floor above and sometimes part of the roof structure with it.
Removing it is routine work when it is done right: the load worked out, a beam sized for it, proper bearings at each end and the opening made good so the finished room shows no sign of what was there. What causes trouble is the version done without the calculation, where the beam is undersized and the ceiling above develops a line across it a year later. We price the structural work as its own item so you can see it rather than find it buried in a kitchen quote.
Kitchens in the older properties
Nearer the village the job changes. Period cottages have smaller rooms, uneven floors and walls that are not plumb, so units are scribed to what is actually there and the run is set out from the line the eye follows. Where a kitchen extends into a rear addition or a new opening is formed in an external wall, the brick or render on the outside has to be made good to match, because on those streets it is seen. Bathrooms in the same properties usually need the floor sorting before anything is tiled.
The trades in sequence
A kitchen is several trades in order. Our own team does the building work and we bring in and manage the specialists, so the electrician is there while the walls are open and nobody is left waiting.
More in Warlingham
Everything we do in Warlingham is on the Warlingham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the bathrooms & kitchens page.
Common questions
Q.01Is the wall between my kitchen and dining room load-bearing?
In most Warlingham family houses of that age, yes. It can still come out — it just needs the load calculated and a beam sized for it rather than guessed at.
Q.02How much disruption is a knock-through?
The structural stage is the noisy, dusty part and it is measured in days rather than weeks. You get the programme with the price so you know which days those are.
Q.03Do you supply the kitchen?
Either way. Plenty of customers buy their own units and have us do everything else. We price it whichever suits and say what is included.
Q.04Do you do bathrooms too?
Yes, same team. In the older properties the floor is usually the first thing to deal with before any tiling goes down.
Q.05What is the difference between a kitchen refit and a kitchen renovation?
A refit puts new units into the room as it stands. A renovation changes the room first — usually taking out the wall to the dining room on these houses — and then fits into what you have made. We price the structural work and the fit separately so you can see which is which.
Thinking about bathrooms & kitchens in Warlingham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.