7 Things Your Builder Won't Tell You Before Starting a Kitchen Refit
Getting a kitchen refit should be straightforward. You choose your units, agree a price, and a few weeks later you have a beautiful new kitchen. In practice, it rarely works out quite that cleanly — not because builders are dishonest, but because kitchen renovations have a dozen different ways of throwing up surprises, and not all builders are as forthcoming about the risks as they could be.
This isn't a guide about finding a rogue trader. Most kitchen fitters and small building contractors are competent professionals doing their best. But there are things that experienced installers know — and assume you know — that often don't make it into the initial conversations. Here are the seven most common ones.
1. The Quote Doesn't Include Everything You Think It Does
A kitchen quote typically covers supply and fit of the units and worktop, and basic plumbing and electrical connections. What it often doesn't cover — and this catches homeowners off guard regularly — includes:
- Plastering and wall preparation after units and tiles are removed
- Flooring — most fitters quote units only; floor prep and new flooring are separate
- Tiling — often a separate specialist or a day-rate add-on
- Waste removal — removing the old kitchen and disposing of it legally (skip hire or waste carrier)
- Electrical upgrades — if your consumer unit can't support the new appliances, an electrician will be needed
- Any discovery work — once walls open up, any hidden problems (rotten floorboards, old pipework, inadequate wiring) are additional
What to do: Ask for a fully itemised quote that explicitly lists what is and isn't included. A reputable fitter will have no issue providing this. If the quote is a single round number with no breakdown, ask for the breakdown before signing anything.
2. Your Electrics May Not Be Up to the Job
Modern kitchens are electrically hungry. A range cooker, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge-freezer, microwave, and instant hot water tap all draw significant current. Older homes — particularly pre-1980s properties — may have consumer units (fuse boxes) that simply aren't capable of running this load safely.
A competent builder will identify this during the survey stage, but not all do, and some are reluctant to raise it because recommending an electrician adds cost and delay that the client wasn't expecting.
Signs your electrics may need attention include: an old fuse board with rewirable fuses (rather than modern MCBs and RCDs), no RCD protection on kitchen circuits, a ring main circuit that is overloaded, or the absence of a dedicated cooker circuit (required for anything over 3kW).
A consumer unit upgrade (with full Part P certification) costs £500–£900. A kitchen circuit upgrade — new dedicated circuits for the cooker, dishwasher, and washing machine — adds £300–£600. This is money well spent and non-negotiable from a safety standpoint.
3. Lead Times Are Longer Than They Appear
The kitchen you choose in the showroom or online is almost certainly not available off the shelf. Bespoke and semi-bespoke cabinets from trade suppliers such as Howdens, Symphony, or Mereway are made to order. Lead times of 4–8 weeks are typical; for some finishes or door styles, 10–12 weeks is not unusual.
The problem arises when homeowners book a fitter before the kitchen is ordered, or order the kitchen without confirming the fitter's availability. If either party has a gap in their schedule that doesn't align, you can be left living without a kitchen for weeks.
The correct sequence: Choose and measure the kitchen → confirm the lead time → book the fitter for the delivery date → order the kitchen. Everything flows from the lead time, not from the fitter's convenient availability.
4. The Floor Level Will Change
This sounds like a minor detail until your dishwasher won't fit under the worktop or your integrated appliances don't close properly. Kitchen floor levels change during a refit — new screed, additional insulation, tile adhesive, or simply a thicker floor finish all add height.
Most kitchen units come with adjustable legs that can compensate for up to 150mm of floor height variation. But if your integrated appliances were ordered based on the old floor height, or if the fitter hasn't accounted for the new floor finish, you can end up with gaps, misaligned doors, or appliances that are too tall.
Raise this explicitly during the design stage. Give your fitter the actual finished floor height — including whatever flooring you're planning — so they can set the unit heights correctly before installation.
5. Cheap Worktops Are a False Economy
Most builders will offer laminate worktops as the entry-level option. The Formica and Axiom ranges available from Jewson and Travis Perkins are reasonable quality, but they have a ceiling on durability: moisture ingress around sinks, cutting damage, and edge swelling are common within a few years of heavy use.
What builders rarely proactively suggest is solid oak or iroko hardwood worktops — available from Worktop Express and similar suppliers — at £150–£300 for a standard 3m length. Properly oiled (Osmo Wood Oil or Rustins Danish Oil), hardwood worktops are extremely durable, repairable, and genuinely beautiful. The cost difference between laminate and solid wood at worktop level is often £200–£400 for a whole kitchen — a minor increment in the context of a £10,000 refit.
Quartz composite (Silestone, Caesarstone) offers even better durability at £400–£600 per metre, installed. If budget allows, quartz is the professional choice for a high-use family kitchen.
6. There Will Be a Week (at Least) With No Kitchen
This seems obvious but consistently surprises people. From the day the old kitchen comes out to the day you can cook a meal in the new one is typically 7–14 working days for a standard refit, longer if plastering is needed or if there are any delays.
Plan for this properly. Set up a temporary kitchen in the dining room or garage: a microwave, a kettle, a single-ring induction hob, and a mini-fridge will keep a family fed. Budget around £150–£200 for temporary equipment you can sell afterwards. Factor in the cost of eating out or ordering food more than usual — many people underestimate this at £200–£400 for the disruption period.
Also: protect your floors. Kitchen fit-out generates an extraordinary amount of dust, grit, and foot traffic. Lay heavy-duty dust sheets or Correx protection board in every area the fitters will pass through. Replacing scratched engineered wood flooring that was damaged during the refit is a frustration (and cost) easily avoided.
7. The Snagging List Is Your Responsibility to Chase
At the end of a kitchen installation, there will be a snagging list — minor items that aren't quite right, damaged panels that need replacing, a door that doesn't align perfectly, a plinth that needs adjusting. This is completely normal. No installation of this complexity comes out perfectly first time.
The issue is that once a builder's final invoice is paid and they move on to the next job, the motivation to return and address snagging items diminishes. Not because they're dishonest — because they're busy, and every return visit costs them time they're not being paid for.
Protect yourself: Retain 10% of the total contract value until all snagging items are resolved to your satisfaction. Put this in writing at the contract stage — don't spring it on the builder at the end. Most professional builders will accept a retention clause; those who won't should be a warning sign.
Document everything with dated photographs as you go. If a unit is delivered damaged, photograph it before it's installed. If a problem develops after installation, you'll have a clear record. And when the snagging list is complete and you release the retention, leave an honest review — good builders depend on referrals, and a deserved five-star review is genuinely valuable to them.
A kitchen refit done well is a transformative improvement to your home. Going in with clear eyes about what can go wrong — and how to manage it — means you'll end up with a better result, a better relationship with your contractor, and considerably less stress along the way.
