The kitchen is called the heart of the home for a reason; this room is the epicenter of family life. Not only will you cook and possibly eat your daily meals in your kitchen, but you will also celebrate holidays, entertain guests, and spend quality time with family and friends. For all these reasons, the design and style of your kitchen is of the utmost importance. This is why most home owners place kitchen renovating at the top of their home renovations to do list.
What is most important to understand is that a kitchen renovation is seldom a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project.
A DIY kitchen renovation could take several weeks or months to complete and as Murphy’s Law states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” That holds true with most kitchen renovations.
You can go through the pain of demolition, the stress of choosing materials, the labor of installing products—and then end up hiring professionals to fix the mistakes. Or, just as bad, the final results may be less than satisfactory.
Because of the time, talent and investment required to complete a kitchen renovation, most homeowners are best off hiring professionals.
You will need a seasoned Company with proper credentials, licensing, insurance and, of course, ideas and resources. This includes access to reliable and cost effective labour pool and materials.
Once you have decided you want to renovate your kitchen, you will need to research design ideas and personalize them to your space and individual tastes keeping in mind functionality and safety.
More than any room in the house, the kitchen needs to be practical and functional. You will need to think about how you use your current kitchen to identify your priorities for the remodeled space. What works and what doesn't? Give considerable thought to the layout and assess what will work best for your household.
Your measurements must be absolutely accurate, and all the cabinets must be plumb and level — a single centimeter out of place with the first cabinet means serious problems when you get to the fourth or fifth one.
You will most likely spend hours online, browsing websites as well as visiting numerous retailers to choose paint colours, cabinetry style and colour, cabinetry hardware, countertop material and colour, ceramics floor and backsplash tiles, vinyl plank, trims, sink and faucet etc. Your options and price points are endless.
After all new materials arrive and have been inspected, it is time to demolish your current kitchen. If you’re handling the demo yourself, have a plan for how to dispose of the waste.
Before you complete the cabinet installation, you first must contend with the rough-in utility work to prepare for the furnishings. This might require alterations made to the supply lines or drain plumbing of the kitchen sink, all depending on the design of your new kitchen. Appliance placement (dishwasher connections etc.)
The kitchen renovation is as much about the electrical work as it is about the cabinets. With appliances, outlets, switches and lighting throughout the kitchen, you need to make sure that your electrical work is up to code. You should also check to see if you should upgrade your circuit breaker box to 200 amps. This work needs to be completed before the drywall and flooring are installed to have access to wiring for inspection and placing outlets, fixture boxes and switches.
Once the old cabinets have been removed, you may find the walls behind them are damaged and in need of some repair. These walls will need to be repaired before the new cabinetry can be installed.
Have you ever considered what the true cost of DIY painting? First, you need to gather your supplies: paint, primer, brushes, rollers, tarp, tape, ladder and cleaning supplies. Next, you need to schedule at least a full weekend to remove items from the wall, push furniture to the middle of the room, cover everything with the tarp, tape the trim, wash and prime the walls, and only then can you start the painting.
The problem with the floor is getting the subfloor level and flat. This is fundamental to the entire project. If the floor is uneven it will lead to uneven cabinetry, backsplash and countertop.
Remember that installing kitchen cabinets requires a great deal of effort and strength. You will definitely need more than one person to make it happen, as simply lifting the cabinets can be tough; someone will have to hold them in place while another person fastens them to the wall. Installation of kitchen cabinets is usually not a solitary kind of job!
A surprise issue you may encounter with the cabinets: missing wall studs when mounting to a wall. In an older home, or a home that had been renovated in the past, carpenters can sometimes get creative with their framing. This can delay your progress as you search for solid blocking in which to screw the cabinets.
The walls behind the cabinets may not be flush, panels might waver unevenly. When you slide a straight countertop against an uneven wall, it will show gaps along the seam. One option is to scribe the countertop to the shape of the wall.
Tile backsplashes are very popular but are best left to a professional. A professional Tile Setter will already own a water saw and all of the hand tools required to attempt this task. They are skilled at cutting around outlets, spacing out tiles evenly as well as applying them so they stay flat against the wall.
After all the tedious steps you have taken throughout this process, ending with the appliance installation seems like a break! These pieces are heavy, expensive, and require electrical and perhaps gas hook ups. You may need to bring back your electrician for a few more hours to complete the installation of your appliances.
× Disrespect Timelines
“…ordered kitchen cabinets the first week of Oct 2017 with a written guarantee that they would be installed before Christmas. It is Jan 2019 and they are still not done…”
× Lack Customer Service
“…they told me they gave my tiles to someone therefore they could not refund me the cost. They did not keep records of who they gave them to, but isn’t this their responsibility? ...”
× Complicate the Process
“…we have tried to finalize our agreement but they keep changing the contact person, we are now on our seventh representative…”
× Do not complete work
“…they finally installed the rest of the cupboards on April 15. This was 2 months after the initial installation…”
× Lack Knowledgeable Staff
“…our representative said she would call the installer on our behalf as I had a question she did not have the answer to, while I waited for what seemed like 20 minutes, when she again asked if she could help me. I told her I was waiting for her to call the installer and her response was, “oh, I was going to do that after my lunch”…”
× Scheduling of Sub Contractors is Problematic
“… the granite installation was scheduled for Tuesday but when they showed up there was nothing they could do as none of the cabinets had been installed. The cabinets could not be installed as we were waiting for the flooring to be done…”
We employ certified Kitchen Designers & Project Managers to ensure the design, configuration, appliances, counters and backsplash are the best value for your budget and long-term goals.
We provide top quality kitchen cabinets, produced in our own quality controlled factory.
Our Cabinetry includes quality features such as:
• Doubled Doweled jointed frames
• Blum Soft Close Hinges and Drawer Glides
• Adjustable leg levelers
• 1/2” Colour match returns
Our Team of Highly Skilled Trade Professionals are trained to work in sensitive environments … Your Home! These professionals includes:
Our skillful demolition crews remove all components, including electrical disconnects and water shutoffs.
The Construction Debris Removal Team will ensure all components are bagged and removed off site for disposal.
Licensed Plumbers are on site for all required plumbing disconnections and reconnections.
Licensed Electricians provide Electrical permits and complete all required electrical work.
Plaster and Drywall provide a foundation or canvas for all of the other elements in your kitchen renovation. These Trades are highly skilled and have years of experience in their field.
Our incredibly experienced Painters recognize that a quality paint job is a requirement when doing a kitchen renovation. They deliver exceptional work each and every time they are called upon.
Our Vinyl Plank Installers are exclusively trained to install our products, so you can rest assured that your new floor will not only look great, but will be installed correctly with guaranteed results.
Whether your tiles are porcelain, ceramic, or marble, there are challenges that require an experienced tile installer to achieve perfect results and reduce wastage. Our Tile installers have years of experience and a keen eye for perfection and symmetry.
Kitchen Cabinetry is our expertise and as such we have exceptional in house cabinet installers. From carefully bringing the cabinetry into your home, following the technical drawings, to cleaning up when they are done, our Installers treat your home as if you were family.
Our Granite and Quartz installers come to your home to template the countertop once the cabinetry has been installed to ensure a perfect fit and a seamless installation.
Cleanliness is a mandate through each step of the renovation. We also ensure that our meticulous Cleaners come in after the work is done and leave your kitchen shining and sparkling, ready for you to enjoy.
