Lead times

Bespoke kitchen lead times, week by week

Bespoke kitchen lead times: fourteen to twenty weeks, brief to installation. Three to seven days on site. Sixteen to thirty weeks for a full joinery programme covering several rooms.

We book one fitting slot per team and we do not overbook. That is why we will sometimes tell you the honest date is March rather than January.

The clock starts at survey, not at first enquiry. Design and revision account for four to six of those weeks. The rest is production drawing, machining, finishing and fitting.

What we need from you, and when

Appliance choices, before we release the cutting list. Every integrated appliance is a cabinet built around a machine, to that machine’s dimensions. A change of oven after machining means a new cabinet.

Paint colours, before finishing begins, which is usually week nine or ten. Handles and knobs at the same time, because the drilling is done before the doors are finished.

Worktop material at order. Sink and tap at order, because the cut-outs are set out on the rod.

Access. We need to know about narrow lanes, low arches, tight stairs and parking restrictions at survey, not on the morning of delivery. We have built pieces in two halves for a Suffolk staircase before and we can do it again, but only if we know.

We write to you at the point each decision is due, with a date on it. Nothing is a surprise and nothing is chased twice in the same week.

Site readiness

We need the room plastered and dry, the floor down and level, first-fix electrics and plumbing complete and tested, and the space clear.

Wet plaster is the common one. Fitting joinery into a room that is still drying will move it. We would rather wait a fortnight than come back at six months to a set of doors that have all gone out of line.

Our contract is with you, not with your builder. Where there is a main contractor or a project manager on site we work alongside them: our fitters are CSCS-carded, we carry full site insurance, and we will attend progress meetings if it helps.

Stone

Stone is templated after the cabinets are standing, not before. Templating to fabrication to fitting is normally ten to fourteen working days.

So the kitchen is usable in two stages: cabinets and appliances first, stone a fortnight later. We fit a temporary ply top over the sink run if you are living in the house.

Timber worktops are different. They are made here alongside the cabinets and go on with them, so there is no second visit and no gap.

What makes a job late

Late decisions. Paint and handles held over past week ten is the single most common cause, and it is nearly always avoidable.

Appliances changed after machining. Discontinued models, three-month lead times on a range cooker, a fridge that turns out to be 20mm deeper than the brochure said.

Site not ready. Building work overrunning, floors not laid, walls not square enough for a twelve-metre run to be scribed in one visit.

Timber. Occasionally a species or a section is simply not available in the grade we need. Wide quarter-sawn oak, long lengths of clean elm and figured stock are the usual culprits. We will offer you the alternative rather than downgrade the board quietly.

Our own mistakes. They happen. When something is machined wrong we remake it rather than patch it, and that costs a week. We tell you the day we find out, not the week before delivery.

None of this is a reason to be vague about a date. We give you one, and you hear from us the day it changes rather than the week before delivery.

How we keep you informed

Photographs at three points: setting out on the rod, dry-fit in the workshop, and loading. You are welcome to come and see any of it by appointment.

One project manager from first conversation to handover. If the date moves, you hear it from the person who set it.

If there is a builder or a project manager running your programme we give them our dates in their format and update them fortnightly.