For the architect: what we need, and when

A stage-by-stage guide to working with us on a bespoke kitchen, from concept to snagging, written for practices who would rather have the kitchen maker in the room early than late.

Most of the kitchens that go wrong on site were fine on the drawings. They went wrong because someone was brought in too late to change anything that mattered. A kitchen is a piece of joinery that has to reconcile itself to a ceiling height, a floor build-up, an extract route, a run of drainage, and a client who will stand in front of it every morning for twenty years. If the maker sees it first at Stage 4, half of those things are already fixed.

This is a note for architects and interior designers about when to bring us in, what we can do at each stage, what we need from the practice, and where the line sits between our scope and yours.

RIBA Stage 2: concept

At Stage 2 we do not need much. Sketch plans, a block layout, a sense of the ceiling height, an idea of the budget bracket the client is working to. If there is a structural strategy already forming — a steel where a wall used to be, a roof lift, a rear extension with a specific glazing line — we would like to see it.

What we can offer in return is unfashionable: an opinion on proportion. Whether the room is tall enough for the wall units the plan implies. Whether an island of the size drawn will sit properly in the space or crowd it. Whether the structural change being considered actually gives you the kitchen you want, or whether a smaller intervention gets you nine tenths of the way at a fraction of the cost. If a client has told you they want a scullery, we can tell you what a scullery actually needs to be to earn its floor area, and what happens if it is squeezed.

We do not charge for this stage. A conversation, a site visit if the project is within reasonable distance, a follow-up note. It is in our interest and yours that the concept is right before the client falls in love with it.

Stage 3: developed design

By Stage 3 we would expect to see floor plans and elevations at 1:50, a reflected ceiling plan if there is anything happening up there, and a rough idea of the services strategy. If the client has appointed an interior designer as well as an architect, we would like both in the same conversation early rather than late.

What we produce at Stage 3 is an outline layout, an appliance schedule, an initial specification (which of our four ranges, cabinet construction, likely worktop, likely paint or finish family), and a budget estimate accurate to within about fifteen percent. That estimate is a real number. It is built from cabinet count, linear metres of run, worktop area, appliance allowance and an honest installation figure — not a rate per metre pulled out of the air.

We will also flag anything at this stage that will cost the project money later if it is not resolved now: an extract route that has nowhere to go, a floor build-up that does not accommodate underfloor heating and a stone worktop overhang, a return wall that will not take the loading of a tall run of larders.

We charge a fixed design fee at Stage 3, agreed in advance against the scope of the kitchen. It is deducted from the order value if the client proceeds.

Stage 4: technical design

Stage 4 is where most of the coordination happens and where the practice needs the most from us in return. We need the coordinated setting-out drawings: structural openings dimensioned, floor build-ups confirmed, ceiling heights confirmed, window and door reveals dimensioned, the M&E drawings showing where waste, water, gas, power and data are actually going to arrive.

From us you will get: a general arrangement drawing of the kitchen at 1:20, elevations at 1:20, a services requirement schedule (extract volumes and duct sizes, hot and cold positions, waste positions, socket and switch positions with heights, lighting circuits we need switched separately), a structural loading note for the island if one is drawn, and a confirmed appliance schedule with manufacturer cut sheets.

We do not do the M&E coordination. We tell the M&E consultant what we need and where; they coordinate it against everything else in the house. We do not do the structural engineering. If the island carries a stone slab whose weight matters, we will give the engineer the figure; we will not size the beam. We do not coordinate the main contractor’s trades other than our own. That sits with the practice or the contract administrator.

What we do expect the practice to hold at this stage is the agreed finished floor level (in writing, with a datum), the agreed setting-out grid, and the JCT programme with a realistic kitchen installation window that respects our lead time. Our lead time from order to delivery is currently around [CHECK weeks] and it does not compress well.

Stage 5: construction

At Stage 5 we issue shop drawings for approval. These are the drawings we actually make from — every cabinet dimensioned, every face frame, every drawer box, every door, every scribe. We ask for a formal sign-off from the practice and, where the practice wants it, from the client. Once signed off, changes cost money and time, and we will say so at the point the change is asked for rather than at the end.

We attend site meetings during the first fix window, we survey the room a second time before we cut anything (that is a separate discipline in its own right, and one we take seriously), and we install with our own team. We snag our own work and we come back to close the snags out. We do not disappear at handover.

What we bill, and when

Concept advice at Stage 2 is unbilled. The Stage 3 design fee is invoiced on appointment and covers work up to and including the outline layout, specification and budget. If the client proceeds, a deposit of [CHECK percent] is taken on order, with stage payments through manufacture and a final payment on completion and snag sign-off. The Stage 3 fee is credited against the order.

We can supply as trade to the main contractor, in which case the contractor holds the risk, marks up as they see fit, and we invoice them. Or we can supply as principal directly to the client, with our own contract, our own insurance, and our own installation team. Both routes work. Which is right depends on the shape of the project and the appetite of the contractor. We are happy to discuss either at Stage 3 rather than have it become a question at Stage 5.

Change during construction

Change during construction is not a moral failing, it is a fact of building. A client changes their mind about a tap. A structural opening turns out to be twenty millimetres off. A slab of stone arrives with a fault and the replacement is six weeks away. Our approach is that any change is priced in writing before it is made, with a time implication as well as a cost implication, and issued to the practice and the client together so nobody is surprised later. Small changes we absorb. Larger ones we do not.

The kitchen as one piece of the building

The reason to bring the kitchen maker in early is not that the kitchen is more important than the rest of the house. It is that a bespoke kitchen is a substantial piece of built joinery with real dimensions, real weight, real service requirements and a real lead time, and the earlier those are on the drawings the fewer compromises the finished room carries. The kitchens we are proudest of are the ones where by the time the first cabinet arrives on site, nothing about the room has come as a surprise to anyone.