Kitchen installation: cost of kitchen unit installation 2026

How well a kitchen fits is largely decided before the first cabinet arrives. The manufacturer or retailer works from the room dimensions, but real rooms rarely match the drawing. Walls are often out of square, the floor may rise towards one side, and the water, waste and electrical points can sit a little away from where the design shows them. So when the room is measured, wall lengths are not enough. Note the position and height of every outlet, where the window, radiator, gas meter and air vents are, and how far the floor and walls are out of level or flat.

The working height of a kitchen is usually around 85 to 95 cm. It should suit the people who actually cook there, not an average from a chart. The height is set mainly by the legs and the worktop thickness, so agree on it in advance. When planning, it helps to split the run into zones: storage, washing up, preparation and cooking. Leave a continuous stretch of worktop between the sink and the hob. Without it, you will spend your time shuffling pans and plates from one spot to another.

If any pipes or cables need to move, do it before the cabinets go in and before the splashback is tiled. Cutting channels into a finished wall behind new units is a lot of work, and something that was already finished almost always gets damaged.

Most kitchen carcasses are made of melamine-faced chipboard with ABS or PVC edging. Chipboard holds its shape well as long as it stays dry. That is why the weak spots are the sink unit and the cabinet next to the dishwasher, where moisture can get into bare cut edges. Any hole cut into a carcass on site, for a waste pipe or a hose for example, should be sealed with sealant or covered with edging during fitting.

Base units stand on adjustable legs. The fitter levels them with a spirit level both front to back and side to side. Before the plinth goes on, the units are screwed to each other so the door fronts line up. Next to the fridge and dishwasher, the plinth gets a vent grille or a cut-out if the appliance manufacturer asks for one.

Wall cabinets hang on a rail or on fixings via adjustable cabinet hangers. The right fixing depends on what the wall is made of:

• concrete and solid brick: standard expansion plugs that are long enough,
• hollow brick or block and aerated concrete: long plugs made for hollow and soft materials, or a chemical anchor,
• plasterboard: a stud or timber noggin in the partition, which has to be fitted before the wall is boarded, or cavity wall fixings with a stated load rating.

A wall cabinet full of plates, glasses and food weighs far more than you would expect while it is being hung. So the fixings are chosen for the load it will carry every day, not for the empty cabinet.

The most common choice is a laminate worktop on a chipboard core, usually 38 mm thick. You will also come across solid wood, compact laminate (HPL), ceramic, natural stone and quartz composite. Each behaves differently:

• laminate: does not cope with water getting into cut edges or with hot pans put straight on the surface,
• solid wood: swells and shrinks with humidity, so it needs regular oiling and room to move,
• compact laminate: resists water right through its thickness, but it is hard to cut and needs special tools,
• stone and composite: templated only once the carcasses are in place, and a stonemason cuts and fits them.

A corner joint in a laminate worktop is cut with a router and a jig. Recesses are routed into the underside for worktop connector bolts, which pull the two pieces tightly together. Glue on its own would not hold the joint. Before the bolts are tightened, the joint edges get a coat of sealant so water cannot soak into the chipboard.

With cut-outs, make sure a wide enough strip of material is left between the hole and the worktop edge or a joint. A narrow bridge in front of the sink or hob snaps easily, especially when the worktop is carried or when someone leans on it. Always take the cut-out size from the fitting instructions of the actual sink and hob, never by eye.

The sink connects to the waste pipe through a trap. If the dishwasher drains there too, you need a trap with a side spigot, possibly with a non-return valve. Manufacturers recommend running the dishwasher hose in a high loop so dirty water from the trap does not flow back into the machine. The sink waste must fall steadily towards the stack. Why does this matter so much? Kitchen grease settles in flat or sagging sections, and over time it blocks the pipe.

The hot and cold supply points should have isolating valves. With them you can shut off the water to the tap or dishwasher alone, without turning off the whole home. When you replace a kitchen, it makes sense to fit new flexible hoses to the tap. Old braided hoses are a common cause of floods. If there is a small instantaneous or storage water heater under the sink, you need a special low-pressure tap made for it. A standard mains-pressure tap is not suitable.

Plug-in appliances such as the fridge, microwave or dishwasher go into sockets. Put these somewhere you can reach, for example in the next cabinet, so you can switch an appliance off without pulling it out. The hob and most built-in ovens are hard-wired. A powerful induction hob is often connected on more than one phase where the supply allows it. The electrician decides the cable size and circuit protection based on the rating of the specific appliance and the condition of the wiring in your home.

Hard-wiring appliances, adding socket circuits and moving sockets all count as work on the electrical installation. In most countries this has to be done, or at least signed off, by a qualified electrician. New or altered circuits should be inspected and tested, and you should get a certificate or test report.

A gas hob may only be connected by a qualified, registered gas engineer. After connecting it, the engineer carries out a tightness test and gives you a written record. Connecting gas yourself is not allowed. If you ever smell gas, do not switch lights or appliances on or off, open the windows, leave the room and call the local gas emergency number or 112.

Check how the appliances need to breathe, too. The instructions for built-in ovens, fridges and dishwashers list ventilation gaps and clearances. No cabinet or plinth should block them.

A cooker hood works in one of two ways. A ducted hood sends the air outside through a duct. A recirculating hood passes the air through a carbon filter and returns it to the kitchen. Ducting removes steam and smells more effectively. Recirculation is easier to install, but you have to replace the filters regularly and the moisture stays in the room.

With a ducted hood, the duct matters more than the motor. Keep it short, with as few bends as possible and the diameter the manufacturer recommends, often 125 or 150 mm. A reducer or a long flexible hose cuts performance and makes the hood noisier. A non-return flap stops cold air and outside smells from coming back into the kitchen.

In a block of flats, the hood must not be connected to a shared ventilation duct without permission from the building management or the owners' association. It must never be connected to a flue that carries fumes from a boiler or any other appliance. Take extra care in homes with an open fire, a wood burner or a gas appliance that takes its air from the room. A strong extractor creates negative pressure and can pull flue gases back into the home. The answer is an outside air supply or an interlock switch, and a chimney sweep or a heating designer should decide which. The manufacturer sets the height of the hood above the hob. It is usually greater above a gas hob than above an electric one.

The splashback protects the wall between the base and wall cabinets from grease and water. It is usually made of ceramic tiles, toughened glass, laminate or compact panels, or the same stone as the worktop. Tiles can be repaired, and the material tends to cost less. Glass and panels are smooth and easy to wipe, but the openings for sockets and switches must be cut accurately in advance. Glass cannot be altered once it is made.

Fit the splashback only after the worktop is in, so it sits directly on it. Close the joint between worktop and splashback with sanitary silicone or an upstand trim. Behind a gas hob you need a material that can take the heat. With glass, check the distance from the burners in the instructions for both the hob and the glass panel. Once the splashback is on, socket boxes are extended or packed out so the sockets do not end up sunk deep into the surface.

Replacing a kitchen in the same place is usually ordinary home maintenance. It is a different matter if the kitchen moves to another room, a partition comes down, a load-bearing wall is altered, the gas pipework is rerouted or a new hole for an extractor duct is made in an outside wall. Rules differ from country to country and sometimes from one area to the next. Check with your local building authority beforehand whether your plans need a notification, a permit or nothing at all, and do not simply assume that a notice will do. Any work on load-bearing structures should always be assessed by a structural engineer.

In a block of flats, tell the building management or owners' association about any work affecting risers, shared ventilation, gas or the outside walls. The house rules usually say when noisy work is allowed. If you live in a listed building or a conservation area, a new opening in the facade may need extra consent.

After a few months of use, doors often drop slightly and the gaps between the fronts are no longer even. You can put this right yourself. No pipes or cables are involved, and a screwdriver is all you need.

1. Empty the cabinet so the weight of the contents does not affect how the door hangs.
2. Check that the screws holding the hinge to the carcass and to the door are tight.
3. Adjust the side gap with the hinge screw nearer the door until the gaps to the neighbouring fronts match.
4. Adjust the depth with the rear hinge screw so the closed door sits flat against the carcass.
5. Adjust the height by sliding the hinges on the mounting plate or, on some types, with a separate height screw.
6. Pull out the drawer and adjust the height and tilt of the front with the adjusters behind it, following the runner manufacturer's instructions.
7. Check that doors and drawers run smoothly and that the gaps are even along the whole kitchen.

• The cabinets are level and the fronts form a straight line with even gaps
• Doors and drawers close smoothly and the soft-close dampers pull them shut
• The wall cabinets are firmly fixed and do not move under load
• Cut edges and cut-outs in the worktop are sealed and the worktop joint is flat with no gap
• Nothing drips under the sink after you fill the sink or run the dishwasher
• The isolating valves are easy to reach and turn off properly
• All appliances work, and for hard-wired connections you have a certificate or test report from the electrician
• For a gas hob you have a record of the connection and the tightness test
• The cooker hood pulls at every speed and the duct has no unnecessary bends or reducers
• Appliance ventilation gaps and plinth grilles are still clear
• The silicone along the splashback is continuous and clean
• You have received the instructions, warranty documents and spare parts for the fittings