You may be renovating, you may be extending, you may be knocking through, or you might just be refreshing an existing space. Whatever the scale of the project, I would like to explain the benefits of involving Paul Rowles kitchens at the early stages.
Firstly, and perhaps the most important aspect of ordering early for you will be the price. Generally speaking, kitchen companies will quote, and that quote is then valid for 30 days. This protects you from price increases in that time, and let’s face it, in this post covid and post ‘Brexit’ world we have never seen so many price increases in our industry. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon, and prices are very unlikely to go back to what they were in 2020. A lot of suppliers held firm and took the brunt of the rise in raw materials costs, but they cannot sustain that forever and those costs sadly have to be passed on to the retailers, like us and then eventually on to the consumer. So, my advice is don’t delay. Get the quotes when you are ready for them, look through them carefully. Collate a list of questions and get the answers in good time, make changes in good time and decide on final finishes whilst that price is set. To put these decisions into perspective, if you are delaying on committing and paying your deposit because you can’t decide on matte black or copper handles, then a 5% increase on a £20,000 kitchen will cost you an extra £1000. So don’t dilly-dally!
Secondly, if your kitchen space is dependent on building work, the ideal moment to instruct your designer is when you have your final plans from your architect/builder. If we are working completely off-plan, for a self-build for example then final signed off plans are crucial for the dimensions. We can come and do a site survey when the walls are in, allowing for plaster board and skim. Being able to get involved early on means you have the chance to influence first fix of plumbing and wiring which is so important if you don’t want expensive rectifications later. For example, a sink in an island requires the pipework to go under your screed, so your builder will prefer to know this early on.
Then there is availability and supply chain. Every item in a kitchen has a lead time, even if it’s simply delivery. Currently lead times for doors and cabinetry are between 21 and 60 days depending on how bespoke the kitchen is and whether you are using a stock colour or having a paint to order kitchen. The time it takes to place the order also needs to be factored in. As you can imagine this is a drawn-out process with many layers of checking taking place and requesting your kitchen to be ready with 3 weeks’ notice leaves very little time for these layers of checks to be made.
Still on the subject of supply, you may be aware of critical issues in the supply chain of many of the big manufacturers of kitchen appliances and popular models having a lead time of between 12 and 16 weeks. You can try and source your own, but you may run into the same issues with a lot of the big warehouses advertising items that they simply don’t have in stock. Or you can look at British brands such as Caple who luckily, we supply!
Finally, fitting. If you need a fitter, most kitchen companies are booked up 6 months in advance, so if you placed your order in May, you would likely be looking at an Autumn fit.
We want you to have the best experience throughout, from choosing and designing layout up to using your beautiful new kitchen, so let us make that possible by giving yourselves and us the best amount of time to let that happen.