Kitchen Renovations in Olney
Kitchens in three hundred year old rooms, fitted so the worktop meets the wall and the doors hang straight.
Five star
Google reviews
£5m
Public liability
10+
Years’ trade experience
Family run
Milton Keynes based
Fitting a kitchen into an Olney stone house is a test of preparation. The walls lean, the floors slope, the ceilings are low and the room was never square. A kitchen fitter on their own will scribe and pack and hope; a builder starts earlier, with the plaster taken back where it is blown, the floor levelled or the fall understood, and the services moved to where the new layout needs them. The units then go in square and the finish looks intended rather than improvised.
On the estates behind the High Street the kitchens are seventies and eighties galleys in cavity built houses, and the job is the familiar one: the wall into the dining room out, new electrics for the island and the hob, and a kitchen fitted onto flat walls. Olney is twenty minutes from our base and we are there regularly.
Typical works can include
Every project in Olney is different. Depending on the agreed scope, works may include:
- Strip out and disposal of the old kitchen
- Structural wall removal, RSJ installation and Building Control sign off, where required and where included within the agreed scope
- Doorway blocking, window enlargement and new openings
- Replastering, floor levelling and screeding
- Electrical alterations and new circuits by a qualified electrician
- Plumbing, waste runs and appliance connections
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main kitchen fitting and renovations page.
Period rooms, breathable walls and the conservation area
In a stone or soft brick house the wall behind a kitchen run needs to breathe, so where it is replastered it is done in lime or a breathable system rather than sealed with gypsum and tile adhesive that trap moisture and blow within a few years. Floors laid straight on the ground are common in the older Olney houses, and a kitchen going onto one needs the damp dealt with honestly rather than a new floor laid over the problem. Ceilings are often low enough that wall units are a bad idea, and we say so.
Internal kitchen work on an unlisted house needs no planning application. A knock through needs Building Regulations approval and an engineer. On a listed house, and Olney has many, internal alterations can need listed building consent, including removing a partition or altering a fireplace to fit a range. General local guidance, confirmed with Milton Keynes City Council or a conservation professional where it matters.
CB Builders came out today after a last minute plea following a DIY mistake we had made. They were obliging, responsive, tidy and fairly priced. Thanks again for coming to our rescue!!
Kitchen fitting and renovations we have built
Our own photographs, some mid build, because that is where you can see how a job was put together. More on the projects page.
Questions from Olney
Can you fit a kitchen in a listed Olney house?
Yes. Replacing units like for like rarely needs consent, but altering the fabric, removing a partition, opening a fireplace or changing a floor can, and we will say so early so the consent is in place before the kitchen is ordered. The fitting itself is done with the care an old room needs: breathable plaster, a levelled or understood floor, and units scribed properly to walls that were never straight.
Do you handle the plastering and electrics as well as the fitting?
Yes. Our own trades do the plastering, the electrics, the plumbing, the flooring and the decoration, so the kitchen is one job with one programme rather than four trades to coordinate yourself. That matters more in an old house, where each trade finds something the last one needs to know about.
Do you supply kitchens and bathrooms, or can I buy my own?
Either. Plenty of our customers buy their own kitchen from Howdens, Wren, Magnet or an independent maker and we fit it. Send us the plan before you order and we will tell you whether it works in the space.
We can also source it if you would rather one company was responsible for the whole thing. We will talk you through which route tends to work out better for your particular project.
How long does a kitchen renovation take?
A straightforward kitchen installation into a room that is ready for it is usually one to two weeks. A kitchen renovation with a wall coming out, replastering, new electrics and new flooring is more often three to five weeks from strip out to handover.
The thing that stretches it is the worktop. Stone and quartz are templated once the units are in and take a week or so to come back, so there is a pause in the middle. We plan the decorating and the flooring around it rather than leaving the room empty.
Other work we do in Olney
Kitchen fitting and renovations nearby
Kitchen fitting and renovations in Milton Keynes, the main page
Also covering Emberton Lavendon Sherington Weston Underwood Clifton Reynes Ravenstone
Planning kitchen fitting and renovations in Olney?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.