Lead times.

Week by week

Fourteen to twenty weeks from agreed drawings to the kitchen leaving Suffolk. Sixteen to thirty weeks for a whole-house program covering several rooms. Three to seven days on site once it lands. The Atlantic crossing and customs clearance sit on top of that, and both are dated on your schedule at order rather than left vague.

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 inquiry. Design and revision account for four to six of those weeks. The rest is production drawing, machining, finishing, dry-fitting and crating.

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, and on a transatlantic job it means a new cabinet on a later container.

Paint colors, 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.

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

Access. We need to know about narrow lanes, low bridges, tight stairs, elevator sizes and parking restrictions at survey, not on the morning the container arrives. We have built pieces in two halves to get them up a 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 drywalled and dry, the floor down and level, rough-in electrical and plumbing complete and tested, and the space clear.

Wet plaster and green drywall are the common ones. Fitting joinery into a room that is still drying will move it. We would rather wait two weeks than come back at six months to a set of doors that have all gone out of line — and coming back is a flight.

Our contract is with you, not with your builder. Where there is a general contractor or a project manager on site we work alongside them: we carry full 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, and we would usually have that done by a fabricator near you rather than ship stone across an ocean.

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

Timber countertops are different. They are made here alongside the cabinets and travel 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, a refrigerator that turns out to be three quarters of an inch deeper than the brochure said.

Site not ready. Building work overrunning, floors not laid, walls not square enough for a forty-foot 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 the container closes.

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 schedule we give them our dates in their format and update them every two weeks.

How it reaches you →   The whole commission →   What delays a kitchen →