Kitchens in Banbury, priced in writing before anything starts.
Kitchen work in a Banbury stone property runs into one thing immediately: the walls are thick, solid and not straightforward to cut into.
A stone wall of this kind may be six hundred millimetres or more through, and it is often two skins of stone with a rubble core between them rather than one solid mass. Forming an opening through that is a real structural operation. The lintel has to carry the full thickness, the core has to be consolidated so it does not run out when the wall is breached, and the work has to be propped and sequenced properly. It is entirely doable and we do it, but it is not the half day job that the same opening would be in a cavity wall.
Services are the second issue. Chasing a stone wall for pipework and cable is slow, dusty and not always advisable, so a well designed kitchen in a stone building works with surface routes, existing chases and the joinery rather than pretending the wall is plasterboard.
Floors in these buildings are rarely level or square, which matters for fitted units more than for almost anything else. A run set out to a laser in a room fifty millimetres out corner to corner will look wrong however good the units are, and we deal with that in the preparation rather than with filler at the end.
We do not sell kitchens. You buy the units wherever the deal is best and we take the room back to sound walls, level floors and services in the right places. Our kitchen work page covers where our part starts and stops.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Cherwell District Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our kitchens page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Banbury street to the next.
New circuits and consumer unit work are notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations, and gas work must be carried out by a registered engineer. You should finish holding certificates for both rather than chasing paperwork when you sell.
Extraction through a thick stone wall needs a proper core drill and a considered outlet position, and on a conservation area elevation the council may have a view about where it comes out. We settle that early.
Getting units into a village cottage with a narrow door and a turning staircase is its own exercise, and a range cooker frequently will not go. We check the route at the survey rather than on delivery day.
Part of our wider building work in Banbury.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
