Kitchens in Stratford-upon-Avon, priced in writing before anything starts.
A kitchen in a Stratford historic building is an exercise in working around a structure you cannot treat as a blank canvas.
In a timber framed building the frame is the structure, and it is also what is listed. Removing or notching a post or a rail to fit a run of units is not a site decision, it is potentially an offence, and it is also structurally unwise. A good kitchen in one of these buildings is designed around the frame, using freestanding elements and joinery that fits the spaces that exist rather than forcing a fitted layout into a building that was never orthogonal.
Floors and walls are rarely level or square, and that 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. We deal with that in the setting out rather than with filler at the end, and sometimes the honest answer is that a fully fitted look is not achievable and a different approach will look far better.
Services are the other constraint, because chasing is limited in a frame and surface routes have to be planned rather than improvised.
We do not sell kitchens. You buy the units wherever the deal is best and we prepare the room properly, and we will tell you honestly if a supplier’s plan will not work in the building. 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 Stratford-on-Avon 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 Stratford-upon-Avon 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. On a listed property a buyer’s solicitor is more likely than average to ask for the certificates, so you should finish holding them.
Extraction through a historic external wall can itself need listed building consent, and the outlet position will be looked at. We settle that at the design stage.
Getting units into a town centre property with a narrow door and a turning stair 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 Stratford-upon-Avon.
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.
