Friday, October 21, 2011

Buying local series: Kitchen companies

Buying local series: Kitchen companies
When building a new home it is always best to buy from the local businesses in the area or community that you are constructing the home. No matter if it’s your summer home or a second home buying locally always makes more sense. This time I’m writing about the reason you should be buying your kitchen from a local kitchen manufacture.
Kitchen companies;
In most homes the centre piece or the central hub of the home is the kitchen. Whether it is a large kitchen or a small kitchen every person passes through it, sits in it or prepares meals in it. It is probably the one room in your home that every single person will be in and out of multiple times a day. So the look and feel of your kitchen is extremely important to the overall feeling of the home. It is also the room that takes the most wear and tear. Nowhere else in the home is there boiling hot liquids, cooking foods, dirty dishes piled up, soapy water and appliances that are physically touched dozens of times a day. The kitchen will see more people in it and through it then all the other rooms combined.
You need a kitchen that is well built so that it will last as long as you need it too. You also need someone that is close by so that when something does go wrong you can have it fixed right away.
When building a home the kitchen installation is a tricky thing. The builder needs the kitchen to be installed on a certain date because there are a lot of things that can’t be finished until the kitchen cabinets are installed. If the kitchen maker is 2 hours away instead of right down the street then he may have problems getting them to deliver and install when he wants them too. If the kitchen is delivered too early on a build, the cabinets might not be installed and then they have to be stored on site. This is a bad thing for cabinets, the more you handle a cabinet the more likely you will scratch or dent the cabinet. A construction site is no place for cabinets. Even when a builder wants the kitchen installed, the cabinets are vulnerable until they are put in place. Once they are installed the builder can take proper care to protect them as a whole. If the cabinets show up too early some of the things that can restrict them from being installed are as follows;
·         Flooring isn’t layed so cabinets cannot be placed on floor.
·         Drywall isn’t finished, so cabinets could be covered in drywall mud and dust.
·         Ceilings are not primed and painted; cabinets could be covered in paint. Also if cabinets are installed and the painter wants to paint above them he could stand on them and cause damage.
·         Electrical isn’t complete, causing the electricians to have to remove cabinets from walls to run wire, possibly standing on lower cabinets.
·         Venting for range hood not run causing cabinets to be removed from the wall.
·         Plumbing rough in not complete, cabinets would need to be removed to place plumbing and then reinstalled.
Those are just a handful of things that can restrict the cabinets from being installed.
If the kitchen is late being installed because of distance of travel with weather or schedule then there are a lot of things in the house that cannot be finished;
·         Counter top templating is done after cabinets are all in place. Without cabinets there can be no ordering of the counter tops.
·         Without counter tops the sinks, taps and appliances can’t be installed.
·         Painting of walls can’t be finished until cabinets and counter tops are installed.
·         Tile backsplash can’t be installed without cabinets and counter tops.
·         If you have custom coated wood floors, the final coat is installed after kitchen has been installed.
·         The baseboards that run up against the cabinets can’t be completed.
·         Electrical cannot be completed if there is in cabinet lighting, or under cabinet lighting.
·         Appliances cannot be delivered or installed.
A kitchen installer that is too far from the build site could easily not have the time or the resources to install in the time frame that your builder needs them too. This could cause delays in the completion of your home. A local installer will have the flexibility to install when you need them. A local builder is also able to do a partial install if that is what the builder requires. They could install just the lower cabinets and store the upper cabinets until the builder is ready for them. This could allow other work to continue while allowing the builder to fix a certain area that was in the way of the upper cabinets.
In the future you might want to update, or add to your kitchen. If you went with the local kitchen manufacturer then they would be able to stop in and help you plan this and give you a proper quote on the work.
So remember when you are thinking of that dream kitchen give the local company a look, they probably will surprise you with superior service and quality.
Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

3 comments: