Kitchen Installation: What Actually Happens, Step by Step
A kitchen installation is a sequence, not an event. Rough plumbing, electrics and ventilation (first fix) go in while walls and floors are open; cabinets are then set level and square to each other rather than to the walls; and only once that run is fixed is the worktop measured on site and made off site. Tiling and appliance connection follow. Almost every delay comes from two things: walls and floors that are out of square, which in pre-war Dutch housing is the norm, and a fuzzy boundary between who supplies, who installs and who connects.
The order of work, and why it cannot be reshuffled
Strip-out. Units, worktop, tiling and usually the floor covering come out, and only now do you see the true state of the walls, screed and pipework. In older housing, ask whether an asbestos check is needed first.
First fix. Supply and waste, circuits and sockets, any gas work and the extractor duct route are positioned while everything is open; moving a waste point or a duct afterwards is disproportionately expensive. Positions come from the approved new drawing, not from the old kitchen: stubs and sockets must land inside a specific cabinet or between two of them.
Walls, floor, cabinets. Plastering and levelling come next, because cabinets need a closed wall behind them and a level base under them. Base units then go on adjustable legs or a levelled rail, clamped to one another; wall units follow. The worktop is templated on that finished run, made off site and fitted on a separate visit. Tiling comes after the worktop, so tiles sit on the actual edge instead of a guessed line. Final fix closes the job: sink and tap connected, appliances slid in, extractor coupled to the duct, then plinths, end panels and silicone.
Why the worktop is measured after the cabinets are standing
Stone, composite and solid-surface tops are cut to a template of the real room, not to the drawing, which assumes square walls and exact cabinet positions the room rarely delivers. Templating captures the true wall line, any bow in it, the cut-outs for hob, sink and tap, and the overhang at the ends.
Because fabrication happens off site, there is an unavoidable gap of several working days between the cabinet visit and the worktop visit. Put it in the schedule from the start: with no worktop there is no sink and often no hob.
Change anything after templating — a different sink, a wider hob, a relocated tap — and you buy a new template or a scrapped slab. That is the single biggest cause of cost escalation and slipped dates. Laminate and timber tops can often be cut on site, but they are still scribed to the real wall.
Out-of-square walls in older Dutch housing
In a canal house or a pre-war side street, walls are rarely plumb, corners are rarely 90 degrees and floors dip, so a kitchen designed on a rectangular grid does not simply drop in. The fitter levels the cabinets to one another and to true horizontal, then absorbs the discrepancy with scribed fillers, adjustable legs, packing and end panels cut to follow the wall.
Filler strips are the tolerance budget, not sloppy design: a layout with zero fillers in an old room will fail on the day. Hollow or crumbling walls also need different anchors, and heavy stone tops need extra support.
Appliances, clearances and extraction
Niche dimensions and ventilation gaps are binding: the appliance manual decides the opening, not the cabinet catalogue. Ovens and integrated fridges need airflow behind or above — a ventilated plinth, a gap at the back — and sealing one in shortens its life. The hob-to-hood distance is set by the appliance maker and differs for gas, induction and ceramic.
Decide ducted versus recirculating before first fix. A duct needs a route, a diameter and a fall, and retrofitting one after tiling is brutal; keep runs short and straight, since every bend costs extraction. In an apartment, check the splitsingsakte and ask the VvE before any new penetration through the facade or roof, or before tying into a shared riser — and check permitted working hours.
Check door swings on the drawing: dishwasher doors, an island edge and a door frame compete for the same air. Corner units collide first.
Who is responsible for what
Three roles get confused: supplier, fitter, and the connecting trades — plumber, electrician, ventilation, gas. One firm may cover several, but the contract should say which.
Get these in writing: who takes the final measurements (whoever does owns the risk if a unit does not fit); who inspects goods on delivery, since damage found on the day stops the job; whether disposal is included; and who does the making good — plastering, painting and floor repair where the old kitchen stood.
Final gas connection, and often fixed electrical work, is restricted to qualified people; a cabinet fitter is not automatically one of them, so confirm who is doing it. Warranty splits the same way: product warranty from the manufacturer, installation warranty from the fitter. Site conditions are normally yours — access, an emptied room, neighbours warned — and if each trade is contracted separately, coordination falls to you.
What to ask before you book
Ask for the schedule as separate stages — strip-out, first fix, cabinets, template, worktop, tiling, final fix — rather than a single number of days, so the worktop gap is visible up front. Ask what happens if something unexpected turns up behind the wall, and who covers that. Ask how snagging is handled: a joint walk-through, a written list, a timescale for return visits.