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This guide explains the general kitchen installation service. For a property-specific enquiry, choose your town in the coverage section below to see the local service page and its enquiry form. Carter LS is based in Birmingham and manages work carried out by specialist subcontractors.
Why a builder, not just a fitter
A kitchen installation can involve much more than fitting cabinets. Walls, windows, floor levels and services may need to change to make the layout work. Carter LS coordinates specialist subcontractors for the building work, first fix, fitting and finishing, with the scope agreed before work starts.
We plan the sequence between trades, including when plastering, electrical work and fitting can take place, so you know what to expect at each stage.
A price for the room, not just the units
Kitchen quotes are notorious for the missing bottom half: the fitting price that assumed square walls, level floors and services already in place. Ours does not. We survey before we price, and the written quote covers strip-out, building work, services, fitting and finishing as separate lines. If we open the floor and find something unforeseeable, you get a written price for the fix before anyone touches it.
Most kitchen problems are building problems wearing a kitchen's clothes: out-of-level floors, walls that are not square, services in the wrong place. We fix the room first, then fit the kitchen to it.
Get a quote for your projectWhat the work covers
Kitchens, in detail
Structural openings
Walls removed and steels installed for open-plan kitchen diners, designed by a structural engineer and signed off with building control.
First fix services
Water, waste, gas and electrics moved to where the new layout actually needs them, done before a single unit goes in, not bodged around afterwards.
Floor preparation
Floors levelled and made sound before fitting. Units scribed onto a bad floor look fine on day one and wrong within a year.
Supply and fit, or fit only
We fit kitchens you have bought elsewhere or supply through our trade accounts. We tell you plainly which route is better value for your job.
Tiling and finishing
Splashbacks, floor tiling, plastering and decoration by specialist subcontractors coordinated as part of the same project.
Worktops and appliances
Templating for stone tops, appliance installation and gas connections handled and certified through the appropriate registered engineers.
How it works
Visit. Price. Build.
We price nothing until we have stood on site and seen the job.
Free site survey
We come out, measure up and listen to what you want from the space. No charge and no pressure to go ahead.
Fixed written quote
An itemised quote in writing. The figure we agree before work starts is the figure on the final invoice.
Build and handover
One point of contact through the job, a site left tidy every evening, and a full walkthrough at handover.
Questions
Questions, answered straight
How much does a new kitchen cost fitted?
The units and worktops are usually the smaller half of the real number. Fitting, building work, services and finishing are where quotes diverge, and where cheap quotes hide their gaps. We price the whole room in writing, building work included, so the figure you sign is the figure you pay.
How long does a kitchen installation take?
A straight swap in the same layout typically takes one to two weeks. Moving services or taking out a wall adds time for first fix, plastering and drying. Your quote comes with a programme, including the days you will realistically be without a working kitchen.
Do I need planning permission to knock through for a kitchen diner?
Internal alterations almost never need planning permission, but removing a load-bearing wall needs structural calculations and building regulations sign-off. We arrange both, and the completion certificate matters when you sell the house.
Can we stay in the house while the kitchen is done?
Yes, almost everyone does. We seal the work area, keep water and power running outside working hours, and tell you in advance which days will be genuinely disruptive rather than letting you find out on the morning.
Where we work