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Want to completely remodel kitchen. How best to start? Where to go first?

Mar 07, 2007 by C | Posted in Decorating & Remodeling

Is it ok just to ask cabinet company people to just come out and give me estimates? How do I know if I am getting an accurate estimate? How many estimates should I request? How much information do I need to give the estimator? I am concerned about "offending" companies by asking them give me estimates then not following through with the work. We are planning a complete kitchen remodel, floor, cabinets, fixtures appliances. Where should we start to get the best estimate?

I used to design kitchens. This is the best advice I can give you:

Establish a budget for your work BEFORE you start. If you have $10,000 or $100,000 to spend, know that amount and work with it. Being unsure of your total possible expenditure is the fastest way to get ignored by designers and contractors. A kitchen is not a cheap room re-do.

Investigate what you like and what you want your room to look like in advance. Designers need parameters to work with. No one knows your tastes and desires bettter than you. Having any less than an idea of what you want to project to be like finished is a sure way to be disappointed in the outcome.

Know the scope of the work you want to do. new cabinets? countertops? Flooring, wallcovering, lighting, appliances, etc?? do you need to upgrade your plumbing, wiring, ventilation? These and many other questions should be answered first. If your budget doesn't allow for any of these items, you may have to set your sights lower.

Hire a designer.. a kitchen designer. This is someone that you PAY to handle drawings and design. a qualified designer will help you answer all of these questions and give you a good idea if your budget is close to adequate. Expect to pay this person and be sure that you are comfortable with them. In many cases, the designer will credit their fees if you buy the project from them. Hire a CKD if you can (Certified Kitchen Designer)

With drawings and specs in hand, you can look at different types of products and talk intelligently to prospective contractors to handle your work. You will be working on an even plane with all parties involved since there is one set of parameters with which to work.

A kitchen renovation is a BIG project and can be a lot of fun, but there are also heartaches involved. It takes time, can be messy and you will be eating a lot of meals out. Expect the project to take a little time and be patient.

A new kitchen will make life much better in the long run and will increase your home's value. It's a good investment.

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Plan Your Kitchen With An Online Kitchen Planner

by Milrika Ekilski

When it is time to design a new kitchen, an online kitchen planner can make the task much easier.

Whether you are planning a kitchen in a new home or planning a remodel of the kitchen in your existing home, the online planner allows you to quickly and easily make the design changes that will allow you kitchen to be more functional as well as visually beautiful.

In the existing kitchen, the first step is to get accurate measurements of the room. You may need to measure the room more than one time to ensure that the measurements you take are accurate. The tape measure needs to be parallel with the wall being measured and with the floor. If you allow the tape measure to sag, you will not get an accurate measurement. In accurate measurements here can cost later.

For the planning of a new kitchen, you may only have a blue print or floor plan from which to work. These plans will give the exact size of the room if they are read correctly. Make sure that you also include windows and any other features that make your room special as you make plans for the new kitchen.

As you familiarize yourself with the planner, be sure that you view the templates for kitchen appliances. These templates can be dropped and dragged in the plan to place the appliances and cabinets in the places you need them. To get precise measurements of the new cabinets, ask the retailer to give you a spec sheet for the cabinets you are planning to use in the kitchen.

As you begin to plan your kitchen, if you are using prefabricated cabinets, you will want to have the cabinet manufacturer’s specification sheets. These will allow you to plan the exact units that are needed to fill your kitchen so that there are no gaps or holes.

If you run into problems with the initial design, you can start from scratch and it does not cost anything extra. At this point, it is easy to erase everything and go back to the beginning to start once again. If you wait until installation has begun to find the conflicts, corrections can become costly.

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Flooring Suggestions - DIY Chatroom - DIY Home Improvement Forum

by Blondesense

First consideration: We have hydronic heat. Hot water pipes embedded in the slab, so something that makes efficient use of that is top consideration. Upstairs are hydronic baseboard heaters. I don't know what is the best flooring for a hydronic system. I've tried researching it online but all the web sites I've found just want to sell me their systems. Second consideration: Dogs. Two are shown in the pic, and there are two other bigger ones. So it must stand up to, what?... 64 dog nails attacking the floor. The white one also likes to "paw" in the carpet so I've pretty much ruled out any looped pile carpeting. While they are house trained, three of them are 10+ years old so I'm anticipating accidents down the road. Warning: The topics covered on this site include activities in which there exists the potential for serious injury or death . DIYChatroom.com DOES NOT guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained on this site. Always use proper safety precaution and reference reliable outside sources before attempting any home improvement task! I've never dealt with piped systems like you have, but they are common in large things such as schools. I've always seen tile used with them as it is #1 - rugged. #2 - easy to repair and maintain. #3 - it conductive to hot/cold and will make the most use of such systems. But *real* tile is, also, expensive and time consuming - you have multiple layers that have to let it all dry and cure in the whole tiling process. Tiling a whole house-floor would be unbelievably time consuming. (Hydronic heat is also called 'radiant heat' and 'hydronic radient heat' - so maybe a term-change will bring up more search results). You can get a light-colored flooring or a medium color flooring, as well. . . and your rugs can be beige if you'd like - or colorful, whch would brighten things up. Not to mention with your focus on area-rugs you have a huge variety of styles and patterns - everything...

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