KitchenKraft
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
End of the story?
Just realised that I haven't completed the story of the kitchen....
Well, after the last entry, we finally DID get a Corgi certificate for the cooker installation. We also made sure we had an electrical installation certificate for the kitchen electrics.
About a year after the kitchen was installed, we called KK to report problems with dropping cupboard doors (to be expected, I guess; we had a couple of corner cupboards with big split doors). To their credit KK sent out a fitter to fix the problems (replaced the wonky hinges).
On the down-side, we did not get any feedback to our comments / feedback / complaints to Graham (the MD).... as he said in one of his conversations with my wife - he has other people to deal with complaints!
We got our own man in to do the tiling - looks superb.
We had to get KK back early on after the installation to fix leaks on the sink waste pipes - sadly somewhere along the line the glaze in the sink has been abraded, so we now have a couple of marks around the waste pipes that keep reappearing.
We chose drawer handles that hinge downwards & knock on the drawer fronts - so within a year we now have marks on the drawer fronts.
Overall, I suspect that the units will be looking worse for wear within a year or two... but we shall see. ¶ 2:00 PM 0 Comments
Well, after the last entry, we finally DID get a Corgi certificate for the cooker installation. We also made sure we had an electrical installation certificate for the kitchen electrics.
About a year after the kitchen was installed, we called KK to report problems with dropping cupboard doors (to be expected, I guess; we had a couple of corner cupboards with big split doors). To their credit KK sent out a fitter to fix the problems (replaced the wonky hinges).
On the down-side, we did not get any feedback to our comments / feedback / complaints to Graham (the MD).... as he said in one of his conversations with my wife - he has other people to deal with complaints!
We got our own man in to do the tiling - looks superb.
We had to get KK back early on after the installation to fix leaks on the sink waste pipes - sadly somewhere along the line the glaze in the sink has been abraded, so we now have a couple of marks around the waste pipes that keep reappearing.
We chose drawer handles that hinge downwards & knock on the drawer fronts - so within a year we now have marks on the drawer fronts.
Overall, I suspect that the units will be looking worse for wear within a year or two... but we shall see. ¶ 2:00 PM 0 Comments
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Dishwasher door sorted
Well, Ray came this morning (only 2 hours after the time he said he'd be arriving) and fixed the dishwasher door (cut a chunk out of the plinth to stop the door from catching,)
It all seems OK now.
Totally separate from KK, we had hassles with a blocked drain tonight.... but I finally got the pipe clear.
Checked with Ray from KK and it appears that it is normal for the extractor hood chimney trim to be loosely slotted in place.
Just need to wait now till the corgi certificate tunrs up! ¶ 4:42 PM 0 Comments
It all seems OK now.
Totally separate from KK, we had hassles with a blocked drain tonight.... but I finally got the pipe clear.
Checked with Ray from KK and it appears that it is normal for the extractor hood chimney trim to be loosely slotted in place.
Just need to wait now till the corgi certificate tunrs up! ¶ 4:42 PM 0 Comments
Friday, June 16, 2006
Corgi Registered?
Well, 4 months on from the installation, and I remembered that we don't have a CORGI certificate to say the cooker was installed properly.
After calling KK once a week for a month, I finally hit on the right questions to ask...
1) do you have your corgi reference number, because I need to contact them to find out what their delay is in issuing the certificate.
2) If the delay is not with Corgi, then they need to know how slow KK have been in fulfilling their obligations as installers
3) if the don't have a corgi number, then I'll be contacting Trading Standards because Kitchen Kraft had assured me throughout that they were corgi registered fitters.
Within a day a 3rd party gas installer was in touch, wanting to come out to check the cooker. He came yesterday - apparently he is not employed by Kitchen Kraft, as they are NOT corgi registered. He checked the install, and will be getting the right paperwork issued by Corgi. In the meantime, if the house had gone up in smoke due to a fault on the cooker, I could have found my household insurance invalid because a non corgi-registered fitter had been doing gas installations!!!!!
Oh yes, AND the dishwasher door is catching on the plinth, so something needs to be sorted out wiht that too.... also now oustanding for about 4 weeks!!! ¶ 5:31 AM 0 Comments
After calling KK once a week for a month, I finally hit on the right questions to ask...
1) do you have your corgi reference number, because I need to contact them to find out what their delay is in issuing the certificate.
2) If the delay is not with Corgi, then they need to know how slow KK have been in fulfilling their obligations as installers
3) if the don't have a corgi number, then I'll be contacting Trading Standards because Kitchen Kraft had assured me throughout that they were corgi registered fitters.
Within a day a 3rd party gas installer was in touch, wanting to come out to check the cooker. He came yesterday - apparently he is not employed by Kitchen Kraft, as they are NOT corgi registered. He checked the install, and will be getting the right paperwork issued by Corgi. In the meantime, if the house had gone up in smoke due to a fault on the cooker, I could have found my household insurance invalid because a non corgi-registered fitter had been doing gas installations!!!!!
Oh yes, AND the dishwasher door is catching on the plinth, so something needs to be sorted out wiht that too.... also now oustanding for about 4 weeks!!! ¶ 5:31 AM 0 Comments
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Temporary Worktop
Here are some photos of the worktop the fitters were happy to leave us with over Christmas.
See the new open air concept of the knife drawer. See the novel angled worktop with courtesy lip!
...
¶ 4:20 PM 1 Comments
See the new open air concept of the knife drawer. See the novel angled worktop with courtesy lip!
...
¶ 4:20 PM 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Fitting finished at last!!!!
Well, the fitters came to day to finish the job! (though they had the sense to bring a different fitter to the one who'd done the work to date).
We have a narrower dresser cupboard than planned (thanks to having measured the granite worktops too narrow doh!) but we do have downlights in both dresser cupboards - which brightens up the kitchen. Furthermore, the fitter rewired the connection to the various under-cupboard lights & connected them via a junction box rather than a chocolate block connector (much more professional job!) Also, when he had to run a cable along a joist (last resort as we could not get access to a floor void) he took care to measure the distance between cable staples, just to get the job looking a lot neater.
We have a new sink (the granite fitting managed to scrape the glaze off the sink) Plus there was a bit of an accident when the plumber overtightened the taps...... quite at random there was a bang and the sink cracked!
However, with the project manager (Ray) overseeing proceedings throughout, we have a job that has been nicely finished (at last!).
Ray took trouble to ensure that all rubbish was cleaned up, and that all cupboard doors were levelled and silent closers replaced where necessary. It's just a pity that this standard of care hadn't been applied at the start of the job.
Had feedback from the granite suppliers about the worktop - they advise that bits of white in the worktop are natural variation. However, I need to use the can of sealer on the granite sooner rather than later.
The big shame of it all is that we've lived with the half-finished kitchen for so long that it now does not feel any different! We still have grotty walls, until we get some tiles sorted.
Watch this space for the finished job! ¶ 2:47 PM 0 Comments
We have a narrower dresser cupboard than planned (thanks to having measured the granite worktops too narrow doh!) but we do have downlights in both dresser cupboards - which brightens up the kitchen. Furthermore, the fitter rewired the connection to the various under-cupboard lights & connected them via a junction box rather than a chocolate block connector (much more professional job!) Also, when he had to run a cable along a joist (last resort as we could not get access to a floor void) he took care to measure the distance between cable staples, just to get the job looking a lot neater.
We have a new sink (the granite fitting managed to scrape the glaze off the sink) Plus there was a bit of an accident when the plumber overtightened the taps...... quite at random there was a bang and the sink cracked!
However, with the project manager (Ray) overseeing proceedings throughout, we have a job that has been nicely finished (at last!).
Ray took trouble to ensure that all rubbish was cleaned up, and that all cupboard doors were levelled and silent closers replaced where necessary. It's just a pity that this standard of care hadn't been applied at the start of the job.
Had feedback from the granite suppliers about the worktop - they advise that bits of white in the worktop are natural variation. However, I need to use the can of sealer on the granite sooner rather than later.
The big shame of it all is that we've lived with the half-finished kitchen for so long that it now does not feel any different! We still have grotty walls, until we get some tiles sorted.
Watch this space for the finished job! ¶ 2:47 PM 0 Comments
Monday, January 30, 2006
The Granite has arrived!
The granite worktop arrived today! The granite fitters turned up a 7:30 am, expecting kitchen fitters to be departing at 8. In fact, the project manager and a fitter turned up at 8.... & then struggled for a while to get the taps off the sink.
After all the wait, we are a bit disappointed in the granite... it seems darker than we expected, also it has a number of white crystaline patches on it that look like stains (though the granite installers said it was natural variation).
Anyhow, the granite fitting went fine.
But....
The project manager couldn't get the hot tap reconnected.... sadly KitchenKraft's plumber is on a course today, at college tomorrow, so won't be back to fix the hot tap until Wednesday!
Also we found that the worktop on the peninsular unit isn't quite wide enough (about half a cm) so the dresser unit is overhanging slightly..... to make matters worse, the way that the peninsular unit swings out to keep it level with the floor tiles (& hence not perpendicular to the wall) means that the swing will be extremely visible!
PM's solution is to replace the dresser with one 10cm narrower.... seems a bit excessive when we only need to find 5mm! ¶ 4:51 PM 0 Comments
After all the wait, we are a bit disappointed in the granite... it seems darker than we expected, also it has a number of white crystaline patches on it that look like stains (though the granite installers said it was natural variation).
Anyhow, the granite fitting went fine.
But....
The project manager couldn't get the hot tap reconnected.... sadly KitchenKraft's plumber is on a course today, at college tomorrow, so won't be back to fix the hot tap until Wednesday!
Also we found that the worktop on the peninsular unit isn't quite wide enough (about half a cm) so the dresser unit is overhanging slightly..... to make matters worse, the way that the peninsular unit swings out to keep it level with the floor tiles (& hence not perpendicular to the wall) means that the swing will be extremely visible!
PM's solution is to replace the dresser with one 10cm narrower.... seems a bit excessive when we only need to find 5mm! ¶ 4:51 PM 0 Comments
Friday, January 20, 2006
Date for Granite set
Progress at last! A call on Wednesday from Ray to say that he's not heard from the Granite installers yet. Another call today to say that the installation is booked for 30th January. Fortunately I'm able to juggle my diary to be at home for the day.
The girl who called had a bit of difficulty in grasping the idea that our installation was sufficienty incomplete after 6 weeks as to be inappropriate for me to run through the customer service feedback questionnaire!
We will have to see what KK come up with when the granite installers arrive... after all, they have to come and remove the temporary worktops, sort out the dresser units, remove and refit the taps on the sink for the granite installation, sort out the side panel on the dresser cupboard..... install cupboard lighting in the dresser units.... the list goes on...... ¶ 9:05 AM 0 Comments
The girl who called had a bit of difficulty in grasping the idea that our installation was sufficienty incomplete after 6 weeks as to be inappropriate for me to run through the customer service feedback questionnaire!
We will have to see what KK come up with when the granite installers arrive... after all, they have to come and remove the temporary worktops, sort out the dresser units, remove and refit the taps on the sink for the granite installation, sort out the side panel on the dresser cupboard..... install cupboard lighting in the dresser units.... the list goes on...... ¶ 9:05 AM 0 Comments
