Kitchen Fitters in Marton, Middlesbrough
Kitchen fitting in Marton with our own joiners, electricians and Gas Safe engineers. 1930s rear kitchens opened up, Marton Manor kitchens replaced.
Kitchen fitting in Marton
Kitchen work in Marton divides along the same line as everything else in this part of south Middlesbrough. In the 1930s semis around Tollesby and Marton village, the kitchen is a narrow room at the back of the house with a door to the garden in an inconvenient place, a pantry or a redundant chimney breast eating one corner, and a dining room next door that nobody uses as a dining room any more. In the 1960s and 1970s detached houses around Marton Manor the room is larger and better shaped, but it was planned around a serving hatch, a floor-standing cooker and a single-door fridge.
Both end up in the same place: kitchen fitters opening the ground floor up and replacing units that have done thirty or forty years. Our own joiners, electricians, plumbers and Gas Safe engineers cover it, so the job does not stop between trades.
The short version
Five to ten working days on site. Structure and services are established at the survey, not discovered on the first morning. Electrical load is checked before appliances are ordered, and gas work is done by a Gas Safe engineer.
The five jobs we are usually asked for
| Job | What actually changes | What decides the price |
|---|---|---|
| Replacement in the same layout | Units, worktop, appliances, tiling, making good | Materials and worktop choice |
| New layout, same room | Sink, hob and appliances move; drainage, gas and circuits follow | How far the services have to travel |
| Kitchen and dining room opened up | Structural opening, then one kitchen across both spaces | Whether the wall is load-bearing |
| Kitchen into a rear extension | Full first fix from scratch in a new shell | Sequenced with the build |
| Utility taken off the kitchen | Washing machine and dryer relocated, new supply and waste | Access to drainage on that side |
That last row is worth asking about in the Marton Manor houses, where a door from the kitchen into the integral garage already exists. Moving the laundry into the first metre of that garage frees a full run of units and is often a better result than any amount of clever planning inside the kitchen itself.
What Marton kitchens throw up
The wall to the dining room. In a 1930s semi it frequently carries the floor above, which does not stop the job but does change it: an engineer sizes the beam, building control is notified, and the padstones and the making good are part of the price rather than an afterthought. Anyone quoting that opening without establishing the load first is quoting a guess.
Chimney breasts and old flues. These kitchens were built around a range, and later around a back boiler. What is left is a boxed corner or a breast that blocks the only sensible wall for units. Removing one is routine work, but only after somebody has looked at what is still standing on top of it in the bedroom and the loft.
Drainage fixed at the back wall. The original waste usually leaves at a gully on the rear elevation, and every sink position is measured against that. It is the single most common reason a magazine layout does not survive contact with a real 1930s house.
Serving hatches. Common in the 1960s and 1970s housing and almost always closed up during the work. Worth knowing that the hatch is often the cheapest clue to whether the wall is structural, because of how the original opening was formed above it.
Load that has crept up. These houses were wired for a cooker and a kettle. They are now being asked for an induction hob, an electric shower, sometimes a car charger on the drive. That is normal work, but it is a calculation the electricians do at quote stage rather than a hope. Where the answer is tight, there are usually options short of a supply upgrade.
Integrated appliances ordered early. Housing dimensions are exact, and an American-style fridge freezer needs both width and a water supply that is rarely already there. Ordering before the survey is the commonest cause of a delay we see anywhere.
When we are the wrong choice
If you have bought a kitchen that will not fit the room, we will tell you at the quote, and that is not always what somebody wants to hear a week after paying for it. We will not take a wall out without knowing what it holds up, and we will not connect a hob to a gas supply that is not ours to certify.
How the job runs
We measure the room as built, confirm what is structural, and check the supply and the drainage. You get a written quote listing what is included and what is not, which you can accept online. Strip-out, first fix, units, worktop, appliances, tiling and making good run in sequence with our own trades, photographed as they go, with the room swept each evening.
The part worth agreeing early is the worktop. Solid surfaces are templated after the units are set, not before, so there is a gap of some days between the kitchen being usable and the kitchen being finished. We tell you where that gap falls when we give you the sequence, because it is the stage people are most often surprised by.
Where a wall is coming out, the building and renovation work sits in the same quote, and where the kitchen is part of a wider refresh the decorating is sequenced after the trades rather than around them. Send the plan through the contact form and we will tell you what we would check first. We also fit kitchens in Middlesbrough, where the older terraced housing raises a different set of questions.
Frequently asked questions
Can I knock the kitchen and dining room together?
It is the most requested job on this housing and usually possible. Whether the wall carries load decides the cost, not the difficulty: if it does, a structural engineer sizes the beam and building control is notified. In a 1930s semi the wall between the back kitchen and the dining room is load-bearing more often than not, so we establish that at the survey rather than guessing from the plan.
What is behind the boxing in the corner of an older kitchen?
Frequently a redundant chimney breast or flue from the original range or a back boiler. It matters because it is often the one thing stopping a full run of units along that wall. Whether it can be removed depends on what is above it, so it gets checked properly rather than opened up hopefully on the first morning.
How long is the kitchen out of use?
Five to ten working days on site. A replacement in the same layout is at the short end. Moving the sink, the hob or a wall pushes it toward the long end because drainage, gas and circuits all move with them. We give you the sequence with the quote so you know which days have no water and which have no power.
Can the house take an induction hob?
Usually, but it is a calculation rather than an assumption, particularly in a 1960s or 1970s house that has already gained an electric shower and possibly a car charger. Our electricians check the incoming supply and the consumer unit as part of the quote, before an appliance is ordered rather than on the day it is delivered.
Do you fit kitchens bought from a showroom or online?
Yes. Send us the plan before you place the order. The two things worth checking are whether the plan matches the room as built rather than as measured, and whether the appliance positions assume services that do not exist yet. Both are cheap to correct on paper and expensive to correct on site.
Can you move the sink away from the window?
Yes, though it is more work than it looks. The waste has to reach the drain with fall, which in these houses usually means the original gully at the back wall. Sometimes the honest answer is that keeping the sink where the drainage already is buys you a better kitchen elsewhere in the room.
Do you handle the gas as well?
Yes. Anything touching the gas supply, including moving a hob or capping a redundant point, is carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. If you smell gas at any time, ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 before you ring us.
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Tell us about the job — we'll take it from there.
Send the details in two minutes. We come back with a visit or a written quote you can accept online.