Is my kitchen fitter fobbing me off?

[roo]

Hi i've just had a kitchen fitted.
The fitter was arranged through my builder rather than myself.
Throughout the fit he made me feel like he was doing me favour rather than a paying customer.
Anyway i'm not happy with the finish. One side of the wall cupboards are a good cm lower than the opposite wall which to my eyes is really obvious (trying to attach pics)

I've informed the fitter i'm not happy and he won't come back and states the left side wall cupboards were fitted to the height of the fridge freezer and the right to the integrated extractor fan spec.

Now to me this can't be right. For if I had the extractor on the same wall as the fridge freezer it would be all the same height wouldn't suddenly step down a cm at the integrated extractor surely?

I just feel i'm being fobbed off as a lone female. Hope this makes sense and any thoughts welcomed.

[darrenba]

Doesn't sound right. Photos would help. There is usually a minimum height that the extractor needs to be above a hob but not a maximum, so nothing to stop it being moved up in line.

[steviejoiner74]

It’d be good if you could post some pics up.

[ayjay]

Pics need to be resized to a maximum of 1200 pixels on the longest side.

In one sense your fitter is correct in that wall unit heights are set by tall units such as a fridge freezer unit, but the kitchen has to be looked at as a whole and any other cupboard runs have to match that height.

It seems like he hasn't looked at the whole thing very professionally.

[Kev888]

The fridge-freezer is (obviously) the height that it is and (if its a large enough one) aligning the cupboards with it would be a reasonable approach, so he doesn't seem to be fobbing you off there.

If the extractor side needed to be a little higher for minimum clearance over the hob then ditto - for safety there are rules about this which he must follow, especially if it is a gas hob. If this side is lower though, then it sounds like he's citing the fan specs as the reason, in which case you should be able to check them yourself to see if the manufacturers do indeed suggest a maximum height. If they do then he's not fobbing you off, if they don't then (unless he's referring to some other specs) he may be.

But it should also be said that 1cm or so difference across a kitchen is not especially unusual, particularly as the room itself is unlikely to be perfectly plumb; these things often require subtle differences and accommodations to be made 'somewhere'. So unless the fitter made a very obviously lazy or poor choice (which is hard to judge without pictures), or unless you'd specified preferences 'in advance' that he didn't follow, then it may not inherently be untypical.

[dewaltdisney]

Good post Kev

DWD

[ayjay]

But it should also be said that 1cm or so difference across a kitchen is not especially unusual, .

It should be: set out a datum for the top of the base cupboards (or worktop) before you start, having also taken everything else into consideration.

[fin]

the last kitchen i fitted was a wickes bargain basement special. the kitchen was an L shaped layout. from the start of the first unit to the end of the last unit the floor was 75mm out of level and there was only 6 base units in the run ha.

ended up with one end on maximum adjustment and the other end cutting the legs down.

laser levels are awesome for kitchens like.

[martybenji]

Throughout the fit he made me feel like he was doing me favour rather than a paying customer.

When we had our kitchen done a few years ago, the fitter's attitude was that he was doing us a favour as well. It must be an occupational hazard.

[fin]

only if your a d*ck. theres some highly strung people about. personally id prefer to get good reviews by my clients not leave their house with them thinking i was a total tosser.

[big-all]

Throughout the fit he made me feel like he was doing me favour rather than a paying customer.

When we had our kitchen done a few years ago, the fitter's attitude was that he was doing us a favour as well. It must be an occupational hazard.

i suspect the builder may be drawing in a favour because he was perhaps disorganized buttering it up as you where desperate and could you do them[you] a favour
so the fitter assumes as he is putting him self greatly out to fit you in wants to inform you as a caring person he has bent over backwards to help you

[Job and Knock]

But it should also be said that 1cm or so difference across a kitchen is not especially unusual, .

It should be: set out a datum for the top of the base cupboards (or worktop) before you start, having also taken everything else into consideration.

Likewise I agree. I've always set two datums - top of cabinet level and top of upper cabs level. These days it's a laser, but "back in the day" it was done with a water level. No excuse for sloppy fitting where the two sides are visually different. Level differences should ideally be taken out at floor level, as Fin says (in old buildings they are often well out).

....so the fitter assumes as he is putting him self greatly out to fit you in wants to inform you as a caring person he has bent over backwards to help you

Or maybe he's just a tosser. That's no way to behave with or in front of a customer. Ever. Such behaviour is unprofessional as well as downright rude, especially as he appears to have made some very basic errors in installation

[Kev888]

I'd expect better accuracy around the chosen datum lines! My comments on the 1cm thing were made in the context of the whole kitchen/room.

Because.. it's not clear to me 'where' the OP is seeing the difference in the cupboard's height - e.g. relative to each other (as in water-level), or to the ceiling, to the floors, worktops, tiling etc. Visual perception is a notoriously complex mechanism too, and won't necessarily agree with a laser/spirit level even if the fitter was technically competent; in fact sometimes using a level datum can actually increase other disparities.

Hopefully at some point there may be a reply and pictures to help illustrate the OP, otherwise its pretty hard to make a useful judgement.