Fitting a new kitchen in an Eastleigh terrace: what to plan before you order

A lot of the kitchens I'm asked to fit in Eastleigh are in terraced houses near the town centre. The rooms are usually long and narrow, often in the back addition, and they have been refitted more than once. They can make lovely kitchens, but they punish a plan that was drawn as if the room were a perfect rectangle. These are the things I'd want sorted before anyone places an order.

Measure the route in, not just the room

Worktops and tall units have to get from the pavement to the kitchen. In a terrace that means the front door, a narrow hallway, sometimes a turn at the foot of the stairs and then through the back room. Long worktop lengths are the usual casualty. Measure the tightest point on the way in and tell your supplier, or plan for worktops to be joined in a sensible place rather than discovering on delivery day that a single length won't make the turn.

Check the floor before you trust the plan

Older floors in Eastleigh terraces often fall away toward the back door or along the length of the room. Base units have adjustable legs, but there is a limit, and a big fall means the plinth at one end will be much taller than at the other. Put a long spirit level on the floor along the line of the units, or ask me to check it when I look at the job. It changes how the plinths are cut and sometimes how the units are ordered.

Watch the doors at each end

Back-addition kitchens often have a door from the house at one end and a back door at the other. Draw where every door swings: room doors, the back door, the dishwasher, the oven and the fridge. In a galley, two appliance doors facing each other can mean you can't open both at once. Moving the dishwasher one unit along on paper costs nothing; moving it after the plumbing is in does.

Find out what is behind the old kitchen

Every earlier refit leaves something behind: abandoned pipes, a boxed-in meter, a patch of crumbling plaster, or a wall that turns out to be a stud partition where you expected brick. If you are stripping out the old kitchen yourself, do it early enough that any surprises can be dealt with before the new units arrive. Wall units, especially, need fixing into something solid, and I'd rather know where that is before the fitting day than on it.

Plan the extractor and services early

If the cooker hood is going to vent outside, think about where the duct runs and whether it has to go through a thick solid wall. The same goes for moving the sink, the gas supply or sockets. Gas work needs a Gas Safe registered engineer and electrical changes need a qualified electrician. Get them booked around the fit so the room isn't sitting half-finished waiting for a trade.

Keep the layout simple

In a narrow room, simple usually works best: one run of base units with wall units above, or two runs if the room is wide enough to leave a comfortable walkway between them. Corner units, deep pan drawers and tall larders all have their place, but each one should earn its spot. If the room feels tight, it is often better to lose one wall unit and keep the light than to squeeze in storage you'll bang your head on.

If you're weighing up whether your current kitchen needs replacing at all, my guide on doors and worktops versus a full refit, linked below, walks through how to decide. For more on how I work, see the kitchen fitting page, and when you have a plan, send it through the estimate form with a few photos of the room.