Small kitchen, it's a bit of a state...

[smiff]

Firstly - hello, nice forum. I found it when looking for hints and tips on how to sort out my kitchen. I had foolishly thought "it'll be a piece of cake this, any fool could do it". Having read some more on here I'm now of the opinion I should be looking for a pro to do it properly because it'll be 500x better than anything I could manage.

Now, onto the job, I'm really after opinions, but if any of you are near Reading...

The kitchen used to sport a rather dated 1970s decor, including wall to ceiling tiles. We spent a day chipping these off, and have been left with some rather messy walls. Some appears to be perfect, some the plaster crumbled back to bare brick. I've a few pics that may help, but they're not close-ups so maybe they won't. I can get more if you'd like to see some close-ups of particular problem areas.

Here's some for starters:
http://gallery.smiffsoft.com/main.php?g2_itemId=3697
On here, the cupboards are now down and the plaster to the left of the hatch crumbled away back to bare brick. The cooker splashback is going where the hatch is, so we'd need it filled, or boarded over.

http://gallery.smiffsoft.com/main.php?g2_itemId=3694
Behind the old cooker. You can even see some tiles from the previous decoration still attached to the wall - the ones removed were brown with various images printed on them.

http://gallery.smiffsoft.com/main.php?g2_itemId=3703
You can just about see the kitchen through the newly opened up wall.

The kitchen is approx 2.6mx2.6m (tiny!) and has 2 doors (one of which you can see in the last pic), another opening to the pantry (same size as the doors) and of course the large opening you can look through on the 3rd pic. So, there's not a lot of wall, in fact the only full wall is the first pic. The conservatory side, including the large gap is being done by the conservatory people, and we'll probably ask him for a quote if he's not to busy on their jobs and willing to do a private job.

So, I'm wondering, what do you think would be a reasonable price? And anyone in the Reading area fancy it?

Cheers
Smiff

 

[bigsegs]

nothing to major that mate, as for price... well, for 1, are you sure the 'conservatory people' are actually using a plasterer as opposed to a conservatory fitter with plastering experience...skimming on board is one thing, patching and overskimming requires quite a bit more experience..
and 2...is it just 3 walls or 3 walls and the ceiling? or 4 walls..leaving only the knockout reveals for the conservatory boys??
myself, something that size, id do the ceiling and 4 walls patched and skimmed with new corner beads as required to a nice finish using 2 coats of finish for around 350, im further north though so you may expect to pay a little more...done in a day...
presuming your gonna cover most of the walls with units though...you only really need to skim any exposed areas that aren't gonna be tiled or hidden, so you could be lookin at 1 easy set, maybe 150...
done in 4 hours..

 

[smiff]

Thanks for the very swift response. The conservatory company are supplying a proper plasterer for the job, and looking at the holes he's having to fill I'm very glad they are too. We spent months finding the right company to do the conservatory side and the list of trades we've had in for it have all been excellent. I've never seen such straight walls, and the plumber has been a godsend. We've already tapped him up for some extra jobs because he did such a fantastic job of the bits required for the kitchen knock-through/utility room rebuild.

Most of the walls will have units on them, but it'd be nice to get them all straight. I'm probably a bit anal in wanting that, but it's good to know there's a cheaper option I could consider too. The big gap is being made good by the conservatory folks as they knocked it through.

The ceiling we were just going to sand back and paint as it's in good knick. It's been covered with the most hideous polystyrene tiles for the last 30 odd years so it's nice and flat and even, the only marks on it being the glue from the silly tiles.

Cheers
Smiff

 

[bigsegs]

'straight' is the one word thats gonna bump your price up, but if thats the way you wanna go fair enough..
what i mean is, if the walls are more than 3-4mm out of 'flat', gettin em flat with a couple of coats of skim is gonna be difficult and is it really necessary?
havin fitted a few kitchens in my time im of the opinion that as long as the line accross the back of the worktops is reasonably flat, tiling isnt a problem. End panels can usually be cut to suit out of true walls. the bit your gonna see above the units just needs to be reasonably flat and smooth..
if theyre a mile out and you get your plasterer to straighten everything out youre lookin at twice the work, once to straighten, once to finish...
a bit of patching up of deep holes is about par for the course on jobs like this, it happens all the time but thats a far cry from undercoat plastering the entire wall to straighten it..
if your prepared to meet your plasterer half way you should end up with a decent job, more than adequate for your needs for a decent price mutually agreeable...
if your sure about your conservatory plasterer id be askin him prior to him comin to do the job if possible, then he'll bring extra material and run the kitchen in with the conservatory at the same time, thereby makin life easier for himself and you, and he gets to make a bit of cash into the bargain, therefore it should be cheaper..
just make sure you get all your electrical bits and pieces (socket relocations etc) done prior...and leave any plumbing till afterwards if at all possible...

 

[Pug]

Hi Smiff, I'm from basingstoke and reading is within my area. If the conservatory plasterers not interested or too busy, drop me an email from this site.
Cheers, Pug

 

[smiff]

Thanks all.

I think straight may be a bit ambitious, there's some large 'pits' to fill. You make perfect sense and the best option is to get it as nice and even as is realistically possible, as tiling will cover a lot of the areas that seem to be the worst affected (not to mention the big splashback which will cover a lot too).

We've just been up and stripped all the old polystyrene tile glue off the ceiling and it looks in pretty good order.

We'll be asking the guy who's coming from the conservatory lot, but just in case he's too busy we've also got a couple of quotes coming in tomorrow. One lad is visiting at 6:30AM!!!! to do a quote. He's a brave man, my missus is not a 'morning person' ;D

Thanks Pug, I'll bear you in mind

Cheers
Smiff