# IKEA kitchen assembly

Complete installation of your IKEA METOD kitchen. Hanging rails, base and wall units, drawer organisation, fronts, plinths, kickboards, worktop, sink, tap and built-in appliances.

We assemble a complete IKEA kitchen in the order METOD itself imposes: first the suspension rail level across the full wall, then the cabinets onto it, then the worktop, and only at the end the fronts and the appliances. We are fitters, not installers — gas is always left to a registered installer and a hard-wired electrical connection to an electrician. What we do and do not do is set out in one table below.

**Price: On request**

## Scope of work
- **Manual** — We know the METOD manual by heart: which panel goes where, which screw goes in which hole, and in what order the cabinets go up.
- **Measurements** — The lower suspension rail sits at 82 centimetres with an 8 centimetre plinth and at 85 with an 11 centimetre plinth, measured at the underside of the rail from the highest point of your floor.
- **Fixed price** — You receive one figure up front, calculated from your order list and photographs of the room. Whatever is not included is stated in the same email.
- **Appliances** — We fit the built-in appliances and plug them into an existing socket or an existing three-phase cooker outlet. A hard-wired connection is work for an electrician, gas for a certified installer.
- **Fixings** — METOD cabinets come without fixings, because IKEA does not know your wall. We bring material for brick, concrete, aerated concrete and plasterboard.
- **Finish** — Plinths cut to size, filler panels scribed against the wall itself, cover panels on the tall units, sealant only where it belongs.
- **Clean-up** — Packaging and polystyrene leave with us. You are left with a clean kitchen, not an IKEA box in the hallway.
- **Planning** — Weekday or Saturday, you decide. An average kitchen takes us one to two days, depending on the number of cabinets, the corners and the appliances.

## Three things that only show up after the fitting day

### A kitchen still settles
In the first weeks after fitting, something about a kitchen changes, and that is normal. The humidity in the room shifts as soon as cooking and washing up begin, chipboard and veneer respond to it, and the hinges of heavy fronts drop a fraction. So we adjust every door at the end of the day and explain how you check it yourself: the front screw for left and right, the middle one for depth, the third for height. On non-IKEA kitchens it works identically, see [kitchen assembly for every brand](/en/keuken-montage-service).

### The corner is where it goes wrong
Nearly every kitchen has one corner, and there two doors collide, or a handle strikes the side of the neighbouring cabinet. That is not a manufacturing fault but a question of dimensions: a filler strip belongs between the corner unit and the cabinet next to it, so the door has room to swing without touching the other. We measure that clearance before hanging, with the handles in hand, because a long bar handle needs more room than a knob. We make the same judgement for bedroom wardrobes, see [IKEA wardrobe assembly](/en/ikea-kasten-montage).

### Forty boxes want an order
A complete kitchen arrives as dozens of parcels, and that stack decides how the day runs. On arrival we count everything against the delivery note, because a missing cabinet is better discovered at nine than at three, and we set the boxes out in fitting order: rail and carcasses by the wall, fronts and drawers further off, worktop flat on trestles. We flatten the cardboard and take it with us. For a whole room the logistics work the same, see [office and living room assembly](/en/kantoor-en-woonkamer-montage), and for a media wall in the same room [BESTÅ television unit assembly](/en/besta-tv-meubel-montage).

## What is and is not part of our kitchen fitting. The boundary is the hard-wired connection: anything that goes into an existing socket or outlet we do; anything that has to be wired in permanently or coupled to a gas line we do not.

| Item | We do it | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Suspension rail, carcasses and levelling feet | Yes | Rail level across the full wall, carcasses then joined and set |
| Fronts, drawers and hinges | Yes | Adjusted in three directions, soft-close and push-open tested |
| Laminate or timber worktop | Yes | Cut to length on site, cut-outs from the template, every cut sealed |
| Composite, quartz, ceramic or granite | No | Measured on site and wet-cut in the workshop by the stone supplier |
| Placing and aligning built-in appliances | Yes | Ventilation clearance kept as the maker specifies |
| Hard-wired electrical connection | No | A hob without a plug belongs on its own circuit, done by an electrician |
| Gas connection | No | Always by a registered installer |
| Water and waste | Partly | Connected to existing points; new pipework by a plumber |
| Plinths, cornices and end panels | Yes | Cut to size, filler strips where the wall does not run true |
| Removing the packaging | Yes | Cardboard flattened, polystyrene out, all away in one trip |

## Frequently asked questions
### Why is there no price anywhere on this site?
Because a rate that is correct for every kitchen does not exist. Eight cabinets with a laminate worktop is a day; the same eight cabinets with an island, three built-in appliances and four filler panels against crooked walls is a different job. We calculate the price from your order list and photographs of the room, and then it is fixed. What determines it: the number of base, wall and tall units, the number of drawers, corners and islands, the number of built-in appliances, the worktop material and the number of cut-outs, the number of filler panels your walls call for, the wall type the cabinets hang on, whether the room is ready, and the floor level and the lift.

### How long does a complete IKEA kitchen take?
Plan on one to two days for an average kitchen. The morning is for the suspension rail, the wall units and the base units on their adjustable feet, midday for the worktop, the afternoon for appliances, fronts and drawers, and the last hour for plinths, filler panels and adjusting the doors. More cabinets, an island or a corner run push that into a second day.

### Do you connect the appliances, including hob and gas?
We build the appliance in, align it and plug it into an existing socket or an existing three-phase cooker outlet. If your hob is supplied without a plug or cable it is a hard-wired connection, and that has to be made by an electrician on a dedicated cooker circuit to NEN 1010. Gas we do not do: for that we always refer you to a certified installer. Water we connect to existing inlets; new pipework we leave to a plumber.

### What do I need to have ready before you come?
The floor, the tiles and the plastering finished and the walls painted. Water and electrics in the position the kitchen plan specifies. The boxes indoors in one room, the worktop flat and at room temperature. Beyond that, a parking space and a socket we may use. And do not take out your old kitchen until the new one has been delivered complete.

### A part is missing from my IKEA delivery. What now?
First check whether your order was split into several deliveries, in which case the rest follows later. If not, report missing items within fourteen days through your order at IKEA. The six or eight digit part code is printed in the assembly instructions; small parts can be ordered separately or collected at the customer service desk. If you only notice it on the assembly day, we build everything that is there and discuss the remainder with you.

### At what height does the METOD suspension rail go?
With an 8 centimetre plinth the lower rail hangs at 82 centimetres, with an 11 centimetre plinth at 85, measured at the underside of the rail from the highest point of the floor. The formula behind it is cabinet height plus leg height minus 6. We set the upper rail so there is 60 centimetres between the worktop and the underside of the wall units. Between the two rails there is then 120 centimetres at a kitchen height of 208, 140 at 228 and 160 at 248.

### Why are no wall plugs supplied with the units?
Because IKEA does not know what kind of wall your kitchen will hang on. Their own guide puts it like this: because there are so many different types of wall, no fixings are supplied with your cabinets. We bring fixings for brick, concrete, aerated concrete and plasterboard and establish on the day what your wall is. If a wall cannot carry the cabinet, you hear that before anything hangs on it.

### Do the wall units or the base units go up first?
Wall units first. You then work above an empty floor instead of reaching over a row of base units, and you see straight away whether the rail is right. The exception is a single-run kitchen with a tall unit at the end: that tall unit goes in first, because the rest lines up to it. We only tighten the screws fully once everything hangs and the run is aligned.