Service
Kitchen fitting and bespoke cabinetry
RGS Carpentry fits kitchens across Surrey: installing supplied units properly, making the bespoke pieces a standard range cannot cover, and dealing with the fact that almost no British kitchen wall is straight, level or square.
- Lead time
- 3–5 weeks
- Supply
- We fit any manufacturer’s range
What separates a fitted kitchen from an installed one.
A kitchen is a set of square boxes going into a room with no square corners. Every hour of the fit is spent on that one problem.
Our own setting-out drawing, not a photograph. Numbers key to the notes belowalongside.
The wall you actually have
Fourteen millimetres out over 900 is entirely normal in a Surrey house built before 1960. It is not a defect; it is what the room is. The fit has to absorb it.
A scribed filler
A filler piece cut along the line of the wall, so the joint closes tight for its whole height. It takes twenty minutes per run and it is the difference between a kitchen that looks made for the room and one that looks delivered to it.
Packed out and caulked
The quick alternative: push the unit up, pack the gap, run a bead of caulk. It looks fine on handover day. Caulk in a 14mm gap will crack within a heating season, and it comes back every year after that.
Worktops scribed the same way
The back edge of a worktop is cut to the wall, not left as the factory edge with a bead behind it. On a stone or composite top this is done by the templater; on timber or laminate we do it on site.
Levels taken from the highest point
Floors fall. Cabinet legs are set from the highest point of the floor across the whole run and everything else packs up to it, so the worktop is level and the plinth absorbs the difference.
What you actually get.
- Installation of supplied kitchens from any manufacturer
- Bespoke fillers, end panels and plinths made to fit rather than packed out
- Bespoke larders, pantries, islands and dresser units
- Worktop preparation, scribing and cut-outs
- Coordination with your plumber, electrician and tiler
- Cornice, pelmet and finishing joinery
- Removal and disposal of the old kitchen by a licensed waste carrier
What it is made from, and why.
The question that decides how a piece ages, and the one almost nobody asks before signing.
- Your supplier’s carcasses
- Most of the kitchens we fit are client-supplied, and that is fine. What matters is the carcass board thickness — 18mm rather than 15mm — and whether the backs are rigid or panel-pinned hardboard.
- Matched end panels and fillers
- Made from the range’s own door blanks where possible, so the grain and the paint match. A filler cut from a different board is visible in raking light from a window.
- Timber worktops
- Oiled, not lacquered, so they can be sanded and re-oiled instead of stripped. Cut-outs around a sink need sealing on every edge and underside; this is where every failed timber worktop starts.
- MR board for anything near water
- Plinths, sink base backs and any panel that could see a leak. It costs a few pounds more per sheet and saves a rebuild.
Why two quotes for “the same job” differ by thousands.
Nobody else in Surrey publishes this. It is the difference between a number you can plan around and a number you have to take on trust.
Guide prices
- Installation of a supplied kitchen, per unit
- £120 – £220
- Typical 12–15 unit kitchen, installation only
- £1,450 – £3,300
- Bespoke larder, island or dresser, made and fitted
- £1,800 – £5,000
Indicative 2026 figures for Surrey, including materials and fitting. A guide, not a quote. Your quote is fixed, in writing, and comes after we have measured.
- Number of units and the complexity of the layout
- Whether the old kitchen needs stripping out and disposing of
- Worktop material: laminate, timber, stone or composite, in that order of cost
- How far out of true the existing walls and floors are
- Bespoke elements versus straight installation of standard units
- How many other trades have to be sequenced around us
- Whether appliances are integrated, which is slower than freestanding by some margin
From the first visit to the last adjustment.
Design visit, ideally before you order
This is the single most useful thing on this page. We will look over the plan before you buy, because layout mistakes are free to fix on a drawing and expensive to fix once the units are in the hall.
Strip out and make good
Old kitchen out and disposed of, walls and floor checked for level and plumb, and any surprises reported before they become variations.
First fix and base units
Plumber and electrician in for first fix, then base units set out from the highest point of the floor and levelled through.
Worktops
Templated or cut and scribed. Stone and composite go away to be templated, which is normally a week between base units and worktops with the kitchen usable in between.
Wall units, appliances and finishing
Wall units, integrated appliances, cornice, pelmet, plinth and handles. Doors adjusted last, once everything has settled.
When not to call us
We are carpenters, not a kitchen company. If you want one contract covering design, supply, plumbing, electrics, tiling and plastering with a single warranty over all of it, a kitchen showroom is genuinely the right answer and we will say so. What we are good at is fitting a kitchen you have chosen and making the pieces a catalogue cannot.
The things people ask first.
Will you fit a kitchen I have bought elsewhere?
Yes. Most of the kitchens we fit are supplied by the client. We are happy to look over the plan before you order, because that is when layout mistakes are cheap to fix.
Do you do the plumbing and electrics too?
We coordinate with trusted trades rather than pretending to be them. You get one point of contact and a sequence that works, and each part is done by someone qualified to do it. Electrical work in a kitchen is notifiable under Part P and is certified by the electrician.
How long is the kitchen out of action?
Longer than the fit itself if you are having stone or composite worktops, because those are templated once the base units are in and then made off site. Plan for a gap between base units and worktops with the kitchen partly usable — a temporary sink connection is worth asking your plumber about.
My walls are visibly out of true. Is that a problem?
It is normal rather than a problem. Fourteen millimetres over 900 is unremarkable in an older house. It is absorbed with scribed fillers and end panels cut to the line of the wall, which is slower than packing and caulking and is the reason a properly fitted kitchen looks like it belongs there.
Can you make a larder or island rather than buying one?
Yes, and it is often where a bought kitchen most obviously runs out. A made larder can use the full depth and height available rather than the nearest catalogue size, which usually means noticeably more storage in the same footprint.
What about the old kitchen?
Stripped out and taken away for licensed disposal. Anything reusable we will set aside if you have somewhere for it to go, which is worth asking about before it is broken up.
Kitchen fitting across Surrey.
Each town page describes the building stock we are actually working with there, which is what decides how a job like this is detailed.
Tell us what you are trying to fit, and where it has to go.
Four quick questions, no essay and no obligation. We will come and measure, and you will have a drawing and a fixed price within a week.
Every enquiry answered within one working day.