If you have found yourself searching the internet for “kitchen designers near me” multiple times in recent weeks, you’re likely in the market for kitchen remodeling services. Kitchen remodeling is a specialized niche in the trade of residential contractors who take on home remodeling projects. This is because kitchens require the most intricate of design decisions and safety measures. They contain plumbing and electricity equal to or greater than bathrooms while also requiring strict logistical considerations for foot traffic, seating, and workspace. Fortunately, experienced kitchen remodeling companies like ETI Construction offer services to help you through the process of remodeling your entire kitchen from start to finish. Let’s dive into what makes kitchen projects and kitchen design so unique in the world of construction, and discuss what successful remodelers do to see your project through.
What Makes Kitchen Remodeling Different from Other Home Projects?
The first element of kitchen remodeling that makes it a challenge is the depth of functional space planning. When designing a room oriented towards relaxation, like a living room, the central questions tend to arise from furniture placement. Arranging the elements of a living room by natural light and intuitive footpaths is elementary compared to the hyper-utilitarian space of a kitchen. For example, kitchen work centers on the triangle between the main cooking surface (usually the stove top), the sink, and the refrigerator. Designers go into great detail on the minimum and maximum distances between them that work best for kitchen use. There are contingency measurements when anticipating a second cook in the same space at the same time. The design becomes even more complicated if the floor plan does not allow for enough countertop space to prepare meals before cooking.
Other elements that elevate the difficulty of kitchen remodeling compared to other parts of the house include working with plumbing and electricity and planning for high foot traffic with seating. Kitchens are second only to bathrooms in the amount of plumbing they require. Sinks, dishwashers, and even specialty items like espresso machines require plumbing work giving them access to water. The same is true with electricity since most kitchen appliances require access. While you may be tempted to do this work yourself, both plumbing and electrical work are specialized trades with disastrous consequences if they go wrong. Hiring a subcontractor is the safest path. Lastly, most steps to remodeling a house don’t have to take into consideration the severe economy of space present in kitchens. Placing inconvenient seating or interrupting footpaths can make a huge difference in the usability of the space.
Important Tips on Kitchen Remodeling Design
Even before taking on the construction step, aspects of design in kitchens present a challenge. Kitchen designers have created strict guidelines to calculate the ideal cabinet space that should be present in a kitchen at a minimum. This includes aspects that often fly under the radar, like how corner cabinets tend to be quite inconvenient to access unless they have some form of rotating shelf or a rolling pull-out track. The cabinet doors themselves have to be spaced so they open all the way, won’t bump into other objects in the kitchen, and won’t obstruct too much of the floor path. If that wasn’t complicated enough, all of these calculations must synergize with the amount of counter space present and available for use. If you have a kitchen island, it affects the layout heavily, and that’s even before considering whether the island contains a sink or any cooking surfaces.
Speaking of cooking surfaces, building safety codes and health regulations require adequate ventilation. Certain kinds of cooking like frying let off high amounts of air pollution in a small space. Burning food can also set off the fire alarm, which is at best inconvenient and at worst a risk to your life and your apartment. This is why many people opt to include air ducts and vents over their cooking surfaces when planning their kitchen remodeling project. Again, if any of these features are set in the island in your kitchen, the ensuing work has to go through your ceiling as opposed to the side of your wall, which may push it out of your capability unless you contract with kitchen remodeling companies. Other safety considerations include designating a convenient accessible storage for a fire extinguisher, rounding countertop corners, and making sure appliances won’t cause malfunctions in the electrical system.
Working with Kitchen Designers Near Me
If you’re wondering “How much will kitchen designers near me help?” then wonder no more. Kitchen remodeling companies work similarly to most remodeling contractors. As an example of the process, let’s go through the steps ETI construction takes for each project. First, we give you a call to learn about your goals and needs and get to know you. We will then meet you on-site to discuss the broad strokes of your project logistics such as budgeting, and assess whether it matches your goals. Then, we work on our design/remodel agreement to take measurements of your home for all pre-construction steps. We create our design drawings and provide samples for you to visualize the final product. This is also the point at which we encourage you to come up with any questions you may have as well as feedback and concerns for the project moving forward.
If all seems according to plan, we reach the design approval step and confirm the final selections for materials and products. The signing of the construction agreement then establishes our fixed price figure. Next, we begin to move into the construction phase, beginning with detailed scheduling that you can reference at any time on our digital portal. We hold a pre-construction conference at your home to set working hours and the logistics and steps involved. Only now, with all of this established, do we move into the construction itself. For longer projects, you’ll have a weekly meeting with the production manager until it is complete. Upon finishing the final tasks, we host a follow-up walkthrough and interview to ensure you are happy with the results. If these steps to remodeling a kitchen sound comprehensive and appealing to you, call ETI Construction today and let us know about your kitchen remodeling needs and vision.