A kitchen here is rarely only units. Walls move, a beam may be needed, and waste and rainwater runs have to work with what is already in the ground. The era and the estate your house belongs to decide most of the detail.
Kitchens in the Sele Farm estate housing
Sele Farm is a datable, consistent build. After the Second World War the municipal Borough of Hertford aspired to build hundreds of houses and flats on 50 acres of land at Sele. The first stage took about four years and covered Cherry Tree Green, Hawthorn Close, Bramfield Road, Tudor Way, Windsor Drive, Hollycroft and Welwyn Road. The second stage covered Calton Avenue and all the roads to the west of Thieves Lane.
Houses put up in one programme repeat the same plan and the same construction. That gives a clear starting point at survey stage for where the kitchen wall sits and what it is built of. It still has to be confirmed on the day, and an engineer sizes anything structural before it is priced.
Kitchens in the Victorian, 1930s and later stock
Kingsmead ward grew outwards in stages, and the kitchen you have depends on the stage. There is Victorian and Edwardian housing on the roads at the bottom of Gallows Hill, and 1930s housing on Woodlands Road and its surrounds. There is 1970s housing built by the Greater London Council at Pinehurst, and 1990s housing at Foxholes.
Drainage belongs in the specification, not at the end of it. The Kingsmead neighbourhood plan states that flood risk to properties in Mead Lane, Tamworth Road, Rowleys Road and Cromwell Road comes from heavy rainfall overwhelming the existing drainage capacity, rather than from river flooding. For a ground floor kitchen on those roads, that affects floor build up, levels and where new waste runs are taken.
Kitchens in outbuildings and older curtilage buildings
An outbuilding beside a listed house is not outside the controls. Structures within the curtilage of a listed building that were built before 1 July 1948 are subject to the same controls as the listed building itself. Where a kitchen is going into a former outbuilding, garage or annexe of that age, the consent position needs settling before any units are ordered or any opening is formed.
- Supply and fitting of units, worktops and splashbacks
- Underfloor heating and kitchen ventilation
- Quartz, granite and marble worktops templated and fitted
- Floor levelling and screeding before the flooring goes down
- Old kitchen strip-out, disposal and making good
Trusted Kitchen Renovation in Hertford
The stock sets the constraints on a Hertford kitchen. A 1950s Sele Farm plan, a Victorian rear addition and a 1990s Foxholes house give you different walls, different levels and different drainage to work with. We survey first, appoint a structural engineer if a wall or an opening is involved, then run the trades in one sequence so the room is not opened up and left. Fully insured, with free quotations and no obligation.
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Worktops templated after installation for a precise fit
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- New circuits and consumer unit work certified under Part P
- Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish
- A temporary sink arranged where the kitchen is out for weeks