Kitchen - is it flat pack or built up?

4 year old Taylor Wimpey "budget" semi, is it likely to be flat pack or glued together? A relative is giving it to me but lives 100 miles away, it's not many units and if they come apart they'll go in my Berlingo - if glued and have to come out in one piece I'll need to drag my big trailer along.

Any way to tell by looking? I'm not familiar with kitchens and don't know whether you'd be able to tell if you can see cam screws at the back or anything?

It's only going in my house as a temporary fit so I don't mind a few knocks or chips!

They are 99% certain to have come premade (generally glue, dowels and screws) on a house built by a larger contractor. It comes down to cost and speed of installation. It is cheaper to employ semi-skilled labour in a factory to assemble carcasses (often at under £9 an hour) than have a skilled carpenter or fitter doing the assembly on site at premium rates. It also allows the fitters to work on price to get the instlation done fast - TBH there is no time or space to have bodies blocking access to a kitchen for an extra half day or more assembling cabinets when half a dozen other trades (e.g decorators, plumbers, sparkies, chippies, floor fitters, etc) need to get in there and do their jobs. You might be lucky to have the one that was installed after the bulk of the project had been fitted maybe leaving one or two stragglers to be picked up at the end, and which is a KD kitchen, but it is highly unlikely. Telltales of stuff you can dismantle are KD cam and dowel fittings (look like a button with a cross for a screwdriver in the centre) in the top off the front rails of base cabinets (visible once the worktop has come off) and KD cam and dowel fittings on the underside and top of the lower cabinet bases (i.e. where they aren't normally visible). Similarly there might be cam and dowel fixings visible on the underside/top side of the wall cabinets if it has been assembled on site with KD fittings

cdbe said:

4 year old Taylor Wimpey "budget" semi, is it likely to be flat pack or glued together? A relative is giving it to me but lives 100 miles away, it's not many units and if they come apart they'll go in my Berlingo - if glued and have to come out in one piece I'll need to drag my big trailer along.

Any way to tell by looking? I'm not familiar with kitchens and don't know whether you'd be able to tell if you can see cam screws at the back or anything?

It's only going in my house as a temporary fit so I don't mind a few knocks or chips!

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Why not ask your friend.

JobAndKnock said:

They are 99% certain to have come premade (generally glue, dowels and screws) on a house built by a larger contractor. It comes down to cost and speed of installation. It is cheaper to employ semi-skilled labour in a factory to assemble carcasses (often at under £9 an hour) than have a skilled carpenter or fitter doing the assembly on site at premium rates. It also allows the fitters to work on price to get the instlation done fast - TBH there is no time or space to have bodies blocking access to a kitchen for an extra half day or more assembling cabinets when half a dozen other trades (e.g decorators, plumbers, sparkies, chippies, floor fitters, etc) need to get in there and do their jobs. You might be lucky to have the one that was installed after the bilk of the contract had been fitted maybe leaving one or two stragglers to be picked up at the end, and which is a KD kitchen, but it is highly unlikely. Tell tales ofvstuff you can dismantle are KD cam and dowel fittings in the top off the front rails of base cabinets (visible once the worktop has come off) and KD cam and dowel fittings on the underside of the lower cabinet bases. Similarly there might be cam and dowel fixings visible on the underside/top side of the wall cabinets if it has been assembled on site with KD fittings

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Thanks. Makes sense to make them in a factory, it's an estate of over 100 houses so I suppose they would just lorry them in.
Looks like the trailers going for a run. I suppose it saves me taking them apart and reassembling them.

foxhole said:

Why not ask your friend.

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Some people really don't have a clue (I suppose why the building trade exists) - my brother-in-law already wrecked the fridge housing a few weeks ago (wanted it out of the way for the new American job) - couldn't get it away from the wall without a crowbar! I suppose it's why they're paying Wren £13k for 9 units, 4.5m of worktop and a few mid range appliances.

cdbe said:

Thanks. Makes sense to make them in a factory, it's an estate of over 100 houses so I suppose they would just lorry them in.
Looks like the trailers going for a run. I suppose it saves me taking them apart and reassembling them.


Some people really don't have a clue (I suppose why the building trade exists) - my brother-in-law already wrecked the fridge housing a few weeks ago (wanted it out of the way for the new American job) - couldn't get it away from the wall without a crowbar! I suppose it's why they're paying Wren £13k for 9 units, 4.5m of worktop and a few mid range appliances.

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Ask him to send photos, if there's screws around the base where they join together good chance they are as above. We used to screw together where they wasn't seen and biscuit where it was.

Just go with your trailer in case.