My attempt at a kitchen refurb

[Tomw84]

I bought my first flat in December, knowing it was going to need a lot of work doing to it. I've got no real DIY experience, but thought I'd have a go at anything which isn't likely to kill me or flood/blow up the flat. A couple of weeks ago I started on the kitchen, which I'd been putting off, because it looked like this:

Yellow Artex paint, ancient mismatched units, no appliances, horrible tiles and a badly-fitted lino floor which was coming away at the edges. When I started taking the units apart, things got even better - thermoplastic tiles under the lino!

So I decided I'd do something fun and started breaking the tiles off the walls, which revealed another set of tiles underneath. Tried taking these off too, but they seem to have been attached to the wall using about half the world's cement.

Next I thought I'd better get rid of those thermoplastic tiles, so I called in an asbestos removal team who did a great job, but annoyingly when I came home after they'd finished, I discovered that this had been lurking under the tiles:

Not ideal! Oh well.

So a couple of weeks in, the kitchen looks significantly worse than it did when I started!

But at least most of the Artex is off the walls, along with the various layers of paint underneath it. Once that's done I can think of a solution for the floor - I'm thinking I'll put some supports in the trench containing the pipes, then lay down tile backer board over everything - then move on to actually making the room look nice! Really enjoying it so far, despite the slow progress.

 

[mrrusty]

Yes, I think I would do the same - pull out all the loose cement around the pipes, add some support around them and then board over. However, I would also consider re-doing the plumbing completely. Quite likely your outlets won't be quite in the right place, and also quite likely your new cabinets will provide service voids to allow different distribution routes (i.e. not so much in the floor).

Looks good. The next stage is to do some detailed drawings and plans so you know how it'll all fit together, then you can work out the way forward. You'll definitely need to get a sparks in to re-wire the kitchen for all the electrical points.

I expect you'll be back with quite a few questions. Step by step - we have most of the answers here.