Why Are Kitchens 'fitted'

[MrB]

Estate Agent parlance.

Is anything that isn't 'fitted' mean in flat packs, waiting for the tenant/homowner to fit?

[Authoritarian]

Also, what does the term 'built from the ground up' mean?

Am I supposed to grateful that the builders have used gravity to their advantage and decided against building from the roof down.

[Mal Volio]

"Fitted" as opposed to free-standing units

Means that they won't take it with them when they go (probably)

[mon-keyhanger]

Estate Agent parlance.

Is anything that isn't 'fitted' mean in flat packs, waiting for the tenant/homowner to fit?

See your point. In a way. Though,fitted refers to the units being unmovable. They need, of course, to be assembled and fitted in the spots you are going to leave them in. Possibly better to call them 'fixed' kitchens.

This would be of a negative flavour to some. The marketing boys and girls had to push them as bespoken from 60's onward.

BUT- are you old enough to remember when we had kitchen furniture. We moved the kitchen about (if we had the space). Maybe the oven , if gas, was the only item 'fitted'- plus the sink of course. Even a new fangled electric oven couldn't be moved too far away from the power source. Sooooo apart from the oven everything else could wander about at the owners whim.

[Number79]

"Fitted" as opposed to free-standing units

Means that they won't take it with them when they go (probably)

probably the case although that 'definition' of fitted does not stand up in Germany. When they sell/move then the kitchen goes with them, 'fitted' or not.

[AteMoose]

If you buy a farmhouse, or an old cottage that hasnt been revovated the kitchen wont be fitted.... The owner has sideboards and cupboards for storing stuff in...

Edited September 1, 2010 by AteMoose

[CHF]

If you buy a farmhouse, or an old cottage that hasnt been revovated the kitchen wont be fitted....

Perhaps not. But it will have a 'quaint rustic charm'

[MrB]

you mean s***e

indeed

Seems, the boffins have looked into estage agent lexicon in some detail. These experts "employed fractional logit regression methods to help us investigate our hypotheses in a multiple-causation estimation framework." and came up with a few jokes:

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/30522/1/30522.pdf

Benefits From:

Contains a feature you may expect to be the bare minimum for the extraordinary price you are paying. Example: "Benefits from roof, floors, walls".

In Need of Modernisation:

In need of demolition.

etc....

[Cogs]

Sized and shaped for a specific space. Its a sort of weak way of saying 'made to measure', more like 'modified to measure'. A fitted suit is a normal off the peg suit with some adjustments done for example. We also nearly all have 'fitted carpets'. You see a non-fitted carpet so rarely now the phrase has gone out of use, but people used to get approximately sized bits of carpets and around the edges you'd have exposed floorboards (you still see this in stately homes I think).

Edited September 1, 2010 by Cogs

[billybong]

"Fitted" means putting in far more units than necessary. Put in as many as you can to fit into the space available.

A form of job creation for unit manufacturers and installers etc mainly for the Mrs to keep up with the Joneses

"Built from the ground up" is builders trying to make normal humdrum methods sound special and ingenious and yet solid and reliable. Really a bit of taking the michael.

Now if they claimed "built using sky hooks" then that would be really something if true

Marketing eh but lots of people seem very willing to be taken in every time.

"Wow!! built from the ground up, must have it. I'll bet the Joneses kitchen wasn't built from the ground up"

Edited September 1, 2010 by billybong

[Bloo Loo]

Melamine, chipboard and Formica...bootiful.

[SarahBell]

Estate Agent parlance.

Is anything that isn't 'fitted' mean in flat packs, waiting for the tenant/homowner to fit?

Fiited means freestanding units. As kirsty would say "If you can put your hand behind it it's probably not staying"

One to watch in older houses where all cupboards might well be freestanding and you'll move in and only have a sink. (Agas move too)

[Pauly_Boy]

Why Are Kitchens 'fitted'

I thought you said Kittens for a second!

[LivingWithTheInlaws]

A few years ago we installed a new kitchen and found free standing units available. It may even have been in Next home stores. The USP was that you could rearrange your kitchen. Each unit was the usual 600mm wide (appliance sized). Quite useful in a smaller/older kitchen where there's no need to have a long worktop.

[hedgefunded]

I don't have a problem with the term. Fitted to my mind means 'fixed and staying'.

[tim123]

See your point. In a way. Though,fitted refers to the units being unmovable. They need, of course, to be assembled and fitted in the spots you are going to leave them in. Possibly better to call them 'fixed' kitchens.

This would be of a negative flavour to some. The marketing boys and girls had to push them as bespoken from 60's onward.

BUT- are you old enough to remember when we had kitchen furniture. We moved the kitchen about (if we had the space). Maybe the oven , if gas, was the only item 'fitted'- plus the sink of course. Even a new fangled electric oven couldn't be moved too far away from the power source. Sooooo apart from the oven everything else could wander about at the owners whim.

ITYF that the "original" type of stove found in kitchens was less movable than a modern (20th century) electric or gas one. The flipping great big brick chimney attached to it made it a somewhat fixed feature.

tim

[tim123]

Yes. Sold flat in Germany, frau-at-the-time says "shall we take the kitchen with us or sell it separately?" "Huh?" I replied. We sold it to the couple who'd just moved in above us.

Even in (unfurnished) rental flats in Germany it is normal for the kitchen to belong to the tenant and not the LL (and unlike in the UK, fitting it to the wall doesn't make it a fixture).

tim

[winkie]

What's wrong with a nice piece of solid wood on rustic bricks and a curtain as a cabinet door....you don't know what you are missing.

[MinceBalls]

Estate Agent parlance.

Is anything that isn't 'fitted' mean in flat packs, waiting for the tenant/homowner to fit?

Kitchens have often been freestanding units.

[lets get it right]

I've seen a kitchen that was not fitted. It comprised a worktop with a sink in it that sat on top of a 1000mm base unit. Waste was into a bucket and water connections were via hoses. Food was stored on a folding wallpaper pasting table. This kitchen was moved from room to room progressively as I renovated the last property I owned.

[Austin Allegro]

Fitted kitchens are one of the best examples of planned obsolesence. Take the cheapest quality chipboard. Install it in such a way that it can't be moved or worked with as your needs change, and cover it with melamine which can't easily be painted. Hey presto, people need a new one every few years. A sign of how well everyone has fallen for it is the fact that non-fitted kitchens are marketed as being the preserve of the wealthy only - you can do it but only if you have an antique welsh dresser, aga, Belfast sink etc. :angry:

[TimG]

All professioal kitchens I have ever been in (or seen on telly) are as free standing as possible. The only fitted stuff tends to be the sinks and extractors.