Kitchen Measuring Information Record Checklist

Record the length of each wall separately rather than assuming opposite walls match, and note where along the wall you took each measurement.

Rooms are often out of square, and a layout drawn from one assumed dimension can leave a gap that has to be dealt with awkwardly on site.

Take the width of the room near the floor and again higher up, and note any difference you find between the two readings.

Walls that lean or bow change what will fit, and the difference is usually only discovered when a unit is being offered up to the wall.

Note the narrowest point in the room and what causes it, whether that is a pipe casing, a chimney breast or a wall that thickens partway along.

The narrowest point governs what can pass through and what can be fitted, and it is rarely where people assume it is.

Record the height to the ceiling at more than one point in the room, particularly under any dropped section, beam or bulkhead.

Tall units and wall units meet the ceiling, so a variation that nobody noticed becomes visible along the whole run.

Whether a beam, bulkhead or dropped ceiling can be altered is a question for a qualified professional to assess on site.

Note what each wall appears to be made of from what you can see and hear, and mark plainly that this is an impression rather than a finding.

Suppliers ask about wall construction early because it affects what can be fixed where, but your note is only a starting point for them.

What a wall is built from and what it supports must be established by a qualified professional before anything is planned around it.

Choose one corner of the room as the starting point for every measurement and mark it on your sketch so somebody else can read the record.

Measurements taken from different starting points cannot be reconciled afterwards, and the person reading them will have no way of knowing.

Write down which way each door into the room swings and how far into the room it travels when it is opened fully.

A door swing is easy to establish now and awkward to work around once cabinetry has been designed and ordered.

Note where each window sill sits in relation to the worktop level you are imagining, and whether the window opens inwards.

A sill below worktop level or a window that opens inwards changes what can sit in front of it, including the sink and any tap.

Record how deeply each window and door is set into the wall, since a deep reveal changes what can sit against or beside it.

Reveals are commonly left off owner sketches and then have to be resolved with fillers and packers during fitting.

Note the position of window handles, stays and any restrictor, and whether they would have to be reached across a worktop.

A handle reached over a hob or a sink is an everyday irritation that only appears in the record if someone thinks to note it.

Measure the wall left between openings rather than only the openings themselves, because that leftover wall is all a run of units has.

Designers work from the usable wall, so recording it directly saves a round of arithmetic and a round of misunderstanding.

Note any opening currently blocked by furniture or an appliance, and move whatever is in the way to see what it does when opened.

Openings that have been out of use for a long time are often forgotten entirely when the room is being described.

Record where the floor finish changes at each doorway and whether there is a step, a threshold strip or a difference in level there.

The junction at a doorway decides how the new kitchen floor meets everything around it, and it affects more than one trade.

Changing a threshold or a floor level affects rooms beyond the kitchen and should be raised with a qualified professional.

Note where the waste pipe leaves the room, on which wall and roughly at what height, without assuming anything about moving it.

The existing waste exit is one of the strongest constraints on where a sink or a dishwasher can sensibly go.

Where drainage can run is for a qualified plumber or drainage professional to establish for your property.

Record where the stopcock and any isolating valves are, and whether they can currently be reached without emptying a cupboard first.

Isolation points that end up behind a fixed panel become a real problem the first time something leaks.

Note the position of any meter, consumer unit or boiler in or near the room, and whether each remains accessible.

These items constrain what can be built around them and often decide where a tall unit cannot go.

Anything involving meters, boilers or the electrical supply must be raised with the relevant qualified trade rather than planned around.

Note where any existing extract outlet leaves the building and what it appears to pass through on the way, as far as you can see.

The existing route is the first thing anyone will ask about when extraction is discussed for a new arrangement.

Record the position of radiators and any visible pipework, including casings that run along the floor or at ceiling level.

Pipe runs hidden in casings are frequently forgotten and then discovered exactly where a unit was meant to sit.

Mark existing sockets, switches and light points on your sketch, noting which of them would be hidden by anything you are imagining.

An outlet that disappears behind a new unit is a common and avoidable annoyance if it is spotted at this stage.

Whether any electrical point can be moved, added or reused is for a qualified electrician to advise on.

Note whether there is an existing gas point in the room and where it appears, without assuming it can stay, move or be removed.

The presence of a gas point changes several later conversations and should be flagged rather than left to be discovered.

Anything involving gas must be discussed with a suitably qualified gas professional before it enters any plan.

Check whether the floor falls away in any direction by rolling something round across it, and note where it comes to rest.

A floor that slopes affects how units line up and how a worktop sits, and it is much better known before the design than during fitting.

Note what the existing floor finish is and whether there appear to be layers of earlier finishes beneath it at the doorway.

The build up under the finish determines what happens at every threshold and under every appliance.

What lies under an existing floor and whether it can be removed is for the contractor and a qualified professional to establish.

Note any slope, sag or step in the ceiling, and where a tall unit or a wall unit would meet it.

A ceiling that drops along a run shows up as a tapering gap above the units, which is very difficult to disguise afterwards.

Record where the wall surface is uneven, damaged or previously patched, particularly on the sections currently hidden behind units.

Walls behind existing kitchens are often in poor condition, and that only becomes visible once the old kitchen is out.

Note the depth of the skirting and the architrave, since units and end panels have to deal with them one way or another.

Skirting is a small dimension that decides whether a run of units sits tight to the wall or stands proud of it.

Note any staining, dampness or unusual smell you have noticed in the room and exactly where it appears, without drawing a conclusion about it.

Describing what you observe is useful; guessing the cause is not, and the difference matters when the note is read by someone else.

The cause of damp, staining or smell must be established by a suitably qualified professional before any covering work is planned.

Note any access hatch, service cover or floor void access in the room and whether it has to remain reachable afterwards.

An access point built over is one of the few kitchen mistakes that cannot be quietly lived with.

Whether an access point must stay reachable is a question for a qualified professional and may depend on local requirements.

Record the position of alarms, thermostats, controls and anything else fixed to the wall that is not part of the kitchen.

Wall mounted controls are easy to overlook on a sketch and awkward to relocate once a design has been settled.

Note any chimney breast, pier, recess or step in the wall, and how far it projects into the room at floor level and higher up.

Projections rarely have the same depth top to bottom, and the widest point is what a run of units has to clear.

Note anything fixed to the other side of a wall you are thinking of using, since it may constrain what can happen on your side.

What is on the far side of a wall matters as soon as anything is being fixed to it or run through it.

What may be fixed to or removed from a shared or party wall must be established with a qualified professional and the relevant parties.

Note what sits directly above the kitchen and directly below it, as far as you know, and say how confident you are in that.

What is above and below shapes conversations about services, noise and extraction long before anything is drawn.

Record where existing light fittings, pendants and switches sit in relation to where you imagine an island or a table going.

Existing light positions are a useful starting point and an early warning of what would have to change.

Walk the route from the street to the kitchen and note the narrowest point, whether that is a gate, a doorway or a turn on a stair.

Deliveries fail at the narrowest point rather than at the front door, and it is worth finding that point in advance.

Record any turn, half landing or low ceiling on the route, since long or rigid items are lost at turns rather than in corridors.

A worktop or a tall unit can pass a wide corridor and still be defeated by the turn at the top of a stair.

Note where a delivery vehicle could stop and how far it is from there to the door, including any steps or uneven ground.

The distance from the vehicle to the door affects how a delivery is handled and is worth mentioning before the day.

Where access is shared or communal, note any restriction on using it and who would need to be told in advance.

Shared access often has conditions attached that only become apparent when a delivery is turned away.

Restrictions on communal access, delivery times or building use must be confirmed with whoever manages the property.

Note the finishes on the route that would need protecting, such as a floor, a handrail or a light coloured wall.

Damage on the route to the kitchen is common and is easier to prevent than to argue about afterwards.

Consider where units and materials could be stored while work proceeds, and whether that space is genuinely available.

A kitchen arrives well before it is fitted, and somewhere dry has to take it in the meantime.

Draw a rough plan of the room seen from above with the measurements written onto it, however unskilled the drawing is.

A crude plan with numbers on it is far more useful to a designer than a neat list of dimensions with no drawing.

Sketch each wall separately as though you were looking straight at it, and mark the openings, services and obstructions on each one.

Wall by wall sketches capture heights, which a plan view cannot show at all.

Photograph the room from each corner and from each doorway, so whoever reads your notes can see what you were describing.

Photographs answer the questions your notes did not anticipate, and they take almost no effort to gather now.

Photograph the details you found hard to describe, such as a pipe casing, a meter cupboard or an awkward junction at a corner.

The things that are hard to write down are exactly the things a designer will want to see.

Label each photograph with which wall it shows, because a set of kitchen photographs becomes unidentifiable surprisingly quickly.

Unlabelled images of the same beige room are almost useless once there are more than a handful of them.

Date the record and note who took the measurements, so that later versions can be told apart from the original.

Without a date, two sets of numbers become impossible to reconcile and the newer one is not always the better one.

Mark the record plainly as owner notes taken with a tape measure, so that nobody downstream treats it as a survey.

Stating clearly what the record is protects both you and the supplier from a misunderstanding about who measured what.

Ask what room information the designer or supplier wants from you in advance, and in what form they would like to receive it.

Different suppliers work from different inputs, and asking first avoids preparing the wrong thing in great detail.

Ask at what point a measured survey is carried out, who carries it out, and what happens if it differs from your notes.

The survey point is also the point at which a design can still change, which is worth knowing before decisions are locked.

Ask what a survey checks that you cannot check yourself, so you understand what your own record does not cover.

Knowing the limits of your own notes is the single most useful thing you can take from this exercise.

Only a qualified professional can establish levels, structure and services in a way that anything may be ordered against.

Keep one master version of the record and update it, rather than sending out several slightly different sets of numbers.

Multiple versions in circulation is how the wrong dimension ends up on a drawing that nobody questions.

When a supplier measures, ask for the differences between their figures and yours to be pointed out, and write those differences down.

Discrepancies usually point at something real in the room, and they are worth understanding rather than simply overwriting.