Rules
Part of Adaptable kitchens comparison: plan the need first
Questions worth asking before hiring help with an adaptable kitchen
Questions for kitchen designers, cabinetmakers and installers: who measured the user, what the drawings show in inches, and who owns the appliance choices.
Kitchen firms are good at kitchens. Most are not practiced at kitchens for a person whose reach, grip or standing tolerance is limited. The gap shows up in small decisions: a handle style, an oven height, a control panel. These questions surface that gap during the quote rather than at installation.
What to take away
- Ask who measured the user. If nobody did, the design is guesswork with nice renderings.
- Insist that working heights, knee clearances and reach limits appear on the drawings in inches.
- Settle appliance choices before the cabinetry is ordered, because carcass sizes follow appliances.
- Agree who is responsible when a specified item is discontinued mid-project.
Questions for the designer
- Which working heights are you drawing, and who did you measure to get them?
- What is the knee clearance under the sink, in height, width and depth?
- Where do the cooktop controls sit, and can they be reached without crossing the burners?
- What is the turning space at the busiest point, and did you check it with the door open?
- Which items here need two hands to operate?
Questions for the cabinetmaker and installer
- Are base units removable without disturbing the counter?
- Are runners full extension, and what is the load rating?
- Is the plumbing accessible from the front after installation?
- Who sets final handle and shelf positions, and can they be adjusted after we live with it?
- What is the lead time on each specified item, and what happens if one is discontinued?
- Will you leave a spare of each handle and runner for future repairs?
That last question sounds trivial and is not. Hardware ranges change every couple of years. A household that has learned one handle shape should not have to relearn a different one because a single unit was damaged.
Cabinetmaker and installer questions
- Base units removable without disturbing counter
- Runner extension and load rating
- Plumbing accessible from the front
- Who sets handle and shelf positions
- Lead times and discontinued-item plan
- Spare handle and runner left behind
Bring the assessment, not the diagnosis
The most useful document you can hand a kitchen firm is a therapist's written measurements: standing tolerance, seated working height, reach envelope, grip strength. Medicare's page on physical therapy services sets out when such therapy is covered and the conditions attached.
Those numbers translate directly into a specification. Where memory or judgment is changing, say so plainly, because it changes appliance choice more than layout. Medicare's cognitive assessment and care plan services page describes the assessment that produces a documented plan, and features like automatic shutoff follow from it.
You are not obliged to explain anybody's diagnosis to a contractor. Functional requirements are enough, and they are what the drawings need anyway. A sheet that says seated working height 30 inches, forward reach limit 24 inches, no two-handed operations, is more useful to a cabinetmaker than any medical history. It also keeps private information private.
Getting it into the contract
Numbers in a rendering are decoration. Numbers in a specification are enforceable. Ask for a dimensioned drawing set and a written schedule of appliances with model numbers, then apply the money questions in accessible renovation cost questions.
Ask as well for a plan view showing every appliance door and cabinet door in the open position. That single drawing catches most of the errors that would otherwise be discovered on installation day. The design content those questions test is set out in our adaptable kitchen guide.
