The Best Installation Problems Are the Ones That Never Make It to Site

There’s always been an interesting relationship between kitchen and bathroom designers and the installers who eventually have to fit what they’ve designed.

Both are looking at the exact same project, but they are looking at it from completely different directions.

The designer is thinking about what the finished room could become. The installer is looking at the same plan, thinking about how it’s actually going to get installed and looking for issues.

Neither is wrong. In fact, you need both.

Problems usually start when those two sides don’t come together properly until the installer arrives on site. By then, most of the decisions have already been made. The kitchen or bathroom has been sold. The customer has high expectations. The products have been ordered. Dates have been agreed. And suddenly the installer is the person expected to make everything work.

Sometimes they can. Sometimes they can’t.

And sometimes they can, but only by changing things, adding additional costs or having a conversation with the customer that would have been much easier to have several weeks earlier.

Installation shouldn't be the last part of the conversation

I’ve spent most of my working life on the installation side of the KBB industry, and one thing I’ve seen repeatedly is how much easier projects become when installation knowledge is brought into the design process earlier.

That doesn’t mean an installer should be standing over a designer telling them what they can and can’t design. It just means recognising that the person who installs these types of products every day has knowledge that can improve the project before it reaches the customer's home.

An experienced installer will look at things differently. Can we physically get that product into the room? Is there enough space to actually fit it? How will we get that up the stairs or around that corner? What’s behind that wall? Where are the services going? Does the proposed material make sense in that position? How much work is involved in achieving what’s being shown? Has enough time been allowed?

None of those questions are particularly exciting when somebody is trying to sell a beautiful new kitchen or bathroom. But they’re quite important once somebody has to build it.

A good designer and a good installer should make each other better

I don’t believe this should be designer versus installer.

I’ve worked with some brilliant designers over the years, and the best relationships were always the ones where both sides respected what the other person knew. The designer brought things to the project that I didn’t. I brought things they didn’t. That’s how it should work.

A good installer shouldn’t be looking for reasons why a design can’t be done. Their experience should help find the best way of achieving what the designer and customer are trying to create.

Equally, a good designer shouldn’t see questions from an installer as criticism of their design.

Sometimes the installer is simply seeing something that isn’t obvious on a screen or a plan.

When that relationship works well, the projects always get better.

Talk before there’s a problem

A lot of problems in installation aren’t really installation problems. They’re communication problems that eventually arrive on site.

The customer thought something was included.

The installer thought somebody else was doing it.

The designer assumed something would fit.

The fitter wasn’t told about a change.

The price didn’t include work everyone assumed it did.

The product arrived but nobody had considered what was needed to install it.

None of this is particularly unusual, but the later these conversations happen, the more expensive and difficult they tend to become. A ten-minute conversation before the job starts can save hours of frustration later, and sometimes it can save considerably more than that.

Be honest about what things actually cost

This is one area where designers, retailers and installers need to work closely.

Customers don’t always understand the difference between buying a kitchen or bathroom and actually having one installed. There is always plumbing, electrical work, preparation, flooring, plastering, decorating, waste, additional materials and all the other things required to turn a collection of products into a finished room.

Those costs are not cheap and are very real. Trying to make them disappear doesn’t help anybody.

If installation is going to cost more than expected, it’s better for everyone to understand that before the customer has mentally spent their entire budget on the products.

The installer shouldn’t be made to look expensive because the true cost of the installation wasn’t discussed early enough. And the designer shouldn’t be put in the position of explaining unexpected costs at the end of the process.

Good communication protects both sides. More importantly, it protects the customer.

Leave the egos at the door

This was something I wrote about years ago, and I still believe it.

There is no room for ego in a good designer-installer relationship.

Installers don’t know everything.

Designers don’t know everything.

I’ve changed the way I’ve done things because a designer showed me a better way. I’ve also had designers change something because experience told me we were going to have a problem on site.

That’s not one person winning and another losing. That’s a professional relationship working.

“We’ve always done it this way” isn’t a particularly useful answer from either side. The best people I’ve worked with have generally been interested in getting the best result rather than proving they were right.

The customer doesn’t care whose fault it is

This is probably the bit we sometimes forget.

To the customer, the designer, retailer and installer are all part of the same project. If something goes wrong, explaining that it wasn’t technically your fault doesn’t necessarily make their experience any better. They just know their new kitchen or bathroom isn’t going the way they expected.

That’s why the relationship between the people selling, designing and installing the project matters so much. When everyone communicates, understands their responsibilities and respects what the others bring to the job, problems are easier to prevent and easier to solve when they do happen.

The customer gets a better experience.

The designer gets a project that reflects what they intended.

The installer gets a job that has been properly thought through.

And the retailer and installer spend less time trying to sort out problems that could have been avoided.

Installation shouldn’t be something we think about once the sale is finished. It should be part of creating a successful project from the beginning.

Because the best installation problems are still the ones that never make it to site.