Cheap fitted kitchens: what “fitting included” covers
The advertised price of a kitchen with fitting included is almost never the price you end up paying. Not because anyone is lying, but because “fitting” means a joiner’s day of work, not a renovation.
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Short answer
What does “fitting included” actually cover?
In Spain, a kitchen sold with fitting included normally covers the cabinets, the worktop and the assembly and levelling of the units. It almost never covers new electrical circuits, plumbing, the extraction route, tiling the splashback, removing the old kitchen or taking the rubble away. Those trades are a separate contract with a builder. A complete kitchen with all of it resolved starts around €4,500 and usually settles near €7,900, taking about 18 working days on site, up to 25 if the layout changes. The advertised package is real work at a real price — it is simply a shorter list than most buyers assume.
This matters more in Spain than in some other markets, because a Spanish flat is frequently sold with a kitchen that is old but present. You are not fitting out an empty shell; you are replacing something, and replacement generates work the furniture supplier does not do.
The comparison
The package against the complete kitchen
When one offer sits far below another, the gap is rarely in the cabinets. It is in the lines one of them carries and the other leaves off the page.
| Item | Fitting-included package | Complete kitchen renovation |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinets and worktop | Yes | Yes |
| Assembly and levelling | Yes | Yes |
| Appliances connected to existing points | Usually | Yes |
| Removing the old kitchen and rubble | Normally not | Yes |
| New electrical circuits and the boletin | No | Yes |
| Plumbing: supply, waste, stopcocks | No | Yes |
| Splashback tiling | No | Yes |
| Extraction route to flue or facade | No | Yes |
| Making good, paint and final clean | No | Yes |
The question that levels the conversation
Ask the supplier one thing in writing: which trades arrive, and on what day. A furniture company answers with a fitter and a delivery slot. A builder answers with an electrician, a plumber, a tiler and a painter. The two answers are priced differently because they are different jobs, and once you have both in writing the cheaper number stops looking like a bargain and starts looking like a scope.
Outside the price
The trades the fitter will not touch
Electrics and the boletin
A fitter connects an appliance to a socket that already exists. He does not create circuits. An oven, an induction hob and a dishwasher each draw enough to trip a line shared with the lights, and many Spanish flats were wired when a kitchen meant a fridge and a bulb. If the work touches the consumer unit or you raise contracted power — which induction frequently forces — an authorised installer has to issue a boletin, the certificate the supply company needs before it will accept the change.
Plumbing and the waste run
Moving the sink is the decision that quietly turns a package into a renovation. The bajante, the vertical waste stack, is a common element of the building and does not move, even where it passes through your flat. Relocating a sink means running waste at a constant fall under the cabinets, which eats usable height inside the unit. A fitter will simply decline it.
Extraction is a route, not an appliance
The package includes a hood. It does not include where the air goes. In older buildings that is either the original chimney flue or a shunt, the shared ventilation duct, which needs a non-return damper so you do not receive your neighbour’s cooking. Venting through the facade is different again: the facade is a common element, and that is a decision for the owners’ meeting, not for your fitter.
Making good
Pulling out an old kitchen exposes untiled wall, unpainted patches and a floor that stops where the old cabinets started. Someone closes all of that. It is the item most often missing and the one most likely to reappear as an extra when you have no leverage left.
Economising well
Where a cheap kitchen stays cheap, and where it does not
Safe to economise on
- Fronts and finishes — the visible layer, changed later without touching anything else
- A good laminate worktop instead of stone, replaceable on its own
- Mid-range appliances, where the top of the market buys features rather than years
- Decorative lighting, easily upgraded once the circuits behind it are correct
- Keeping the existing layout, which removes the plumbing and extraction work entirely
Expensive to economise on
- Hinges and drawer runners — the parts you operate thousands of times a year
- Electrical circuits and their protection, buried behind tiling on day one
- Adhesive and levelling under the tiling, invisible until it fails
- The extraction duct, which cannot be added later without opening the ceiling again
- Waterproofing and sealing around the sink and dishwasher
The two-year test
Ask which decisions you could reverse in two years without demolition. Fronts, a laminate worktop, lighting and appliances: reversible. Circuits, waste runs, extraction and the adhesive under the tiles: not reversible without redoing the kitchen. Put the money where reversal is impossible and economise freely everywhere else.
Buying it from abroad
What changes when you are not in the country
Delivery day is not fitting day
Packages arrive as flat boxes on a pallet, and someone has to receive them, check them against the order and store them dry until the fitter comes. In a building with no lift — common in older stock — carrying them up is a priced job in itself. If nobody is there to sign, the delivery goes back, and reschedules are slow.
Measure the room, not the listing
Property listings quote built area, which includes a share of the building. Cabinets are ordered against the real internal dimensions of the room, taken with a tape on site, including the position of the stack, the meter and any duct in the corner. A plan drawn from a listing figure produces a kitchen that does not fit, and the units are made to order.
Sequence, then pay in stages
The correct order is strip-out, first fix, tiling, then units, then worktop templated on the fitted cabinets. Retail packages carry a fixed delivery date, so the furniture can easily arrive before the walls are ready and sit in the hallway for three weeks. Agree the sequence first and tie payments to visible stages.
The photographs worth insisting on
- Open walls with the new circuits and pipework visible, before tiling
- The extraction duct along its full run, before the ceiling closes
- The waste run under the units showing the fall, if the sink moved
- The base unit with the sink dry-fitted, before the worktop is templated
- The consumer unit with the new circuits labelled, plus a copy of the boletin
Frequently asked
Common questions
Normally not. Fitting means assembling and levelling the cabinets and connecting appliances to points that already exist. New circuits, new supply and waste pipework, tiling and the extraction route are a builder’s contract, priced separately.
A full kitchen with strip-out, plumbing, electrics, tiling, extraction and making good starts around €4,500 and usually settles near €7,900, reaching €16,000 with premium units and appliances. Expect roughly 18 working days on site.
Yes, and it is the single largest saving available. Keeping the sink and hob where they are removes the waste run, the extraction rerouting and most of the builder’s work. If the existing tiling is sound it can often be covered rather than removed.
Replacing a kitchen where it stands is minor works — in Barcelona an assabentat, filed and effective immediately. Moving the stack, touching structure or venting through the facade is a different and slower procedure, and the facade also needs the owners’ meeting to agree.
Not if the saving lands on reversible items. Fronts, laminate worktops, lighting and mid-range appliances can be changed later on their own. Circuits, waste runs, extraction and the adhesive under the tiling cannot be corrected without redoing the kitchen.
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