Beginning in March, most of the United States was restricted by stay at home orders that included closing all nonessential businesses including the Teknika Kitchens and Baths showroom. At the time I was worried that would be the end of kitchen remodeling until we were able to again open the doors of our showroom. After all, remodeling is more than just taking out cabinets and putting a new set back in; many decisions need to be made along the way and they need to be made in person between the kitchen designer and the client, often with samples between them.
However, much to my surprise and to the credit of Teknika’s clients, we can still accomplish bath and kitchen remodeling in the age of COVID-19, in our new normal.
How are we doing these kitchen remodels? As you guessed, we do them with the help of Zoom and other technology that is just about where we need it to be to design a kitchen remodel remotely. The manufacturing of the cabinets and other materials (plumbing, tile etc.) is another matter. That depends on the state where the manufacturing takes place as to whether they can keep producing. We have been lucky that most of our suppliers have had supplies and our cabinets are still being produced. After the production, with installation is where it gets tricky and where the COVID-19 virus might overcome our best efforts.
While this might seem a mix of good and bad news, the overall good news is that the part of the kitchen remodeling process that takes the most time can be done remotely with technology. We break down the kitchen remodeling process into two phases: The design phase and then the installation phase.
The Design Phase (now called the Design Zoom Phase):
- Can take from 2 months to 2 years. The average is 3.5 months.
- Includes 5 steps:
a. Showroom visit- where Teknika introduces the process, the budget and the products
b. In Home Session- primarily to view the client space and measure. We are now giving our clients easy-to-use measuring guidelines
c. Budget Meeting- a proprietary software is used to determine the clients’ budget based on their needs and size of space
d. Design and Budget Review- meeting to go over the design generated by the kitchen designer based on the client’s budget, design needs and wants (the exciting stuff)
e. Personalization- details are ironed out and the design is finalized
The Installation Phase:
- Can take up to 3-5 months and has two steps.
- Includes 2 steps:
a. Determine the contractor is the first step and can be done at the same time as the personalization step in the design phase. At this point we are choosing the best contractor out of our 3 that suits this project and fine-tuning the installation budget.
b. Project Management step is the actual install in which your Teknika designer is now also your project manager so that your install goes forward with as few hiccups as possible. This is the only stage that we will need to wait for the return of normalcy. This step usually takes 6 weeks from start to finish.
Teknika Kitchens and Baths Continues Kitchen Remodeling in the Age of COVID-19
Teknika Kitchens and Baths can help you get started on remodeling your kitchen while you have the time during this COVID-19 quarantine. Browse our site for inspiration and email us at ameade@teknikakitchensandbaths.com to start your project today. See you on Zoom.
