Kitchen Remodeling During Covid

We hope you are well and persisting through these rough times with an (occasional?) smile. You might just brighten someone’s day, right?

Many of our clients continue to work on their projects and we’ve learned a few things from these lo-oong months of Covid.

First, expect things to take longer than they might have in the past. Although the factory that builds our cabinets to order is almost always on schedule (about six weeks from order to ready-to ship), shipping itself is slower to some parts of the country. Tip: double your estimate (say 2 weeks rather than 5 days) for shipping.

Appliances, flooring, tile and other materials can take longer to arrive also. Plan accordingly.

You’ve probably already seem an increase in prices and costs in general. Same is true for appliance, cabinet and many other suppliers of kitchen remodeling goods. Keep looking for sales and order your materials as soon as you are able, whether or not you take immediate delivery.

Next, if you are going to proceed, you might want to set up some guidelines, a protocol, for contractors, workmen and delivery men. This will most certainly include MASKS at all times, inconvenient though they might be. You can insist. In some parts of the country they are required by law but anywhere they aren’t, they still save lives. Use them and require anyone who enters your home in regards to your project to wear one, too.

Another part of a reasonable Covid protocol for workmen is to offer just one bathroom and have cleaning supplies and lots of hand sanitizer available and encourage their use. You are the customer, after all. Make sure to sanitize that bathroom (and any doorknobs, or other surfaces touched or handled) at the end of the workday.

Packages and materials coming into your home can also be sanitized easily by spraying them. Research the best method and follow the guidelines. This might seem overly cautious but with kitchen projects there can be many, many items (and people) entering your home, items touched by many, so your risk is greater.

If you are living in your home during the project (and most do), wear a mask and even vinyl gloves (which help keep you from touching your face). Gloves are cheap online and, given the number of items and people entering a home during a remodel, wearing them until the end of the day, and through your own sanitizing/cleanup, is another recommendation.

We surely understand how it is easy to get casual about Covid precautions after all these months and because many of us are immunized. But keep in mind that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Kitchen projects always demand a lot from homeowners but a bit of extra work–these and other special precautions–are just smart. “Keep it simple but keep it sanitized and safe.”

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