A new kitchen installation should be exciting — but it’s surprisingly common to discover chips, scratches and damage on worktops, tiles and surfaces caused during the fitting process. This guide covers what to do when your new kitchen has surface damage from installation, who is responsible, and how professional repair can resolve the issue.
How Installation Damage Happens
Kitchen installation involves multiple trades working in sequence — kitchen fitters, worktop templaters and fitters, plumbers, electricians, tilers — and each trade creates damage risk. Common causes of installation damage include:
- Worktop chip at the cutout edges (hob or sink aperture) during templating or fitting
- Chips at worktop edges from tools or materials placed on the surface during fitting
- Scratches from appliances being slid across worktops during installation
- Tile chips from drilling for electrics or plumbing
- Damage to a new sink or appliance during handling
Who Is Responsible for Installation Damage?
Generally, the trade that caused the damage is responsible. If the kitchen fitter chipped your worktop, the kitchen company or fitter should cover the cost of repair. Document damage with photographs immediately — ideally before final payment or sign-off.
Repair vs Replacement for New Worktops
Where a new worktop has a chip at installation, professional repair is almost always the right approach — the worktop is otherwise new and replacement would be expensive and disruptive. A professional chip repair on a brand-new quartz or granite worktop typically produces an excellent result because the colour is fresh and consistent.
Providing a Repair Quote to Your Installer
If your kitchen company or installer is responsible for damage, obtaining an independent professional repair quote gives a fair measure of the cost of remedy. We’re experienced at providing quotes in this context.
Fast Post-Installation Repair
We understand that after a kitchen installation you want to get on and use your new kitchen. We aim to provide fast turnaround for post-installation repair requests.
