Fitted Kitchen Workshop Set-up Cost: The Budget’s Four Basins
The honest answer to how much is that the same workshop is set up at wildly different totals depending on the machine line you buy. A hand-worked line and one that takes its measurements from the machine cannot be compared. Add power, dust extraction and loading access, and no single total emerges.
So we give a measure instead of an amount. We split the budget into four basins, show which bears down hardest, in what order to build the machine line, and what the second-hand decision puts at risk.
Splitting the budget into four basins
Money goes to four places and none substitutes for another: the machine line, the premises infrastructure, the measuring and drawing system, working capital. Enlarge one, leave another empty, and the workshop will not run.
The commonest error is spending everything on the first basin. A workshop that buys a strong line then cannot fund power, extraction and material for early orders takes no work while its machines stand idle.
First basin: the machine line and its share
The machine line is the centre of gravity. It comes close to the other three basins together, and in most set-ups it outweighs them.
The core is three functions: panel cutting, edge banding and drilling. Beside them come sanding, an assembly bench and hand tools, light lines that still leave the whole incomplete if missing.
The line’s share comes from its capacity far more than from the brand. A line for several kitchens a day and a line producing one kitchen a week do the same work and do not ask the same money. The first question is not which machine but how many kitchens in the first year.
Which machine comes first and which waits
Building the machine line in one go is not compulsory; it can be grown in stages.
- At the start: edge banding. It carries the quality, and buying it in stretches delivery
- At the start: the assembly bench and hand-tool set. Nothing is finished without them
- In stages: panel cutting. Early on, panels can be bought cut to size
- In stages: drilling and hinge work. At low volume it runs by hand
- Last: painting and special surface work. It opens its own ventilation and permission heading
That order grows capacity as demand arrives. The reverse consumes the budget at the outset and leaves the line’s weight on you in months with no orders.
Second-hand machines: the gain and the risk
Second-hand is the decision that most eases the budget in this branch and most often produces delay. Both are true at once.
The gain is plain: the same capacity for a smaller line, with what remains going into material and the measuring system. The risk sits in three places.
- Spare parts: waiting on one part for a discontinued model stops the line for days
- Lost accuracy: a cutting machine out of adjustment misses the measurement by a millimetre
- Safety: a machine with its guarding removed creates trouble at inspection
The right behaviour is not to avoid second-hand but to write an overhaul and servicing allowance into the budget. A founder who omits it spends the money inside the first month anyway.
Third basin: the premises infrastructure
Workshop premises want something different from a shop, and that need produces three lines.
First, electrical power: a machine line will not run on domestic wiring; a supply of suitable capacity and a distribution board are needed. Second, dust extraction; panel cutting makes fine dust that affects machine and worker alike. Third, loading and manoeuvring space: a full-size panel will not pass a narrow door, and where it does not it gets cut, ending your flexibility on measurements.
Together they make a middling basin, but none can wait. A machine bought before the premises are ready cannot be commissioned; the money stands idle.
Fourth basin: measuring, drawing and working capital
This is the smallest basin and the most often skipped: measuring kit, a system for drawing the kitchen and showing it, a vehicle and tools for fitting, cash to fund material for early orders.
That last line matters most. Customers usually pay a deposit, but the material order goes out before it arrives. Without capital to bridge the gap a workshop takes work and cannot start.
The weight of the four basins
| Line | Weight in the budget | What it moves with | Can it wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutting, banding and drilling line | The largest line | Target capacity, new or second-hand | In part; can be built in stages |
| Overhaul allowance for a second-hand machine | Small, but compulsory second-hand | The machine’s age, spare part availability | No |
| Assembly bench and hand-tool set | Middling | Workshop area, team size | No |
| Electrical power and distribution board | Middling | Number of machines, the existing wiring | No |
| Dust extraction and ventilation | Middling | Cutting volume, workshop height | No |
| Deposit, rent up front and loading works | Middling | An industrial estate or a standalone unit, door width | No |
| Measuring kit and drawing system | Small but compulsory | How work is presented, work volume | No |
| Fitting vehicle | Middling or nil | Whether haulage runs in-house or is bought in | Yes; haulage can be bought in |
| First stock of panel, fittings and consumables | Variable | Number of orders, supplier credit terms | In part; can run to order |
| Safety equipment and licence items | Small but compulsory | Number of workers, the municipal tariff | No |
| Cash to turn the first orders | Middling | Deposit arrangements, material payment terms | No |
The heading most often missing: measuring and drawing
Almost everyone writing a machine list skips one thing: the system that measures and draws the kitchen. Yet this workshop’s costliest mistake is born there.
A panel cut to the wrong measurement does not come back; material, labour, the delivery date and the customer’s trust go together. Prevention is cheap: measuring kit, a drawing system, a signed measurement approval. A workshop without that line learns at the first wrong cut what it has cost.
Where to cut and where not to
- Cut: panel cutting. Buying panels cut to size lightens the line
- Cut: the fitting vehicle. Buying haulage in protects early cash
- Cut: material stock. Work to order, buying fittings project by project
- Do not cut: dust extraction. This line protects machine and worker together
- Do not cut: power and the distribution board. Weak supply burns machines and stops work
- Do not cut: the measuring and drawing system. Beside a wrong cut it is nothing
- Do not cut: safety equipment. In a workshop this line is not a preference
How district and premises type move the table
The machine line is independent of the district; the premises line moves. On an industrial estate suitable power and loading access come ready; in a standalone unit, building them takes infrastructure to several times that. Seeking an industrial estate saves more than the rent difference.
How the classification side joins these decisions we described on our fitted kitchen manufacture and installation licences page. For capital bands see our home and building sector page. Another machine-based branch sits at glass and mirror shop set-up cost, and if you mean to add selling, at furniture showroom set-up cost.
In Short
- The budget divides into four basins: machines, premises, measuring and working capital
- The machine line is the centre of gravity, usually outweighing the other three
- The first question is not which machine but how many kitchens in the first year
- Second-hand eases the budget but carries spare part, accuracy and safety risk
- Buying second-hand, write a separate overhaul and servicing allowance
- The premises infrastructure is three lines: power, extraction and loading space
- A workshop that spends everything on machines takes work but cannot start it
- The heading most often skipped is measuring and drawing; a wrong cut costs far more
- An industrial estate brings infrastructure ready, gaining more than the rent difference
Quick Glossary
Machine line: the equipment meeting panel cutting, edge banding and drilling, the workshop’s productive core. Overhaul allowance: the line written beside a second-hand machine’s price for servicing, adjustment and missing guarding. Dust extraction: the installation collecting fine dust at source during cutting and sanding. Measurement approval: the document recording the customer’s kitchen measurements in writing, signed.
Next Step
Let us work out which machine line meets your target capacity and which line can be left to a later stage: consultation request form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated: September 2026
Sık Sorulan Sorular
The machine line. Cutting, banding and drilling take a share close to, or greater than, the other three basins combined.
You need not. Set up banding and the assembly bench at the start and buy panels cut to size from outside in the early period.
It eases the budget markedly. In return you accept the risks of spare part availability, lost accuracy and missing guarding.
An overhaul and servicing allowance. Adjustment, missing guards and a first service are unavoidable on most machines; unwritten, it comes out of the till.
Yes. A machine line will not run on domestic wiring; without a supply of suitable capacity and a distribution board the line cannot be commissioned.
It should not wait. Fine dust shortens machine life and spoils the working environment; this line belongs to the infrastructure built at the start.
Usually yes. Suitable power and loading access come ready, so the infrastructure line falls, and that gap exceeds the difference in rent.
No need. Working to order and buying fittings project by project protects capital, but set aside cash to turn the material for early orders.
Measuring and drawing. It is a small line, but the wrong cut born of its absence takes material, labour and the delivery date together.