Before, During and After a Remodel
First Day Back: A Recommissioning Checklist
What to prove on the first day the kitchen is yours again. Viking Appliance Repair Denver — call (720) 770-4189.
Written by Natalia Vukovic
Role Service technician — water systems and leaks · 17 years in the trade
In the trade Finds where the water goes before deciding what is wrong. A seal that shrank at the corner and a fitting that weeps look the same on the floor and cost nothing alike.
The kitchen is finished, the protection is up, and everyone is keen to be gone. This is the hour with the most leverage in the whole programme, and it is almost always given away. Half an hour of deliberate testing, while the people who installed everything are still contactable, turns a list of unknowns into either a working kitchen or a short list of things somebody owes you. Neither of those is available in six months.
Owner checks, in order
Work through the room rather than the trade. Start with power: every breaker on, every appliance disconnect in its running position, no extension leads left from the build. Then each appliance in turn, once, deliberately.
Light each surface burner and watch the flame settle instead of glancing at it. Run the oven up to a set temperature and let it hold there for a while rather than opening the door at the first beep. On a range that has been out of its opening, take a flashlight round the back and satisfy yourself that the anti-tip bracket has taken hold at the top left rear, which is exactly where the use and care guide sends you to look. Open and close every door and watch how it meets its frame. Check the refrigeration settings against the factory values printed in the guide, because a unit that has been moved and powered down does not always come back the way it went away.
Two things specific to a new build rather than a new appliance. Walk the room looking for anything that has been fitted across an opening: a 5 Series gas range vents its oven beside the air grille and that duct must stay unobstructed, and a built-in refrigerator needs clear air at the grille above and the kickplate below. And expect smell. Viking’s guides call some burn-off and odour normal in the first uses of an oven, and ask for the cavity to be wiped and run empty for an hour before anything is cooked in it.
What only a technician can confirm
The boundary matters more on handover day than at any other point, because the temptation to poke at something is highest. Gas connections, anything behind a sealed refrigeration system, work inside an electrical panel and anything reached by removing a fixed panel are all somebody’s trade and none of them is yours. On a built-in, even the top grille comes off with a nut driver and the power down first — the manufacturer’s own sequence, and a good indication of where the owner’s side of the job ends.
Levelling is the item most often left half done and it is worth naming as a technician’s check rather than an eyeball one. A range that rocks slightly, a built-in that sits a shade low in its cutout, a dishwasher whose door drops: each is easy to correct now with the right tool and irritating to live with for a decade.
What to photograph and keep
Every appliance carries an identification plate and the plates hide in different places by product. On a 5 Series gas range it sits under the control panel. On a 5 Series built-in side-by-side it is behind the top light. On a 5 Series cooktop it is underneath the unit itself. Photograph each one on the day the kitchen is handed back, when the appliances are accessible and the cabinetry is not yet full.
Then write the same details down where they will survive: model number, serial number, the date of purchase, the date of installation and the dealer. That is the exact set Viking asks for when a product is registered or a service call is raised, and assembling it on handover day takes ten minutes. Assembling it later means emptying a full refrigerator to read a label behind a light.
Call before the trades are gone
The last item on the list is a deadline rather than a task. Whatever has not been proved by the time the contractor’s retention is released is, in practice, yours. Book the recommissioning before the handover date rather than after it, run the room properly, and raise anything odd while the people who fitted it are still answering their phones. Everything on this page is cheap on the first day back and expensive on every day after it.
One term, defined
Recommissioning
The deliberate proving of every appliance in a finished kitchen before the trades are released: each function run once, each setting checked against the manufacturer's guide, and anything that cannot be proved from the front handed to a technician rather than assumed.
Spec check
Confirm each of these before anything is cut, ordered or delivered.
- A recommissioning slot on the programme before handover, not after the last invoice is paid
- That every appliance has been run once, by somebody, rather than merely switched on
- That no new trim, panel or joinery sits across an oven vent or a refrigeration grille
- That the anti-tip device behind the range is engaged, checked with a flashlight from the back
- A photograph of every rating plate, filed with the model and serial numbers written out
Questions on site? Viking Appliance Repair Denver, (720) 770-4189.
Follow-ups we get asked
What can an owner safely check without a technician?
Settings, filters, breakers and anything visible from the front. Run the burners, run the oven, look behind the range with a flashlight, open the doors and watch how they meet their frames. Stop at anything that needs a panel off, a tool, or contact with gas, refrigerant or live wiring — those belong to the trade that owns them.
The refrigerator has lights and a display but is not getting cold. Is it broken?
Not necessarily. Some built-ins have a showroom mode that leaves every function working except the cooling, and others delay before the compressor starts after power is restored. Both look exactly like a failure on the first afternoon. Ask whoever installed it to confirm the mode and the delay for your model before anything is diagnosed.
When should we be calling somebody in?
While the trades are still reachable, not months later. If a burner, an oven or a built-in behaves oddly during handover, Viking Appliance Repair Denver can look at it on (720) 770-4189, and a visit booked in that week costs you an argument about responsibility that a visit booked in the spring will not.
