Apt Kitchen & Closet Installations Pty Ltd

There was a time when galvanised steel piping was the natural — in fact, the only — choice for potable water in older homes. If you grew up in a house built before the 1980s, chances are that behind your walls, or running along them in exposed runs, there were lengths of threaded steel pipe, heavy and grey, coated in zinc, carrying water from a central point to the kitchen, the bathroom, and the garden tap. And in some places, that is still the reality today. In Zambia, for instance, copper piping has yet to fully catch on, and galvanised steel remains — to a large extent — the norm. Layer upon layer, however, the galvanised pipe was replaced — first by copper, then by polycop, and later by a host of modern polymer systems that have steadily claimed ground in the South African plumbing industry. And yet, even South Africa has yet to fully embrace the modern polymer systems that have entered the market. But knowing the societal uptake of new technology here — how quickly a good idea spr...

Many a time, a prospective client has looked at me askance after asking if I was a carpenter, and I responded, "No, I'm not a carpenter." The thing is, there's a common assumption that a person who works with or installs cabinets is, at the very least, a carpenter or a joinery professional. And so, it's hardly a surprise that when one answers no, the response from the questioner is surprise — and sometimes, a flicker of doubt. I understand that surprise. For generations, the making and fitting of cabinets was the work of carpenters and joiners. That was the old world. But the world changed, quietly and completely, and the evidence of that change is all around us — in the melamine boards that line our kitchens, in the cutlists that guide our installations, and in the very role of the person who now arrives at your home to fit your cabinets. Today, that person is far more likely to be an installer. Not a carpenter. Not a joiner. An installer. This shift is not a ref...

There's a dimension to cabinet units — specifically kitchen units — that people usually don't come to grasp and explore. And that dimension is retrofitting. This came to mind as I was contemplating re-flighting the Kitchen Refurbishment blog last night. And I thought, it would be wise to flight this piece immediately after the re-flighting of that very first blog on the dashboard, because the two are, in essence, complementary. But you may be wondering what it is that I'm getting at. Well, just as it is possible to refurbish a kitchen, it is also possible to retrofit aspects of your kitchen. Let's say, for example, that when you bought your house, you didn't see the need for installing a new kitchen. But a while later, you realise that it would be convenient to have a spice unit in your kitchen. Retrofitting makes it possible for you to call in an installer, give him a brief on your requirements, and have him follow through and effect the changes or alterations req...

An earlier blog explored in detail why your kitchen is rarely built in solid wood but, melamine. In this blog, we will examine the material mentioned in that earlier piece as the perfect replacement for solid wood in the cabinetry industry: melamine. We will explore the developments that preceded the emergence of this versatile resource and how, over the years, it has woven itself into our kitchens and other intimate spaces, to claim its place as the quiet workhorse of the modern home. It is a story worth telling — because the material that lines our cabinets, holds our plates, and frames our daily rituals is not a noble timber harvested from some ancient forest. It is, in large part, sawdust. Offcuts. Wood fibre that the timber industry would otherwise have discarded. And yet, engineered into melamine-faced board, it has become the single most important material in the built-in cabinet industry. How did this happen? How did a composite of wood particles and synthetic resin — faced wi...

Many a potential client has asked me, "Why don't we have kitchens and closets done in solid wood or timber?" Or something along those lines. It is a fair question, and it deserves a proper answer. This piece is my attempt to explain why that is, and to walk you through the finer, nitty-gritty of the wood, timber, and board industry—the science of why solid timber is rarely the right choice for built-in cabinetry, and the economics of where all that timber actually goes. --- 1. The Problem with Solid Timber: Movement, Moisture, and the Science of Wood Wood is alive. Even after it has been felled, milled, kiln-dried, and planed into planks, it continues to respond to its environment. It is hygroscopic—it absorbs and releases moisture from the air. When humidity rises, the cells in the wood swell. When humidity falls, they shrink. This movement is not uniform. A plank of solid timber expands and contracts at different rates along its length, width, and thickness, depending o...

Recently, while visiting with the Kalas—longtime home improvement service clients and, more than that, spiritual siblings—for property repairs and maintenance assessments, the issue of damp came up. We were standing in their kitchen, and beneath the sink unit, right inside the cabinet, there was an unmistakable odour of dampness. That particular smell—musty, earthy, slightly sour—that anyone who has dealt with moisture in a home will recognise immediately. But here is the thing: there was no visible stain. No dark patch on the cabinet back. No peeling paint. No white, powdery salt deposits. No sign of water penetration anywhere. Just the smell. That quiet, persistent olfactory evidence that something was not right, even though the wall looked perfectly sound. That moment made me think about the different types of damp, and how—in my experience—most homeowners are aware of rising damp, and very little else. It is the form of damp that has entered the public consciousness, the one people...