Below are the typical steps involved in organising and carrying out a site assessment.

1. Read through the design brief and project plans

Before you go out to the site, you should familiarise yourself with the details of the project. We covered the basic elements of the design brief and project plans in the following lessons from the unit Processes in kitchen and bathroom projects. You can go back to those lessons by clicking on the following links:

• Design brief
  
  
• Project plans

2. Arrange to meet the client on-site

It's always best to see the client on the job when you carry out the site assessment. This allows you to go through the design details with them and talk about any issues that might need to be clarified.

It also lets you confirm that the client's vision of the finished project matches your own understanding of the job, and that you're both in agreement on the project schedule.

3. Carry out the site assessment

There are lots of things that need to be checked and noted when you carry out the actual assessment. These include the structural features of the building, design of the room, access to the work area, and the positions of power outlets and plumbing fittings.

While you're there, you should also take exact measurements of the areas where cabinets and bench tops are to be installed.

These include the heights and widths of walls, angles between surfaces, and checks on how level the floor is and how plumb the walls are.

In addition to these physical aspects of the project, there are various scheduling details that need to be confirmed.

For example, you need to know when the plumber and electrician will have finished 'roughing in' their pipes and cables in readiness for the cabinets.

You also have to make sure that no other workers will be doing jobs that might get in the way or spoil the quality of your installation work.

It might not be possible to do all of these things in the one visit.

This is particularly the case if your initial site assessment is carried out before other trades complete work that has to be done in advance of your installation.

We'll look in greater detail at some of these aspects of the site assessment throughout the rest of this unit.