Quick answer
A whole development gets measured in one planned day: two people, a laser and a printed template sheet per unit type, walking units in a fixed order. Critical dimensions and services are checked against plan, every difference goes into one variance log, and decisions are made with the builder the same day so production can release.
Key points
- Measure after the GIB is stopped and before floor coverings go down. Earlier and the walls are not final; later and the floor datum has moved under you.
- Two people, one laser, one clipboard: one calls dimensions, one records against a pre-printed template sheet for that unit type. The rhythm is the speed.
- The day is verification of known types against reality: run lengths, window and door positions, services, floor level.
- Every difference goes in one variance log with the plan value, the measured value and the delta, then the decisions get made with the builder before the vans leave.
- One clean measure day releases the whole production batch off verified numbers. One skipped unit holds its type hostage.
The walk order is taped inside the garage of unit 1 before the first trade ute arrives: twenty units, numbered in the sequence the builder confirmed on Thursday, starting at the far end of the site so the morning's work is not fighting the concrete truck booked for the front lots. Two of us, one laser, a stack of template sheets sorted by unit type, and a single ruled pad labelled 'variances'. By the time the site office kettle has boiled twice, units 1 to 4 are done.
That is what measuring a development looks like when it is treated as one day's engineered work. Twenty ad-hoc visits cost more hours, more travel and more programme than one walk-order day, and they still miss things, because each visit reinvents its own checklist. The planned day runs the same checks in the same order in every unit, and it produces more than dimensions: a released production batch.
The method below covers when in the build to measure, how the walk order and template sheets work, what actually gets checked in each unit, and how the variance log turns twenty rooms of reality into a short list of decisions the builder can clear the same afternoon. It assumes the general case for why measured beats assumed, covered in site measure versus plan measure; this is that logic scaled to a whole site.
When to measure: after stopped GIB, before flooring
The window matters more than the technique. Measure before the plasterboard is up and you are measuring framing; linings and stopping eat 10 mm or more per face, corners change, and the numbers you cut cabinets to will not exist by install day. Wait until after floor coverings and the vertical datum has moved: the 150 mm kick, the 720 mm carcass and the benchtop are all set from the floor the cabinets stand on, and vinyl or tile laid after measure changes appliance clearances under a 900 mm bench line that has nowhere to go.
So the slot is: GIB hung and stopped in the kitchen zones, wet-area substrate down, flooring not yet laid, services roughed in and visible. On a staged site the walk order follows that window across the blocks; the day is sequenced so every unit you enter is in the same state. If three units are behind, they are named on the log as not measured, with a date to catch them.
How do you measure 20 kitchens without 20 visits?
With a walk order and a rhythm. The walk order is agreed with the site manager before the day: the sequence of units, which are accessible, which trades are working where, where the vans park. It exists so no minute is spent deciding where to go next and no unit gets skipped because the door was locked. Two people is the other half of the speed: one on the laser and the tape, calling dimensions; one on the clipboard, recording and watching the plan. One person doing both jobs swaps tools a hundred times a day and transposes digits by mid-afternoon.
The pace settles around a quarter of an hour for a standard unit once the rhythm sets, longer for the first unit of each type, and the day is planned that way: first-of-type units early, repeats after. Because the kitchens repeat by type, most units are verification. You are confirming that unit 12 really is a type B, and the drawing already exists. How the types were grouped in the first place is its own discipline, laid out in typing kitchens across mixed-lot plans.
The template sheet: the type's critical dimensions
Each unit type gets a pre-printed sheet: the kitchen's plan view with the critical dimensions boxed, and blank fields beside each box for the measured value. The sheet is the discipline. Nobody is deciding on site what matters; that decision was made at the desk, once, per type.
- Run lengths, wall to wall at bench height, both ends of an L, because a 600 mm module run designed at 3,600 mm needs to know if the room built at 3,560.
- Window and door positions relative to the run, and sill heights against the 900 mm bench line and the 600 mm splashback zone above it.
- Services: waste and water positions against the sink cabinet, power point positions, the stove connection, the rangehood duct point.
- Floor level across the run, because feet adjust for slope but a benchtop cannot bend, and appliance heights under the bench are set by the worst point.
- Wall squareness at the corners, checked with the laser across the diagonal, since an out-of-square corner decides which end a filler lives at.
Anything nonstandard gets photographed and flagged on the sheet: a bulkhead the plans do not show, a steel column boxed out 60 mm prouder than drawn, a window moved in framing. The sheet for each unit is signed by whoever measured it and filed against the unit number, which makes the whole day auditable when a question surfaces at install, three weeks later.
The measure day, from walk order to released production.
The variance log: decide while it is still on paper
The log is one document for the whole day. Each entry carries the unit number, the dimension, the plan value, the measured value, the delta, and a column that stays empty until someone with authority fills it: the decision. Unit 7's kitchen wall measures 40 mm short of plan. That is a choice between three standard moves, and the only real question is who makes it and when.
| Delta found | Standard move | Effect on the run |
|---|---|---|
| A few millimetres tight | Absorb in scribe and end panels | None; trim allowance covers it |
| Mid-size, like 40 mm short | Adjust a filler width | Standard cabinets untouched, type intact |
| Beyond filler range | Resize one cabinet, 600 mm down to 450 | Unit flagged as a variant, cut-sheet note |
What ruins developments is not the 40 mm. It is the 40 mm discovered on install day, with the cabinets already built to plan, the installer improvising with a saw, and a variation email starting a paper war. The log exists so every delta is priced and decided while it is still a number on paper, which is most of the game in keeping variations and RFIs off a kitchen package.
Batch the decisions with the builder, same day
The last half hour of the day happens in the site office, with the variance log on the table while everyone still has the units in their heads. The site manager confirms which walls are getting corrected versus lived with, whose scope the fix sits in, and initials the joinery-side decisions: scribe, filler or resize per line. Ten minutes of decisions on the spot replaces three weeks of email, and the log leaves the room decided.
That same-day gate is why the measure day belongs to a senior person. The measuring is teachable; the on-the-spot judgement about what each delta means for the run, and what it costs, is the part you send experience for.
One measure day protects the whole batch
Production on a volume package runs type by type: one nested cut program, one edgebander setup, one signed-off first unit, the machinery described in batching kitchen production for volume programmes. A type releases to that process only when every unit of the type is verified or consciously flagged as a variant. That is the quiet economics of the day: eight hours on site with a laser buys certainty for a batch that might be forty kitchens deep, and the batch is where the programme and margin live.
Skip the day and the risk does not disappear, it just moves downstream wearing a higher price: rebuilt cabinets, install crews idling, a claim month slipping. On a 20-unit supply timeline the measure day is the hinge between design time and machine time, and it is the cheapest day on the entire programme to do properly.
What to have ready before the day
Booking the day is the easy half. It pays for itself when five things are true before anyone lifts a laser: the kitchen zones are stopped GIB with flooring still off; services are roughed in and visible; the walk order and site access are agreed with the site manager; the template sheets are printed per type with the critical dimensions boxed; and a decision-maker from the builder's side is on site for the last half hour to clear the variance log.
Set that up and one day does the work of twenty visits, and does it better. We run measure days this way across Auckland developments because our own workshop is the next customer of the numbers: the sheets and the log go straight to cut programs in East Tāmaki, and the production batch starts from what the buildings actually are.
Frequently asked questions
When should kitchens be measured in a new-build development?
After the plasterboard is hung and stopped in the kitchen areas and before floor coverings are laid. Earlier, you are measuring framing that linings and stopping will move by 10 mm or more per face. Later, the floor datum has changed, which shifts the 150 mm kick, the bench height and appliance clearances. Services should be roughed in and visible so waste, water and power positions can be checked against the sink run.
How long does it take to site measure a whole development?
A 20-unit development with repeating kitchen types is one planned day for a two-person team: around a quarter of an hour per standard unit once the rhythm sets, longer for the first unit of each type. The speed comes from the walk order, pre-printed template sheets per type, and splitting the roles: one person on the laser calling dimensions, one recording. Twenty ad-hoc visits take far longer and still miss things.
What gets checked in each unit on a measure day?
The type's critical dimensions: run lengths wall to wall at bench height, window and door positions against the run, sill heights against the 900 mm bench line, waste and water positions at the sink cabinet, power and stove connections, the rangehood duct point, floor level across the run and corner squareness. Anything nonstandard, a bulkhead or a moved window, is photographed and flagged.
What is a variance log on a kitchen measure?
One document for the whole day recording every difference between plan and reality: unit number, dimension, plan value, measured value, delta and the decision. A wall 40 mm short is logged, then decided the same day with the builder: absorb it in scribe, adjust a filler, or resize one cabinet. The log turns the day's findings into a short decided list before production runs.
What happens if some units are not ready on measure day?
They get logged as not measured, with a follow-up date, and their production release waits. The tempting shortcut is building them from plan dimensions to hold programme, and it is how a repeating type quietly forks into two versions, one of which is wrong. A second short visit for the stragglers costs a morning; cabinets built to walls that were never checked can cost the install week.
Why measure at all if the kitchens repeat by type?
Because the type is the design and the units are the buildings, and buildings vary. Measuring a typed development is fast precisely because it is verification: you confirm each unit matches its type and log the deltas. The reward is that production can batch the whole type off verified numbers, one cut program and one signed-off first unit, which is where the volume price and programme certainty come from.
Who should attend a development measure day?
Two people from the joinery side, one of them senior enough to make scribe, filler or resize judgements on the spot, plus the builder's site manager: at the start to confirm the walk order and access, and for the last half hour to clear the variance log. Decisions made in the site office that afternoon, with the units fresh in everyone's head, replace weeks of email and keep the release date honest.