Here's an example in my former kitchen. I didn't love it, but it's okay with a freestanding range. i was replacing with a slide-in, however, and that would look weird I think.
{{!gwi}}

No, it is not usual to have an inch gap between the cabinets and the stove! (what a dirt catcher!) Contact your builder and the cabinet person...someone screwed up~~~ I hope you can get this fixed....or at least, they will put in some type of "filler" so you don't have a gap....UGH! Sorry~~

There should be just enough space between the range and the cabinets to slide the range into place. About 1/8" on each side.

Here's a picture of mine

hey guys
co-co- yes i fear it will look like that, but with an even larger gap! That isn't right at all! Yours doesn't look too bad, as the gap doesn't seem so large?

phoggie - that's how I feel! But judging from my interactions with them, this won't be easy. They are so difficult to deal with.. it is so frustrating! So it SHOULDNT look like that!

willtv - that's exactly what I thought!!! and yours looks great! Love your kitchen, btw!

Thanks guys for the support! off to fight..

I've never purchased a new home, so I am not familiar with PDI. However, I absolutely agree that a 1" gap on either side of a range is not right. As others stated, it would be terribly frustrating to keep clean and would not look great. I would definitely tell them that all kitchens do not have this, that it serves no functional purpose, and that the space should correctly fit a standard range without a noticeable gap. I find it helpful to be on the same page as my significant other and bring him with me to this kind of discussion. While I may be the one doing the majority of the critiquing, having him there supporting me helps prevent bullying by someone in an allegedly more "knowledgeable" position. I'm so sorry you had to deal with these two rude bullies.

I agree, the one inch gap doesn't sound right, but I bet it could easily be fixed with a piece of trim. I don't know how to describe it exactly. We have a some trim around one of our top cabinets (the cabinet was going in between two walls) It is about maybe an inch wide, maybe a half a centimeter thick, but it fits right over the edge of the cabinet and butts up to the wall. I would imagine the only other option would be to remake those two cabinets.

I am not sure how it works....how close are you to "move in ready"? do you have countertops? I assume that you bought "the plans of a house" so to speak You buy it they build it and you got to have input on finishes etc?

I wonder if you could find yourself a home inspector it may be worth paying someone with credibility to make him fix anything else that is wrong.
Best of luck

My home is about 20 years old. Countertops do NOT overhang the counters on the sides of the range. I'd say somebody screwed up your cabs and tried to cover it up by extending the counters. :(

The counters should not overhang the cabinets next to the range - they should be flush, with a 30" gap between cabinets and counters for the range to slide in.

I wouldn't expect to see counter overhang on the inner sides of the counter that abuts the stove sides.

maybe you should nicely suggest this guy(s) take a refresher course. Let them know that home buyers are a lot more knowledgeable these days with the birth of the shows on hgtv and diy.

That someone does shoddy work seems to get around to future customers. word of mouth, Angie's list, the internet - lots of avenues for it.

It is a pretty easy fix, especially if you have access to trim pieces or paint of the same colour. In my *new* kitchen I needed 1" clearance for door/drawer opening around my new slide in range, so we built in 2 "L" shaped filler pieces. They could be trimmed to any width, and would be easy enough to add under the countertop I would think.
{{!gwi}}

yeah. we bought with a residential builder in a subdivision and the guy was sent directly from hell to intimidate us into not writing down all the faults we found at our pre-delivery inspection. I will, however, make a big stink about this because it isn't acceptable, and even I, as a complete newbie KNOW that it isnt supposed to look like that. wish me luck. and patience. and lower blood pressure.

You can tell him he may have x amount of years experience, however. this is your future kitchen and "that is not acceptable". Keep at it for this and anything else you notice.

He just wants his money so he can move on to the next mark.
If there is an issue in the kitchen, I'm guessing there are issues elsewhere. Hope you don't sign off on it until you have made a complete inspection. Perhaps even a couple of them. Anyone that tries to bully his way to complete the sale probably has more things to hide.
Good luck! Hope everything gets resolved satisfactorily.

As others have said, this is an easy fix. And they need to fix it. Some friends of ours built a house about three years ago. It was a patio home in a one-builder subdivision done by a national builder. It was actually built fairly well, but there are some strange fit and finish issues that make me crazy (and I don't think bother them in the least). The most glaring one is that the OTR microwave is not centered over the range. It is off by about one inch to one side. All the builder had to do was add some filler in the corner or between two cabinets. Had it been my house and I had seen that on the PDI, I would have pitched a fit.

Pitch away. You're paying for it.

Look through all your documents to see if there is anything that doesn't match up with what you signed off on. Then you can use that as leverage. Once upon a time many many years ago, we bought a tract home from a subdivision builder and things didn't turn out exactly as I expected. Then I realized one of the documents stated that the windows would be "double hung" yet my house was built with single hung windows. (It was a really cheap starter home.) At that point I enlisted the assistance of a lawyer and for $50 he wrote a letter to the builder. All of a sudden I had their attention. I got EVERY single thing which I had expected including an enlarged deck and many extras in the kitchen because I was willing to accept the wrong windows.