Islington · EC1
Worktop templating in Clerkenwell
A digital template plotting the room as it really is, taken once your units are fitted, fixed and level.
Clerkenwell kitchens
What the kitchens here are actually like
Exposed brick and steel is the whole job here, because neither of them presents a flat plane to scribe to. Two to three hours on site with a laser, once the units are fitted, fixed and level. Sink, tap and hob on site, not on order.
Loft conversions of print, watchmaking and light-industrial buildings, where the kitchen is a run and an island in one large open space with exposed brick, steel and timber floors.
Inside the Congestion Charge zone with narrow one-way streets, loading bans through the busiest hours and traffic filters on several residential blocks. Many converted buildings retain a goods lift, which is the difference between a one-piece island and a jointed one. Runs of 4m plus a 2.5-3m island are common and clients often want a single stone carried across island, worktops and splashback. The floors in these conversions are old timber over long spans and are rarely flat, so level and pack the island carcass properly before setting stone or a 3m top will telegraph every dip.
Poured screed over steel decking can fall away across a long run, so level is checked across the whole room before anything is packed. The scribe is taken at the exact height the stone will sit, because the brick face changes over its own height. Two to three hours, once the units are in.
On these streets the housing is former industrial warehouse conversion, Georgian terrace, Victorian model-dwelling block and modern apartment. Each of those behaves differently once the old top comes off.
True everywhere
Worktop templating, in short
- Two to three hours on site for a typical kitchen.
- Units must be fitted, fixed and level first. No stone is ever cut from a plan.
- Sink, tap and hob must be physically on site, not just ordered.
- A Belfast or butler sink must be installed and at its final height.
Covered from the Watford patch. Fitted 3–7 working days from template.
warehouse and wharf conversions
Getting stone into the room
The realistic answer on a main road is an early slot, a spotter on the van and pieces staged in one movement rather than several trips. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.
warehouse and wharf conversions
What gets asked for here
Honestly, this is not what we do most on this patch. Worktop fabrication, worktop installation and worktop design & quotation come up more often. That is a statement about the local housing rather than about the work, and nothing about how it is quoted, cut or fitted changes because of it.
Access
Getting stone into a Clerkenwell kitchen
Inside the Congestion Charge zone with narrow one-way streets, loading bans through the busiest hours and traffic filters on several residential blocks. Many converted buildings retain a goods lift, which is the difference between a one-piece island and a jointed one.
Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it. Where the route is genuinely tight, it changes how the pieces are cut, which is a fabrication decision rather than a delivery one.
3–7 working days
From template to fitted, working days from template. The same on this patch as every other.
Watford patch
Clerkenwell is worked from our Watford run, covering Hertfordshire & North London.
We come to you
Templated in your kitchen, cut in our workshop, fitted by our own installers.
Access told straight
If the route forces an extra join, you hear that at quote stage, not on the day.
Questions
Worktop templating in Clerkenwell
If yours is not here, ring and ask. You get a straight answer rather than a call-back from a salesperson.
Do you actually work in Clerkenwell, or just list it?
Yes. Clerkenwell is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are EC1. It is run from the Watford side, covering Hertfordshire & North London. Where the frontage is a clearway the unload happens away from the door and the carry gets longer, which is a crew and time question rather than a stone one. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.
What is different about worktop templating in Clerkenwell?
Original brickwork is uneven by ten millimetres or more across a bay, so the back edge is scribed to the actual face rather than to a line. Where a column, downstand or steel plate lands in the run, the template plots its actual outline so the stone is cut to fit around it instead of being stopped short and filled. No stone is ever cut from a plan. The floors in these conversions are old timber over long spans and are rarely flat, so level and pack the island carcass properly before setting stone or a 3m top will telegraph every dip.
Is access a problem in Clerkenwell?
Inside the Congestion Charge zone with narrow one-way streets, loading bans through the busiest hours and traffic filters on several residential blocks. Many converted buildings retain a goods lift, which is the difference between a one-piece island and a jointed one. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. That is part of what the visit is for. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.
Is Clerkenwell really a worktop templating area?
Not particularly, and it would be easy to pretend otherwise. What the research on this patch actually lists is worktop fabrication, worktop installation and worktop design & quotation. That is a statement about the local housing rather than about the work. It is quoted, cut and fitted exactly the same way here as anywhere else on the patch. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Appliances on site, not on order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Appliances on site, not on order.
What decides the price of a worktop in Clerkenwell?
On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. Real angles, not plan angles. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.
What do I need to sort out first?
Legs bottoming out on hard concrete or an uneven screed mean the tops of the carcasses are not one plane, and that is picked up at template rather than on fitting day. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. Units fixed and levelled, all steelwork and brick cleaned, sealed and finished, and any boarded sections completed to final thickness so the template picks up the surface the stone will actually meet. A let property is specified for durability and for a fixed window, and both of those are legitimate reasons to choose differently. The template happens when the units are in, fixed and level, whoever is fitting them. Fitted, fixed and level, then we come.
Related
More around Clerkenwell
Other work we do in Clerkenwell
Next step
Worktop templating in Clerkenwell, priced properly
Plans, a sketch or photographs with rough run lengths is enough to start. You get an itemised written quote and the template dates we can offer on this patch.
25-year material warranty and a 5-year workmanship guarantee, both stated on your quote.