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Richmond upon Thames · TW10

Worktop templating in Ham

A digital template plotting the room as it really is, taken once your units are fitted, fixed and level.

Ham kitchens

What the kitchens here are actually like

Georgian house around the common1950s and 1960s Span estatepostwar Wates housingmodern infill

Small, roughly square kitchens with a back door and a window in the middle of the run: short lengths, few joins, and a lot to work around. The template records what the building actually did, not what the plan intended, and the gap between those two is what this visit is for. Sink, tap and hob on site, not on order.

The Span and Wates estates give a very particular job - modular 1950s and 1960s houses with a compact kitchen on a fixed grid, often opened to the dining area with a 2.7m run and a slim peninsula, and the original units replaced within the same footprint; the Georgian houses on the common are a different scale entirely with large rear kitchens.

The window sits in the middle of the run over the sink, and its board and cill set the limit on how tall an upstand can be. The scribe at worktop height differs from the one at plinth level, and only the worktop line matters. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

What turns up on the job sheets is Georgian house around the common, 1950s and 1960s Span estate, postwar Wates housing and modern infill. The differences between them show up at template, not at enquiry.

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 New Malden patch. Fitted 3–7 working days from template.

period detached houses and villas

Getting stone into the room

Estate roads with communal parking courts set back from the houses so the carry is 20 to 30 metres, and pedestrian-only paths between blocks that a trolley handles but a van cannot follow.

period detached houses and villas

What gets asked for here

The research on this patch does not put this among the three commonest jobs. Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop design & quotation do. That changes how often we are here, not how the work is done.

period detached houses and villas

The building, and what it does to the job

The estate houses have thin partition walls and lightweight carcasses, so weight matters - 20mm quartz or porcelain rather than 30mm granite.

Where a partition has been built off the floor screed rather than off the slab, it moves, and a mitre bonded across that corner is the first thing to open. It is recorded on the drawing with the run dimensions so the workshop is not guessing. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else.

Access

Getting stone into a Ham kitchen

Estate roads with communal parking courts set back from the houses so the carry is 20 to 30 metres, and pedestrian-only paths between blocks that a trolley handles but a van cannot follow.

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.

New Malden patch

Ham is worked from our New Malden run, covering South West London & Surrey.

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 Ham

If yours is not here, ring and ask. You get a straight answer rather than a call-back from a salesperson.

Is Ham on your patch?

Yes. Ham is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are TW10. It is run from the New Malden side, covering South West London & Surrey. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Why would worktop templating in Ham be any different from anywhere else?

Base units from the seventies and eighties are often only 500mm deep, so a 600mm stone top overhangs at the front and the doors want checking against it. Post-war terraces have a fairly shallow, standardised kitchen, and the walls tend to lean rather than bow, so the scribe at worktop height is different from the one at plinth level - the template only cares about the line where the stone will land. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn. The estate houses have thin partition walls and lightweight carcasses, so weight matters - 20mm quartz or porcelain rather than 30mm granite.

How would you get a worktop into a property in Ham?

Estate roads with communal parking courts set back from the houses so the carry is 20 to 30 metres, and pedestrian-only paths between blocks that a trolley handles but a van cannot follow. Where the parking court sits behind the block the carry crosses open ground and gets boarded, because loaded trolleys and block paving do not agree. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions. 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 Ham 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 replacement, 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. The room as it is, not as it was drawn. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first.

What moves the number on a quote around here?

Peninsulas frequently land on a lightweight partition or on units that were never fixed down, and stone needs proper support under it before it goes on. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. The drawing leaves site complete. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

What needs to be ready before you come to Ham?

Where a partition has been built off the floor screed rather than off the slab, it moves, and a mitre bonded across that corner is the first thing to open. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. Units fixed, packed level and pushed as far back as the leaning wall allows, walls made good to final thickness with tiling left until after the worktop, and the sink, tap and hob on site so cut-outs are set from the real items. Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. No stone is cut from a plan.

Next step

Worktop templating in Ham, 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.

+44 7479 194398