Worktop fabrication in Ladywell

Yes. Ladywell is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are SE13, SE4. It is worked on our south east London run, along with the rest of Lewisham. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. A long walk from the van earns heavier corner protection. The work comes to you. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, with nothing to visit or collect.

Deep original skirting is often left in behind the units, standing them off the wall, so the back edge of the stone is plotted where the carcasses actually sit. The other constraint is the hall: a piece has to come through the front door, round the newel at the foot of the stairs and through a doorway into the back kitchen, so we size the pieces to the tightest turn on that route before we nest anything, which sometimes means splitting a run that would otherwise have gone in whole. The template carries the building into the workshop. Casement handles and stays swing down into the space above the worktop, so the clearance that counts is the one measured with the window open. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. Radius first, polish second, joins nowhere near.

Where the stairwell is narrow enough that the stone travels on edge the polished face runs within an inch of the plaster, so the walls get boarded as well as the steps. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. Crates are sized to clear the same openings the stone does. A skip, a delivery lorry or a run of scaffolding takes the frontage the van needed, so the street is worth a look the day before rather than on the morning. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. The frame is filled back to front when the bay is booked short.

Often enough. It is one of the three, behind worktop replacement. The template, the workshop and the installers are the same either way. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Reorderable later, or not specified. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Six kitchens, one slab run, one colour.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. Short pieces cost bench time, not slab area. The material band is £110 to £550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. Internal corners are machined with a radius and polished, and kept well clear of any join or cut-out. A notch and a cut-out never share the same span. The sink and hob need to be on site and the run layout fixed before we start cutting, because moving a hob after the join position is set means recutting the whole piece. Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. Whoever holds the budget sees the drawing first.

Grooves and an undermounted bowl are usually specified together, since the grooves are run to the bowl edge. The bowl position has to be settled before templating, since the grooves are set out from it. Where there is no room for a separate drainer, grooves are usually what gets specified instead. The original front door is narrow and the hall is often the only way in, which puts a ceiling on the longest single piece. All of that is settled at the nesting stage, because a machined piece cannot be adjusted afterwards. Two slabs get sequenced when one will not cover the run.

Upkeep is settled when the slab is chosen, since it belongs to the material rather than the fabrication. The bead where the sink and hob meet the stone is siliconed rather than sealed, and wants watching. No maintenance visit is built into the job. Soap, water, and on the porous stones a seal. These were built late enough to have a damp course and proper footings, so the front of the house is close to true and the rear addition holding the kitchen is the part that has dropped. Pieces are sized to the tightest turn on the route before anything is nested to the slab. A wall that leans is machined to the lean.

A join is glued and clamped flush on the day, so it is fixed rather than something to be undone. Veining carries through a join where both pieces come off the same slab, which is decided at nesting. An island often runs in one piece where a wall run cannot. The walkway between the two runs is fixed by the units either side, so any overhang added to one worktop comes straight off the space somebody has to stand in. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. The overhang is cut with its support already sized.

A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we fit. Damage found on the bench never leaves the workshop, and damage on the carry is remade under the same cover. A window sill or a radiator on the half-landing takes the corner out of the turn at precisely the point the piece needs that corner. Getting that wrong leaves a finished, machined piece that cannot reach the room, which is a remake rather than a trim. Load order is set by the order the pieces will be carried.