Worktop fabrication in Mapesbury

Yes. Mapesbury is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are NW2, NW6. It is worked on our north west London run, along with the rest of Brent. Drives with a dropped kerb and a tight turn-in take a long van at an angle, and that angle decides which side the tail lift can work from. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. Handling counts are decided here, not on the pavement. The work comes to you. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, with nothing to visit or collect.

Handmade brick and lime plaster move visibly along a run, and a straight-cut back edge shows it immediately. Islands here regularly run longer than a slab, so the join is nested to sit over an internal gable and positioned so it does not run through the hob cut-out, and on a heavily veined stone we nest the island and the back run together so the movement relates across the room. The bow in an old wall is cut for, not sanded out. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Oversize on the scribe edge, always.

A hall that widens further in is still only as good as its tightest point, and that point is usually within a metre of the front door. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. A piece too long for the stairs is a piece cut twice. Where the drive is too short for the van the back end overhangs the footway, and a footway is a route people are using rather than spare space. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. Two trips off the van means two chances to catch a corner.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop installation. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Cutting several kitchens from different slabs and calling them matched is where firms get caught out. Reorderable later, or not specified. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Six kitchens, one slab run, one colour.

A corbel on show under an overhang is a decision about how the piece looks from a stool, so it gets settled alongside the edge profile rather than left to whoever fits it. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. A recut loses the sequence for good. The stone is £110 to £550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted separately.

A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. The radius goes in at the bench, not on site. The range or Aga, the sink and the tap all need to be confirmed by model before nesting, because their clearances and hole positions set where the island can be cut. Someone who expects to still be there in ten years asks different questions: how a honed finish marks, what a sealer does and does not do, and whether a chip by the sink can be repaired in place. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. Cut once, to the sheet that came back signed.

Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. Carcasses stay. Surface changes. That is the whole of it. Having the van on the drive means the load can be staged, so the heavy pieces come off last and go straight in instead of standing outside. Pieces are loaded in reverse fitting order so the first thing off the van is the first thing that goes down. Packing takes its cue from the distance to the door.

Upkeep is settled when the slab is chosen, since it belongs to the material rather than the fabrication. Topping a seal up is a wipe-on job with a cloth. No maintenance visit is built into the job. Soap, water, and on the porous stones a seal. These houses usually sit in their own grounds with a long approach, so the carry from van to door is longer than anything inside the building. The joins here are chosen rather than forced, so they go where the veining and the gables want them. A scribe of twenty millimetres is machined, not fettled on site.

What decides it is not the width of the stairwell but the length of piece that can be turned in it. A join added to get stone into the room is a different thing from a join added because the slab ran out, and the quote says which is which. A front path with a gate and a turn or two adds handling before the door is even reached, and every handling movement is another chance to catch a corner. The maximum piece length is fixed at drawing stage and every join is placed over a cabinet gable from there. Handling points are marked on the crate before it is strapped.

The tap hole is drilled in the workshop too, and its position depends on how far the tap has to swing. If the sink or hob changes after the template, the drawing changes first and nothing is cut meanwhile. Where the hob lands is set out against the units and the wall behind, not off the kitchen plan. A downdraught extractor takes a long slot out of the middle of the piece and a motor housing out of the cabinet below it, so what sits under the top is settled before anything is cut. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. Every piece is labelled to its place in the run.