Reception counters and desks in Shad Thames

Yes. Shad Thames is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are SE1. It is worked on our south east London run, along with the rest of Southwark. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. A commercial frontage rarely has anywhere to stop, so the unload is timed rather than assumed and the counter pieces come off first. Whoever holds the lease usually holds the loading bay. Template and fit both happen at the property, so there is nothing to drive to and nothing to collect.

Windows are large industrial openings with deep sills, and a run finishing at one meets a reveal a full brick deep. Converted warehouses hold the studio, agency and workspace receptions, and a counter in one sits in open floor with nothing behind it. A converted house wants a counter that reads as furniture. 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. A counter is worse off than a kitchen here, because it usually stands clear of the wall and has nothing behind it to hide a gap. A long counter magnifies every millimetre the carcass is out.

Whether the stone can stand on end in the car is the first question, because a lift that takes 2.1m upright takes nothing like that lying flat. A counter top is one long piece with no run of cabinets to break it, so the route decides the join count before the sightlines get a vote. The upper counter is the piece that has to make the turn. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. Loading bays belonging to the building are booked by whoever holds the lease, and that is seldom whoever ordered the counter. The longest counter piece decides the swing radius outside.

Honestly, no, though it would be easy to claim otherwise. What the research on this patch actually lists is worktop fabrication and worktop installation. That says something about the housing round here, not about the work. Quote, cut and fit are the same here as on any other part of the patch. Studio and one-bed conversions put the whole kitchen against a single wall, so the job is one run and everything depends on that one length. Where an operator is fitting out several receptions, the counters come off one slab run so the desks read as a set rather than as neighbours. A desk somebody sits at all day is specified for wear. 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. A fit-out programme puts the counter last, behind the joiner and the electrician, which is exactly when the least time is left to template it. Card reader positions come from the operator, not the architect.

A galley closed at one end takes a short return across the top, and that little piece carries the same edge work, the same handling and nearly the same cost as a full length. A counter has the same argument in miniature: a straight run nests kindly on a slab, and every return costs yield. External corners on a counter are mitred, never butted. Reckon on £110 to £550 per square metre for the material supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised separately.

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. What a counter is scribed to is the joiner's carcass rather than the plaster, which is why it is templated after the carcass is fixed and never before. The scribe is cut in the shop, eased on site, and no further. Send the goods lift dimensions and the carry route from the loading area, and confirm whether the counter stands clear of the walls or returns into one. Nobody reseals a worktop annually in a let property, so a material that depends on being resealed is the wrong specification however well it photographs. The same split runs through commercial property: a landlord fitting out a shell and a tenant fitting out their own reception want different things from one counter. The counter stays when the tenant goes, and is chosen accordingly.

Variation past what packing can take up has to be corrected in the carcasses before we cut, because the template records the units as they stand. Units have to be fitted, fixed and level before templating, and it is better to hear that at the template than on the fitting day. Levelling belongs in the carcasses, on their own legs and packers. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. A lobby wall that leans shows itself along the back return, so that edge is cut to the line the wall actually takes. Stone will not straighten joinery, and it will not forgive it either.

An upstand is a slim strip that follows the worktop up the wall; a full-height splashback runs from the worktop to the underside of the wall units. What decides between them is usually the wall: what it is built of, how flat it is, and where the sockets ended up. A full-height piece behind the hob has to allow for the extractor, so that gets settled first. Services run on the surface in these buildings, so conduit and pipework cross the wall behind the units and stand proud of it. That means every edge is finished and the back of the counter is as visible as the front, so all four sides take the same profile and the same polish rather than only the public face. Old shopfronts were never sized for a three-metre top.

No maintenance visit is built into the job. Soap, water, and on the porous stones a seal. Day to day all three want soap and water; abrasive creams and scouring pads are what dull a polished surface. Granite is porous to varying degrees, so it is sealed when we fit it and topped up over the life of the worktop. Many of these kitchens are a fitted pod dropped into open floor, so three sides are free and only the fourth is ever scribed. Converted warehouses are where the studio and agency receptions are, and a counter in one is usually long, plain and seen from the whole floor. The service road at the back is often the real way in.

A boiling tap needs a hole of its own and a cupboard below for the tank, so the units change too. A tap under a window board still needs room for its handle to lift, which is checked at the template. If the sink or hob changes after the template, the drawing changes first and nothing is cut meanwhile. Walls at both ends mean two scribes on every piece, and a run that has to drop between two fixed points has no tolerance left to give away. The return between the high counter and the low shelf never nests neatly, and it is what decides how much slab the desk swallows. The knee recess removes the leg the span was relying on.