Richmond upon Thames · TW1 TW2
Splashbacks and upstands in Strawberry Hill
Stone taken up the wall, cut from the same slab run as your worktop so the batch actually matches.
Strawberry Hill kitchens
What the kitchens here are actually like
Solid brick with a sand and cement render is firm to work against and reliably out of plumb across the length of a run. Splashbacks come off the same slab run as the tops, which means the decision has to be made before fabrication starts. The wall decides, not the brochure.
Comfortable interwar detached houses and older villas with square rear kitchens that get extended to a full-width family room - a 4m run, an island of 2.4m, a bank of tall units where the old back door was, and often a second sink in a utility.
Big interwar houses have solid floors that fall towards the old back door, so worktop level and floor level diverge across a 4m run - shim early. Quiet leafy roads with in-and-out drives and space to park on the plot, but a couple of railway-side roads narrow to single file and the level crossing holds traffic; mature front trees limit where a lorry can stop.
A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. These kitchens are nearly always retiled at least twice, and stripping the old tiles takes the bottom course of plaster with it because the original laminate top ran underneath the tiles rather than up to them. The wall makes that decision, not the brochure.
What we are usually templating in is Gothic revival villa, Victorian villa, 1920s and 1930s detached and 1930s semi. Each of those behaves differently once the old top comes off.
True everywhere
Splashbacks and upstands, in short
- Cut from the same slab run as the worktop, at the same time.
- Ordered later, from a different batch, the match is not reliable where the pieces meet.
- Socket and switch positions must be final before templating.
- The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted.
Covered from the New Malden patch. Fitted 3–7 working days from template.
period detached houses and villas
Getting stone into the room
A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. That is why they are crated the way they are.
period detached houses and villas
What gets asked for here
This is not the local speciality and there is no point saying otherwise: worktop design & quotation, worktop templating and worktop installation is what the housing here actually asks for. It is quoted, cut and fitted exactly the same way regardless.
Access
Getting stone into a Strawberry Hill kitchen
Quiet leafy roads with in-and-out drives and space to park on the plot, but a couple of railway-side roads narrow to single file and the level crossing holds traffic; mature front trees limit where a lorry can stop.
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
Strawberry Hill 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 splashbacks & upstands in Strawberry Hill
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 Strawberry Hill, or just list it?
Yes. Strawberry Hill is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are TW1, TW2. It is run from the New Malden side, covering South West London & Surrey. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. Splashbacks are normally the last thing off, so a short parking window is exactly when they get rushed. One trip is always better than three. 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 splashbacks & upstands in Strawberry Hill?
Solid brick with a render coat is firm to work against and out of plumb, so the scribe at worktop height is different from the one at plinth level. The ragged band left when old tiles and laminate come off together is what usually decides upstand over full height. Decided before fabrication starts. Big interwar houses have solid floors that fall towards the old back door, so worktop level and floor level diverge across a 4m run - shim early.
Is access a problem in Strawberry Hill?
Quiet leafy roads with in-and-out drives and space to park on the plot, but a couple of railway-side roads narrow to single file and the level crossing holds traffic; mature front trees limit where a lorry can stop. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. Splashback panels are lighter than a worktop and far more awkward, because a tall thin piece has to be carried on edge and cannot be tilted to clear a turn. That is agreed at template, not on fitting day. 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 Strawberry Hill really a worktop splashbacks & upstands area?
Not particularly, and it would be easy to pretend otherwise. What the research on this patch actually lists is worktop design & quotation, worktop templating and worktop installation. 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. Where an annexe has been built or converted, its floor and its walls are newer than the main house and behave differently under the same run. Splashbacks and upstands are cut from the same slab run at the same time, which is the only way the batch actually matches. Same batch, same run, same day. Where an annexe has been built or converted, its floor and its walls are newer than the main house and behave differently under the same run. Ordered later from a different batch, the match is not reliable exactly where the pieces meet. Same batch, same run, same day.
What decides the price of a worktop in Strawberry Hill?
Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. The same shape decides where splashback pieces break, and a joint in a corner reads as a detail while one in a clear run reads as a mistake. Corners get their own pieces. 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?
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. It is usually what pushes a job towards a 100mm upstand instead of a full-height panel, because an upstand rides what a panel exposes. Scribed, dubbed out, or set proud. Pick one. The old tiling must be off and the wall made good and dry before templating, not on fitting day. An owner living in the house makes the decisions and lives with them, so the specification tends to go towards the material rather than towards the lowest total. Splashbacks are cut from the same slab run as the tops, so they have to be decided before fabrication, not after. Decided before fabrication, not after.
Related
More around Strawberry Hill
Other work we do in Strawberry Hill
Next step
Splashbacks and upstands in Strawberry Hill, 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.