Worktop fabrication in Totteridge

Yes. Totteridge is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are N20. It is worked on our north London run, along with the rest of Barnet. 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. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. The load plan follows from it. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

A range or an Aga in an original recess is usually immovable, so the run is designed around it and the clearances come from the appliance. The joins here are chosen rather than forced, so they go where the veining and the gables want them. Settled on the drawing, cut once. Book-matched pieces have to be dry-laid and viewed by the client before final fixing, so build an extra visit into the programme instead of expecting sign-off on the day.

Long private driveways, electric gates and gravel that a loaded trolley sinks into, so the last stretch is usually a straight carry. Access has to be arranged with security or a house manager rather than by knocking on the day. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. The maximum piece length is fixed at drawing stage and every join is placed over a cabinet gable from there. The drawing carries that decision through to the saw.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop design & quotation. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Nested for the job in front of us. 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. Same slab run, or it is not a match.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. Pieces are dry-assembled on the bench before dispatch so the corners are known to close before they leave the workshop. Every join sits over a gable. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. The drawing decides it, not the fitter. 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. The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. Dry-assembled before it leaves.