Worktop fabrication in Wapping

Yes. Wapping is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are E1W. It is worked on our east London run, along with the rest of Tower Hamlets. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. It is decided in the yard, not at the kerb. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The goods lift is generous and the flat entrance often is not, so the tightest point on the route is inside the flat rather than in the building. The kitchen is open plan and the island is often long enough to need a join, and it sits in the middle of the room where every edge is visible, so the join goes over a gable and usually under the hob line where the eye does not follow it. Settled on the drawing, cut once. Exposed brick and reclaimed timber never give you a straight reference line, so the island gets set out to the floor and the perimeter gets scribed to the wall.

The high street is narrow, cobbled in places and lined with tall converted warehouses with no forecourt, and parking is permit-only with very few bays. Many conversions retain a small original hoist-style lift or a tight brick stair core, and buildings often require a river-side or courtyard route agreed with the porter in advance. Hoisting is planned at quote stage or not at all, because the crew, the equipment and the permissions are three separate bookings. 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.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop design & quotation and worktop installation. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Same slab run, or it is not a match. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. Cutting several kitchens from different slabs and calling them matched is where firms get caught out. Nested for the job in front of us.

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. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. That is nested before any glass goes on the saw. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

A deep scribe comes out of the nest, so how far the stone has to be relieved changes which part of the slab the piece is cut from. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Radiused, polished, and clear of the joins. The island layout, including whether the ends are mitred down to the floor, needs settling before cutting, since mitred ends are cut in sequence with the top and dry-assembled as one unit. Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. Sink and hob are dry-fitted on the bench before dispatch, whoever supplied them. The approved drawing is the instruction.