Services
Laser templating
A digital template plots your kitchen as it actually is, taken once the units are fitted and level. Walls are never square. This is the visit that stops that showing in the finished worktop.
A template is not somebody with a tape measure
A laser template plots the real geometry of the room: every wall angle, every bow in the plaster, every return that is not quite ninety degrees. It produces a drawing accurate to a millimetre or two, and that drawing is what the cutting machine follows. No stone is cut from a plan, ever.
The reason it cannot happen earlier is simple. Stone is cut once. A base unit that shifts four millimetres after the template leaves a gap you cannot fill invisibly, and there is no trimming your way out of it on the day. So we template the room as it will be on fitting day, not as it is drawn.
Once the template is signed off, the deposit is taken, the fabrication slot is booked and your fitting date is fixed. From that point we are working to 3 to 7 working days.
At a glance
- On site
- Two to three hours
- Prerequisite
- Units fitted, fixed and level
- You need to be there
- Yes, to sign off joins
- After the visit
- Fitted in 3–7 working days
Fitted 3–7 working days from template. Deposit at template, balance before installation.
What is involved
The template visit, start to finish
Two to three hours for a typical kitchen. Longer if there is an island or a lot of returns.
- 01Set by you
Booking the date
Usually set once your kitchen fitter confirms the units are in and level. If you are not sure the room is ready, send a photograph of the units the day before and we will tell you straight.
- 02On site
Plotting the room
The templater works around every run, capturing wall lines, angles and any bow in the plaster. This is the part that takes the time and it is the part nobody should rush.
- 03Your decision
Agreeing join positions with you
You will be shown where the joins have to go and why. If there is a choice between two positions, you make it here, standing in the room, rather than finding out afterwards.
- 04On site
Confirming the details
Overhangs, sink and hob positions, tap hole placement, socket cut-outs, upstand heights, drainer grooves and which edges are polished. All of it is checked against the physical fittings on site.
- 05Deposit stage
Sign off, deposit, dates
You approve the drawing, the deposit is taken and the fabrication slot is booked with your fitting date attached to it. The drawing goes to the workshop that day.
Prep checklist
What must be ready before we arrive
This is the list that decides whether the visit goes ahead. Run it the day before, not on the morning.
All base units fitted, fixed and level
Fixed to the wall and to each other, on their final feet, levelled. Units standing in roughly the right place are not ready. The whole template is referenced off the top of them.
A Belfast or butler sink physically in place
If you have one, it must be installed and set at its final height before we template. The stone is cut around the sink itself and the tolerance is unforgiving. A Belfast sink that arrives later is a re-template.
Sink, tap and hob on site
The actual items, boxed is fine. We machine to the physical template supplied with the product, not to the dimensions on a website listing, because listings are wrong often enough to matter.
Appliances present or fully specified
Anything sitting under the worktop (dishwasher, wine cooler, integrated bin) needs to be there or its exact dimensions confirmed, because it dictates the clearances underneath.
End panels and tall units fitted
Anything a run dies into has to be in place. A tall unit installed after templating moves the end of the run and there is no stone left to give.
Walls plastered and at final thickness
We scribe to the wall you have. If it is going to be skimmed or boarded afterwards, the geometry changes. Tiling goes on after the worktop, never before.
Clear access to every surface
Nothing stored on top of the units, no tools, no old worktop still down unless this is a replacement job, and enough room to work along each run.
Somebody there who can make decisions
Join positions, overhangs and tap hole placement all get agreed on the day. It needs to be somebody who is allowed to say yes.
If we arrive and the kitchen is not ready
We cannot take the template, and no amount of goodwill changes that. A template taken off unfinished units produces a worktop that does not fit. The templater will tell you exactly what has to change and we rebook. What it costs you is time: the fabrication slot goes back into the diary and your lead time restarts from the new template date. That is usually a week. Five minutes with the checklist the day before avoids it, and if you are unsure, send us a photograph of the units and we will tell you honestly whether to keep the appointment.
Straight answers
What we can and cannot template
Any company that says yes to the right-hand column is moving the risk onto you.
We can template
- A kitchen with all base units fitted, fixed and level
- A room with plastered walls, even badly out-of-square ones
- An existing kitchen where the old worktop is staying down until fitting day, as a replacement job
- Islands, peninsulas, returns, windowsills and upstands in the same visit
- A Belfast sink already installed and set at its final height
We cannot template
- Units that are going in tomorrow, or standing loose in position
- A room still being plastered, boarded or tiled
- A run where the sink, tap or hob has not yet arrived
- A kitchen where the units are visibly out of level and nobody has corrected them
- A layout still under discussion: the drawing has to be final
Questions
Laser templating: the questions we get asked
If yours is not here, ring and ask. You will get a straight answer rather than a call-back from a salesperson.
How long does templating take?
Two to three hours for a typical kitchen. Larger kitchens with an island, several returns or full-height splashbacks take longer. Plan to be in for the visit rather than nipping out halfway through.
Do I need to be there for the template?
Yes, or somebody who can make decisions on your behalf. Join positions, overhang depths and tap hole placement are agreed on the day and signed off before the drawing goes to the workshop.
Can you template before the kitchen units are fitted?
No. Stone is cut once, to the millimetre, off the units as installed. A company that offers to template from a plan or from units that are not yet fixed is transferring the risk of a misfit onto you.
What if my sink or hob has not arrived yet?
Move the template rather than guess. Cut-outs are machined to the physical item, and a cut-out made from a specification sheet is a cut-out that often has to be made twice, in a slab that has already been paid for.
Where this happens
Laser templating in your part of London
Twelve neighbourhoods whose housing stock throws up this job most often. Each page covers what laser templating actually involves in that stock: the access, the era of the building and what that does to the work.
These twelve are a sample, not a coverage boundary. We work in 723 Greater London neighbourhoods and out into Surrey, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Essex.
Next
What usually happens either side of this
Every job runs through more than one of these. Follow the thread rather than guessing which order things go in.
Next step
Send us the kitchen and we will price it properly
Plans, a sketch or photographs with rough run lengths is enough to start. Nothing is payable until we template.