Worktop templating in Upney

Yes. Upney is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are IG11. It is run from the Essex side, covering Essex & East London. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The classic arrangement is the original back room with a later extension bolted onto it, so the kitchen is two ages of building in one room. The sill height over the sink is settled on site, because there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. Two to three hours, once the units are in. Deep plots mean the kitchen is a long way from the van, so we plan the carry and clear the side alley of bins before the slab comes off the vehicle.

Regular suburban streets with a mix of dropped kerbs and kerbside parking, and a side alley between most pairs of semis giving a route to the back garden. The side passage is the measurement that matters, because a piece has to be carried flat down it and then turned in at the back door, and the turn is always tighter than the passage. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop installation. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. Two to three hours on site, with the sink, tap and hob physically present. Units fitted, fixed and level first. 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. Two to three hours on site, with the sink, tap and hob physically present. Units fitted, fixed and level first.

Two runs meeting at an internal corner is the most common shape we fit, and the corner is where the decisions are. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. Real angles, not plan angles. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

A chimney breast left in place splits a wall into two alcoves, and the two are rarely the same width and rarely parallel to each other. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Plotted, not estimated. All base units in, including anything standing on the later extension slab, walls skimmed to final thickness, and the sink, tap and hob delivered so cut-outs and tap centres are set from the actual items. 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. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. Fitted, fixed and level, then we come.