Services
Splashbacks and upstands
Stone running up the wall, cut from the same slab run as your worktop so the colour and the scale of the pattern actually match under your own lights.
Two ways to take the stone up the wall
An upstand is a shallow strip of your worktop material that sits on the surface against the wall, commonly around 100mm high and cut to whatever height suits your tiling line or window sill. It replaces the bottom row of tiles and, more usefully, it hides the junction between worktop and wall, which is always the least straight line in the kitchen.
A full-height splashback runs from the worktop up to the underside of the wall units, or behind the hob from the surface to the extractor. No grout, no tile joints, nothing to scrub. It costs more because it is priced by area, and it demands an accurate template of every socket and switch.
Most kitchens end up with a mix: upstands along the general runs, and a full-height piece behind the hob where the mess actually happens.
At a glance
- Upstand height
- Commonly around 100mm, cut to yours
- Splashback
- Worktop to wall units, or hob to extractor
- Best ordered
- With the worktop, from the same slab run
- Fitted
- After the worktop is down
Fitted 3–7 working days from template. Deposit at template, balance before installation.
What is involved
How it runs alongside the worktop
The decision belongs at quotation stage, because it changes the tiling plan and the tiler is usually booked before anyone thinks about it.
- 01At quotation
Decide before the tiler is booked
Upstands, a full-height splashback or tiles: this changes what the wall needs and in what order. Deciding late is how people end up paying for tiling they then cover up.
- 02Template day
Templated with the worktop
Taken in the same visit wherever possible. Any full-height piece is templated to the actual wall, with real socket, switch and extractor positions rather than the ones on the plan.
- 03Workshop
Cut from the same slab run
Your upstands and splashbacks are nested onto the same material as the worktop, at the same time, so the colour and the pattern scale carry through.
- 04Workshop
Apertures machined
Cut-outs for sockets, switches and anything else breaking the face of a splashback, machined to the same drawing.
- 05Fitting day
Fitted after the worktop is down
Bonded to the wall once the surface below is fitted and levelled, scribed where the wall demands it, and sealed at the junction with the worktop.
- 06Fitting day
Sealed with silicone, not grouted
The joint between worktop and upstand is a movement joint and it is siliconed, not grouted. Grout there cracks, which is exactly the failure the stone was meant to remove.
Batch matching
Why they are cut from the same slab run
This is the single most useful thing to understand before you decide to add them later.
Engineered stone is made in batches
Two slabs of the same named quartz or sintered surface, from different production batches, can differ in tone and in the scale of the pattern. It is not a fault, it is manufacturing.
The difference shows most where pieces touch
A slight batch variation two metres away across a room is invisible. The same variation where an upstand meets the worktop it sits on, under downlights, is obvious and you will never stop seeing it.
Granite has no batch number to rely on
Quarried stone varies from slab to slab by nature. There is no production run to quote and no way to reorder a match, so cutting everything together is the only route.
Ordering later is possible, but we will not pretend
If you decide six months on we will happily cut it, but we cannot promise the batch will match, and we would tell you that before taking any money rather than after fitting it.
Sills, returns and window reveals too
If a window sits in a run, its sill can be cut from the same material at the same time. It is a small addition at that point and a much larger one afterwards.
Behind a hob, the material matters
Granite and sintered surfaces take direct heat without complaint. Engineered quartz has a resin binder and is happier not sitting inches from a gas ring under sustained heat. If your chosen colour is the wrong one for that particular spot, we will say so before you buy it.
Getting it right
What we need, and what is not ours
A splashback is unforgiving of late changes, because a moved socket means a new piece rather than an adjustment.
Confirmed before template
- Final socket and switch positions: moving one afterwards means recutting the piece
- Extractor position and the height of the underside of the wall units
- Hob position and the material you have chosen for the wall behind it
- Upstand height, and whether it needs to meet a window sill
- Walls plastered and at their finished thickness
- Whether tiling is happening at all, so the tiler can be sequenced after us
Not part of this service
- Tiling, plastering or making good the wall above a splashback
- Moving sockets, switches or the extractor
- Cutting new apertures into a fitted splashback after the event
- Fitting to walls that are not finished, boarded or at final thickness
Questions
Splashbacks & upstands: 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.
What height should upstands be?
Commonly around 100mm, but they are cut to whatever suits the room. Many people set the height to meet a window sill or to line up with the bottom of a tile course. It is decided at template and costs the same either way within normal heights.
Can I add a splashback later on?
You can, and we will cut it. What we cannot promise is a batch match, because engineered stone is produced in batches and granite varies slab to slab. Where pieces touch, that difference shows. Ordering with the worktop is the only way to guarantee it.
Do I still need to tile?
With a full-height splashback in the working runs, usually not. With upstands you will still want something above them, whether that is tile or paint. It is worth deciding before the tiler is booked rather than after.
Can you cut around sockets and switches?
Yes. They are templated with the worktop and machined in the workshop. The positions have to be final at that point, because moving a socket afterwards means cutting a new piece rather than adjusting the fitted one.
Where this happens
Splashbacks & upstands in your part of London
Twelve neighbourhoods whose housing stock throws up this job most often. Each page covers what splashbacks & upstands 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.