Spinny

Haha, as with odd socks, there is somebody somewhere that must have a few million tape measures by now.

Anyone using something like this ? https://youtu.be/w7lcKytNIS4?si=3O13yhXyxCN8vYHi

OK Yes I am fully aware of measurement errors, and manufacturing or building tolerances etc. etc. But IMO that isn't really a reason to just wave your hands too much, go whatever, and ignore things. Otherwise things can escalate. Be as precise as you reasonably can and they won't escalate. Specify 1.5mm wrong on position, and 1.5mm wrong on incorrectly understanding tolerance, cut 2mm wrong, shift the worktop along 2mm when fitting - get unlucky and you are 7mm wrong now. Maybe it still won't matter, or maybe something will foul and someone is £7k down and 2 months late.

Yes, thanks Rick, good words. It is just the small stuff that makes you doubt - if someone is getting one cut off centre for no reason - why can't they see that themselves, especially when presenting me ridiculous pseudo accurate measurements to 100th of a millimetre. It is slightly wrong, but very precisely so, sir. I know it won't be mm perfect, but like a photon through a pair of slits, if you stop looking it will smudge out in unexpected ways 🤣 You know my concrete floor was only 12mm too high, but necessitated changing the heating system, my bifold was 10mm wrong (but actually wasn't) and had a carpenter chiseling down a 3.5m timber for no good reason. It's Britain sir, and it's wonky - move to Germany sir.

There is a support batten against the back wall, and the fitters have asked for another batten to be fitted to support the worktop in front of the hob. Particularly because we have a metal finger pull strip for handleless drawers at the front which is somewhat thin and bendy, and no MDF or chipboard cross piece above the top drawer. Maybe I should get them to add another piece of batten onto the front of the rear batten to thicken it up to give more support. Another small thing that cropped up concerns the cut out size. In the product install instructions it had 500mm with +3 superscript. I asked the fitters what this meant exactly as I assumed it was a tolerance but wondered why it didn't say +/- 3. They said it indicated a maximum size 3mm larger and have now specified 503mm on the template drawing. Googling a bit more about this I think they have this slightly wrong. My understanding is the cut out need to be min 500 and max 503, therefor anyone cutting should be aiming for say 501.5mm to allow the maximum possible cutting error of +/- 1.5mm. Small stuff but if they turned up with the worktop and it had an actual cut out of 504mm and it caused a hob fitting problem it could be consequential - there is presumably a reason the manufacturer has specified +3, and not +4 or +5. Also for some bizarre reason they have the hob 1.5mm off centre ? My actual length measurements are 2203mm at front and 2204mm at rear, so they are planning to cut the quartz 4mm short - 2mm at each end. Having no prior experience of kitchen fits means I am wondering EXACTLY what they will fill the gap with. Ideally I guess it would be something flexible and perfectly colour matched to the quartz, or possibly to the kitchen panel. But worse case you get someone wielding a sealant gun that sticks an 8mm bead down in 'grey' or 'white' without using any masking tape. I know I am sweating on detail again but I have had too many bad experiences to just trust pro's I have never used before. They do have a policy of those that template return to do the fit. In theory good, although it might make the fitters overly conservative when templating. They started out wanting 10mm overhangs everywhere - which isn't their design decision to make.

OK, I only used a new thread because the question was a different one i.e. hob position rather than undermounted sinks. Yes they are related in being about kitchen layout etc, but I am only trying to think of future users that might be searching about similar questions. And also that someone with an input to offer on hobs may not bother looking at a topic on sinks. I am thinking long meandering topics where the question keeps changing from one particular thing to another over many pages are potentially frustrating to read through ? There are lots of specific questions around worktops so maybe I should have started a topic called 'My various questions about kitchen worktops etc' but had a view it was more focussed to have one topic for one particular question. So only done out of trying to ring fence particular questions a bit. Sorry if I have the wrong idea, any guidance on when to let one topic meander away from the title, or when to open another is welcome ?

Any advice regarding forward/backward positioning of an induction hob ? I attach the template drawing which has a hob cutout 503mm wide for a 526mm hob in 655mm wide 30mm quartz. Plan says cut out goes 95mm from front edge and then 57mm from the back edge. We were thinking push the hob back so the extractor in the wall unit above works most effectively - are we over doing it ? is there any reason to make the gap at the back larger ? Will be cut out from a single piece with no join - so hopefully 57mm quartz strip at the back is wide enough not to break or crack ?

My measurements... So now can see there is a 'cut back' on the wall section, so the 227 reveal has to be added to 643 = 870. But at the left hand wall the worktop has to be 648.5 or 5.5mm deeper to reach the wall. Seems odd. The wall section thay have as about 1.5mm less than the actual of 870mm - a reasonable allowance perhaps of 1.5mm short of the window frame ? But the wall section on the far left they have a worktop depth of 640.3 but the actual is 648.5 - an unreasonable gap of 8mm between back edge and the wall. No reason for this unless they can only cut right angle corners - which surely cannot be true as some people would have angled worktops by design. (Anyone know if the saws they use are like band saws/jig saws, or big circular saws that can't change directions ?)

By the way the sink corners have radii of curvature given by the manufacturer which I looked up when they came to template. For the utility it is 35mm radius, and for the kitchen 25mm radius. For the bowl width and length they have gone with 1mm less than the manufacturers specified dimensions - so in theory should be 0.5mm beyond the edge of the bowl all around. They did tell me the cutting would be done on a CNC machine, so should be a very close reproduction of the dimensions fed into the machine.

I don't understand why they have not provided diagrams that clearly show the measured position of the walls/perimeters with the planned dimensions and positioning of the worktop super imposed onto it. That is the obvious way to allow a customer to buy off a drawing. When they were here they commented that there would be a 10mm gap at the sides of the window frame so it was just as well we were tiling the sides. That is why I have focussed on checking the utility piece in particular. I have used a machine cut piece of board and the edge of a spirit level to to form the planned position of the straight front edge of the worktop. This shows me (using spacers to measure) that the 5mm overhang will be 5mm at one end increasing to 7mm and then falling again to 4.5mm at the far end because there is a small misalignment - but visually unnoticeable - of the front face of cupboards/appliance bays. The right angle on the cut board, checked with a set square, shows me the long edge, if cut to 90deg will taper somewhat away from the wall and I will end up with an 8mm gap on that side near the window where the reveal isn't straight. Tiles will just about cover.

There is no upstand. There are 3 worktops: 1/ the hob run backs against the rear wall which will have a glass splashback templated and fitted after - the ends finish against tall cabinet panels and they said they would be polishing the cut ends to help the worktop slide in without damaging the cabinet panels if it is a tight fit. 2/ the island which is nice and square from the fitter and has the sink cut out (2 taps) and a waterfall end 3/ the utility which has a sink cut out (1 tap) and runs in against the window frame to seamlessly form the window cill. Although no upstand, we will be tiling the walls at one end, in the window reveal, and along the back wall. I have been sent the template drawings (created by a laser scanner device, not by any physical template being made) but trying to check them is tricky. I will post them so you can comment. My own measurements of the utility piece give me some concerns. It is basically L shaped to run into the window reveal with the long edge into the reveal marked as 868.51 mm. However the short edge is marked as 640.33mm and the other dog leg marked 232.95mm. Now that adds up to 873.28 which is almost 5mm longer than the other end. And if I measure the actual dog leg it is 227mm or almost 6mm less than they have. And my measurements show the worktop space will be 870mm from overhang into the window frame and exactly parallel to the window frame. So by logic that implies a potential 7.5mm gap at the back of the worktop away from the window. Yes I am going to tile it but doesn't seem a reason to leave the worktop 7.5mm short ?!? There is also no measurement given for the distance between the edge of the sink and the edge of the worktop. I am really loath to sign off templating done invisibly when there is a large sum of money and an irreplaceable (out of production) quartz involved and obvious queries ? What do others do, just sign the template off blind ?

I have not asked about this. I think they just said the sink would be fixed using a sealant/adhesive. I am confused as given the weight of the quartz and the use of silicon or CT1, and the timber edge supports shown underneath shown in the photos, will that not be sufficient ? These people will be fitting 100's of worktops every year, is it too much to just expect they know what they are doing ? Especially given I am spending a large sum on the job. I can imagine only 1 in 100 customers would actually ask, specify (or perhaps pay extra for) grinding, tabs, and epoxy ? I am scratching my head a little about how to double check their laser device measurements. If a corner between the front edge of the worktop and the side wall is not a perfect right angle would you expect them to be cutting this slightly out of square to fit ? This is unclear from their drawings, where all the cuts look visually as though they are 90deg and have no specified angle shown. I can appreciate an angle greater than 90deg would not be possible because of the need to be able to slide the worktop in, but presumably an angle less than 90 would be easily done ?

Both our kitchen and utility sinks are stainless steel and will be undermounted to quartz worktop. We have asked for the worktop cut outs to be sized to match the sink bowl without an overhang. Partly preference, partly because we will have hook over sink accessories, partly to preserve the bowl size for ease of use. So I am wondering how we can ensure that the worktop fitters seal the join between the sink and the worktop in a clean and tidy manner ? We have been thinking use a clear silicon sealant, but should we be masking up the edge of the sink bowl with masking tape before they come to fit ? Should we get the silicon ourselves ? I have seen references to sinks being sealed to the worktop with the worktop placed upside down - however I severely doubt that the fitters are remotely likely to do such a thing ? The island has a sink and is 3m by 1m and 30mm quartz - they were indicating it would take 5 people to carry it in. The sinks are currently on supporting framework in the units so I imagine they will just want to silicon the sink and drop the worktop onto the top ? How can we ensure we end with a nice tidy seal between sink and worktop ?

Meanwhile elsewhere... https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/09/10/there-have-been-no-hurricanes-in-the-atlantic-yet-making-2026-the-quietest-since-satellite-tracking-began-in-1966/

You might find something in powder coated aluminium. There are companies that do aluminium cladding for columns etc that might have something or make something bespoke.