Choosing Worktops for Rental and Development Kitchens

Worktops get more attention in a rental or development kitchen than anything except the doors. They are the surface a viewer touches, the thing that photographs, and the component most likely to be replaced first. They are also the component most often ordered badly — in metres instead of boards, in a décor that shows every mark, and in a second batch six weeks after the first.

Here is how to specify them properly for project work.

Why laminate suits project kitchens

Brooklands supplies Kronodesign and Duropal laminate worktops in postformed and square-edged profiles. For project work that is not a compromise; it is the right tool.

• It is consistent. A laminate décor is a printed and pressed surface, so plot 14 looks like plot 1. Natural materials vary between pieces, which is charming in a private house and a nuisance across forty apartments.
• It is replaceable. A damaged laminate run is a length of board and an afternoon. That matters at the end of a tenancy far more than the specification did at the start.
• It cuts on site. No templating visit, no second appointment, no waiting for fabrication. Your fitter cuts, joints and fits it in the same visit as the cabinets.
• It is easy to buy in quantity. Order the whole scheme in one go and every kitchen matches.
• It is honest about what it is. Laminate is durable and hard-wearing in normal domestic use, but it is not indestructible — heat, standing water at a cut edge and heavy knives will all mark it. Say so to your tenants and buyers rather than overselling it.

Browse the full range at worktops, or by brand: Kronodesign and Duropal.

Postformed or square-edged?

For core rental stock, postformed is usually the safer choice — the rolled front edge takes knocks better and there is no front seam. Reserve square-edged for the tiers where the kitchen is doing sales work. Exact lengths, depths and thicknesses vary by décor, so check the individual product page before you plan a run.

Choosing a décor that survives and photographs

What hides wear

Mid-tone décors with visible pattern are the workhorses. A stone-effect or timber-effect surface in a mid grey, warm beige or soft taupe disguises crumbs, water marks and light scratching in a way that flat colours cannot. The two extremes are where the trouble is: gloss black and very dark plain surfaces show every fingerprint and every speck of dust, and bright white plain surfaces show every stain and every tea ring.

Texture helps as well as pattern. A matt or lightly textured finish scatters light and hides small scuffs; a high-gloss finish reflects it and highlights them.

What photographs well

Marketing photographs are taken with a wide lens in a room that is often smaller than the agent would like. Mid-tone worktops with subtle pattern read as "quality" on camera without fighting the door colour. Very dark tops absorb light and make a small kitchen look smaller; very busy patterns look chaotic once a wide lens compresses them.

A practical rule: pick the worktop décor and the door colour together, in daylight, side by side. Contrast between them by one clear step — light doors with a mid worktop, or mid doors with a lighter worktop — photographs better than a near-match, which tends to look flat.

Planning run lengths: boards, not metres

This is the single most common ordering error. Worktops are supplied as pre-finished lengths, not as a roll of material cut to order. What you need is not a total number of metres — it is a number of boards that your run lengths can be cut from.

Take a worked example. Suppose your kitchen has three runs: 2,600mm, 1,800mm and 900mm. That is 5,300mm in total. If the décor you have chosen is listed in 3,000mm lengths, you cannot buy 5,300mm of it. The 2,600mm run needs a whole board. The 1,800mm and 900mm runs together are 2,700mm and can come from a second board — provided you allow for the cuts and for the fact that both pieces need a finished front edge running the correct way. So: two boards, not "5.3 metres".

Reverse the example and it gets worse. Three runs of 2,600mm are 7,800mm, but they need three boards, because no offcut is long enough to make another 2,600mm run.

If you would rather not do this arithmetic across a whole development, send the runs in and we will work the board count out with you — that is what the trade worktops page is for.

Matching upstands and splashbacks

Order upstands and splashbacks with the worktop, in the same décor, on the same order. Laminate décors are produced in batches, and a batch ordered weeks later can be a shade or a texture out from the one already fitted — not obviously wrong on a sample, very obviously wrong on a wall directly above the worktop it is supposed to match.

Upstands do a practical job too. A 100mm upstand behind a run closes the wall junction without tiling, removes a grout line that needs cleaning between tenancies, and takes far less time to fit than tiling. On rental stock that is a genuine saving in both directions.

What is supplied, and what happens on site

Be clear about this before you build a programme around it. Brooklands supplies worktop material. Brooklands does not cut, joint, template, produce cut-outs or fabricate worktops, and does not install kitchens.

That means the following are your fitter's work, on site, on the day:

• Cutting runs to length and scribing to walls
• Mason's mitres and joints, including jointing bolts and sealant
• The sink cut-out, sized to the sink you have specified
• The hob cut-out and any tap hole
• Sealing every cut edge — the detail that decides whether the worktop lasts
• Fixing to the cabinets and finishing the upstand junction

None of that is a criticism of laminate — it is what makes it fast. But it does mean the fitter needs the sink and hob on site, or at least their exact cut-out dimensions, before the worktop is touched.

Order the whole project at once

On a development or a portfolio, order every worktop for the scheme in one go. One batch means one décor, one shade and one texture across every plot, and it means the spare board you keep back for aftercare actually matches the kitchens it is meant to repair. Splitting the order across phases is the most reliable way to end up with two subtly different greys in the same building.

Where phasing is unavoidable, agree the décor and profile for the whole scheme up front and release deliveries against it, and keep a labelled offcut from the first batch as a reference. Our page on multi-unit kitchen projects covers how to structure that.

Worktop delivery considerations

Worktops are long, heavy and awkward, and they are the item most likely to be damaged in handling. Larger kitchen and worktop deliveries go out on a dedicated service with the day arranged with you, and delivery timing is confirmed when the order or quotation is finalised.

• Plan the access. A 3m board does not turn on a half-landing. Check the route in before the delivery day, not on it.
• Have two people there. Worktops are a two-person lift, and a dropped corner is a wasted board.
• Check the ends of every pack on arrival. Corner and edge damage is the commonest issue and it hides under packaging.
• Report damage or shortages within 48 hours, with photographs and your order reference.
• Store flat, dry and off the floor. Boards left leaning against a wall in an empty property will bow, and a bowed board cannot be fitted straight.

Delivery charges for standalone worktops are calculated by postcode at checkout. Delivery is fully tracked across mainland UK. Scottish Highlands and Islands, Northern Ireland, offshore and certain remote postcodes may be excluded or surcharged, and this is always confirmed before an order is processed — see the delivery page for the detail.

Frequently asked questions