Why does a slab have to be carried on edge?

Because stone has very little strength in bending. A three-metre slab carried flat flexes under its own weight and cracks, usually across the middle. On edge it is enormously stronger. It is the single most common way a top is lost between vehicle and kitchen.

What should the staff kitchen have?

Something hardwearing and simple, and usually cut from the offcut of the main kitchen slab. It is the most efficient use of stone you have already paid for, and it means the two kitchens match without costing anything extra.

Plumber in Runda, Nairobi

We cover Runda including Runda Estate, Runda Mumwe, Runda Mhasibu, Runda Evergreen, Runda Paradise, Runda Grove, Runda Ridge. Off Limuru Road and Kiambu Road. Slab delivery vehicles are registered with estate management a day ahead.

What is different about plumbing in Runda

Runda islands are frequently the largest single piece we fabricate, and a slab that size carried flat instead of on edge breaks under its own weight.
Almost every Runda Mumwe house has a staff kitchen where a simpler top cut from the main kitchen's offcut is the sensible specification.
Estate rules in Runda Evergreen require slab delivery vehicles registered a day ahead before they reach the plot.

Countertops in Runda

Runda gives us the biggest pieces in the network. That changes the risk profile of the whole job: the fabrication is routine and the handling is not.

Carried on edge, always

A three-metre island top has almost no strength in bending. Carried flat by six people it flexes under its own weight and cracks across the middle, usually somewhere between the truck and the kitchen door.

On edge it is enormously stronger. Every large top we deliver travels and is carried on edge, and the route is surveyed first: doorways, turns, steps and where the piece has to be rotated.

That survey is not caution for its own sake. A slab lost in a doorway is weeks of delay and a kitchen with no worktop.

Two kitchens, one slab

Nearly every Runda house has a staff kitchen. Specified separately it becomes an extra; planned into the cutting of the main slab it costs very little and the two match.

We plan for it at templating and would rather ask about it early than have it appear as a variation once the main kitchen is priced.

Islands and overhangs

Where an island top overhangs for seating, the unsupported projection has a limit, beyond roughly 300mm in granite it needs bracketing back to the carcass. Stone will hold for years and then break at the point somebody sits on it.

We specify the support and show you where it goes. It is invisible under the top and it is not optional.

What we are usually called out for in Runda

Granite countertops Granite templated on site, cut and polished in our workshop, and sealed before handover. Quartz countertops Engineered quartz: non-porous, consistent and sealing-free, at a premium over granite. Marble countertops Marble for those who want it, with a frank account of etching, staining and where it belongs. Vanity tops Bathroom vanity tops in stone, quartz or terrazzo, with basin cutouts made in the workshop.

Landmarks we work around here: Runda Shopping Centre, Limuru Road, Two Rivers Mall, UN Avenue. See what countertops cost.