INSTALLATION, REPAIRS AND THE LIFE OF THE METAL AFTER DELIVERY

A bench that is 2 mm proud of the wall, a hood that misses the duct, a rail that is true in the shop and twisted on a nosing — those are install problems with fabrication DNA. The people who folded the returns know which joint can take a scribe and which one cannot.

We offer on-site installation as a service, not as a favour. It includes setting, levelling, sealing where specified, and the small site welds that close a run. It also includes saying no when the room is not ready: no finished floor, no services, no access.

If your shopfitter is installing, we still want a conversation about tolerances and handling. Stainless scratches. A crate dumped in a corridor for a week is not “storage”.

Kitchens change menus. Bars change bottle lists. Plants change machines. The metal has to move with them. Repairs and modifications are often more skilled than the original job because the surrounding work is already finished and already dirty.

We would rather cut in a new section that matches than cover a problem with silicone and a cover plate. Matching grain, thickness and edge profile is the test. If the original was ours, we still have the language of that job. If it was someone else’s, we still start with a measure and a honest assessment.

Damage from trolleys, corrosion from the wrong cleaner, and fatigue at a poorly designed joint are the usual suspects. Some of those are repairs. Some are a redesign. We will say which.

Stainless is low maintenance, not no maintenance. Chlorides left to dry, steel wool used on a bench, and bleach sitting in a drain will all mark the surface. We can provide simple care notes with a job, and we can come back for a scheduled look at rails, hoods and benches that live a hard life.

A maintenance visit is cheaper than a replacement splashback. It is also how small cracks at a weld or a loose base plate are found before they become a failure. For food premises and public rails, that visit is prudence, not luxury.

If you already have a cleaner’s chemical list, send it. We would rather tell you it is too aggressive now than explain tea staining in a year.

When you quote fabrication, decide whether installation is in. When you take handover, decide who to call in five years. The same workshop number is the point of this service.

Photographs, the original PO, and a description of what changed are enough to start a repair brief. For a new install, the programme and the other trades matter as much as the packing list.

Installation, repairs and maintenance close the loop on everything else in this journal: kitchens, architectural metal, rails, sheet work and on-site welding. Build it once, fit it properly, and keep it in the family of the people who know the metal.