The alcove is full to the cornice, the under-stair wedge pulls out to meet you, and the hall has its floor back.
What This Article Covers
- Alcoves either side of a chimney breast are measured separately and built as a pair of different sizes, because they are rarely the same width.
- Under-stair space is built to the rake, so the low end becomes drawers and the tall end becomes full height.
- Carcasses are 18mm board, glued and screwed, with backs set into a rebate so the piece stays square under load.
- Runners are full extension and hinges are soft close, specified at the survey rather than substituted on the day.
- Access is measured at survey, because a carcass that will not turn a landing has to be built in sections.
- The team that measured the room is the team that fits it, and core work is not subcontracted out.
George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989 and holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation, rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the same team handles a single alcove cupboard or a full house renovation in East Lothian with the same survey.
Send through the space and what it has to hold, and George will come out and measure it.
Bespoke Fitted Wardrobes
The alcove beside a chimney breast is the most wasted space in the county’s older housing. It is deep enough for a cupboard and the wrong width for anything bought, so it ends up holding a chest of drawers and a shadow gap. A carcass built to that alcove takes the whole recess from skirting to cornice.
The build is 18mm board, glued and screwed, with the back set into a rebate so the piece stays square when it is loaded. Doors are hung on adjustable hinges so they can be brought back into line after the house has moved a season. Nothing is fitted from flat-pack. It is built, then it is fitted.
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Design Visit and Consultation
Most storage goes wrong at the measuring, not the making. A tape run once across a room misses the fall in the floor and the taper in the wall, and a carcass cut to that single figure arrives with a wedge down one side. So the visit takes levels as well as lengths, and it records what the room has to hold rather than what it looks like.
George comes out, measures, and the internals are agreed on the spot: shelf spacings, hanging heights, whether the doors swing or slide. The quote follows that visit. Design, manufacture and installation are handled in house, so the drawing that reaches the workshop is the same one taken in the room. Where a project runs wider, into bathroom renovations in East Lothian or a whole floor, the survey covers it in one visit.
Materials, Finishes and Hardware for East Lothian Homes
The county’s housing is not one material and not one era, and the specification changes with it.
Period and burgh property
Georgian rooms in Haddington and the older burgh centres carry deep skirtings and mouldings no merchant stocks. A cupboard here is scribed to the existing profile and cut to match in the workshop. Painted work is built in a stable board and sprayed. The finish sits flat against a wall that does not.
Coastal exposure
Property along the shore towards North Berwick and Dunbar takes wind off the Forth and salt with it. Anything on an external wall or in an unheated room is specified for that: sealed end grain, and hardware that will not bloom in a damp cupboard.
Hardware
Runners are full extension so the back of a drawer is reachable. Hinges are soft close. Both are specified at the survey rather than substituted on the day, which is how it is handled by fitted cupboard fitters across Tranent as well.
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Manufacturing and Installation Process in East Lothian
The gap between the workshop and the house is where storage jobs fail. A carcass built to a drawing nobody checked against the stair does not go up it.
Access, measured at survey
A terraced house on a Musselburgh street is a van at the kerb. A cottage on a rural approach inland is a longer carry and a tighter turn. Both are recorded before anything is cut, and a piece that will not turn a landing is built in sections instead.
The order of work
Survey, drawing, workshop build, finish, fit. The doors are sprayed and left to cure before the piece leaves. Fitting is one visit where the room allows it, with dust sheets down first and the old unit taken out before the new piece goes in.
Who does the fitting
The team that measured the room is the team that fits it. Core work is not subcontracted out. That is also true of who does built cupboards in Elphinstone and every other town on the county list.
Made-to-Measure Storage Solutions
Under a stair, the space is a wedge and every bought unit is a box. The result is a cupboard you can stand in at one end and cannot reach into at the other. Built to the rake, it becomes drawers at the low end and full height at the tall end, on runners that pull the contents out to you.
Boot rooms, utility runs and airing cupboards work the same way: the room decides the piece. In a commuter-town semi with a square hall the problem is layout rather than shape, and that is settled on paper before anything is cut. Ordinary joinery work, done in order.
Wardrobe Styles and Door Options
A door is the part of a cupboard that gets looked at and the part that fails first if it is wrong for the room.
Hinged doors
Hinged doors give the full opening and need clearance in front. In a narrow bedroom in a Prestonpans terrace that clearance is often the walking space, so the swing is checked against the bed position at survey.
Sliding doors
Sliders need no clearance and cover half the opening at any time. They suit a tight room and they need a level track, which means the floor is packed and levelled before the track goes down.
Style and finish
Shaker rails and stiles are cut to the door rather than bought as a panel, so the proportions answer to the room’s height. Flat doors suit newer stock. The room decides, not the catalogue.
Free quotes on Fitted Cupboards across East Lothian. Speak to George at George Herkes & Son Joinery.
People Also Ask: Fitted Cupboards in East Lothian
Do you build cupboards for the alcoves in older East Lothian houses?
Yes, and in this county's stock it is most of the work. Victorian and interwar terraces through Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Tranent nearly all have a chimney breast standing into the room, and the two alcoves either side are seldom the same width as each other. They are measured separately and built as a pair of different sizes, then scribed to the wall on fitting.
Can you use the space under the stairs?
That is one of the most common jobs. A bought unit under a rake gives you a box in a wedge, so you can reach the tall end and not the low one. Built to the rake, the low end becomes drawers on full extension runners that bring the contents out to you, and the tall end becomes full height storage with a door.
Which towns in East Lothian do you cover?
The whole county. Most work comes from the larger settlements, which are Musselburgh, Tranent, Prestonpans, Haddington and Dunbar, but the coastal villages and the rural approaches inland are covered too. Distance is not usually the issue; access is. A long carry or a tight turn is measured at survey so the piece is built to suit it.
Can you match the cupboard to existing woodwork in a period property?
Yes. A Georgian room in Haddington carries a skirting and moulding profile that no merchant stocks, so the profile is scribed off an existing length and cut to match in the workshop. Painted work is sprayed to the room's colour rather than matched off a chart.
Do you take the old units away?
Yes. Dust sheets go down before anything comes out, the old unit is removed, and the new piece goes in behind it. The removal is part of the fit rather than a separate job, because the piece arrives finished from the workshop rather than being built in the house.
