Fitted Cupboards in Elphinstone

George Herkes & Son Joinery is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews under East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader, and what that record is built on is fit rather than finish.

George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989, holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation and is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and carpentry in Elphinstone is surveyed, drawn, built and fitted by the same small family run team.

Send George the recess sizes and a photo and he will come and take the measurements properly.

Bespoke Fitted Wardrobes

George Herkes & Son Joinery is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews under East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader, a council backed scheme that vets traders. What that record is built on is fit, and fit is a set of dimensions rather than an opinion.

A recess is measured at three heights and at both depths. The smallest figure governs the carcass, which is built narrower than the opening by ten to fifteen millimetres so the face frame can be scribed back to the plaster on site. Eighteen millimetre board, dowelled joints, glue blocks at the corners, solid back where the run carries load. Nothing is packed out at the front where it would show.

Made-to-Measure Storage Solutions for Elphinstone Homes

The stock here is one, two and three bedroom, mixed in age, from nineteenth century mining village housing through the 1958 and 1970 Duries Park streets to later infill. Usable wall is the constraint, not floor area.

Survey

Recess depths, ceiling height, floor fall and the position of any meter or stopcock are recorded. Floor fall matters: a carcass fitted to a floor that drops eight millimetres across a two metre run will show it at the door reveal.

Drawing and approval

Shelf spacing, rail heights and drawer depths are set from what the cupboard holds. Drawings go back before any board is cut, which is the point at which a change is free. The same method covers bespoke cupboard installation in Tranent.

Fitting

Floor protection first, then carcasses scribed and packed level, then doors hung and adjusted last so the reveals match along the run.

Wardrobe Styles and Door Options

Door choice is a function of the room’s width and the leaf’s weight, not of the brochure.

A hinged leaf needs its own swing clear of the bed, and on anything above about eighteen kilograms it takes three hinges rather than two or it drops within a year. A sliding door loses half the opening at any one time but needs no swing at all, which is what makes it right in a narrow room. Shaker doors are hand painted MDF because it holds a crisp arris and stays flat through a heating season. Slab doors take veneer or a sprayed finish. These are the same options the joiners service offers on any fitted piece.

Materials, Finishes and Hardware

Hardware is the part that gets used and the part that fails first, so it is specified by load rather than by appearance.

Runners are rated by drawer width and load, which is why a cutlery drawer and a pan drawer of the same width take different gear. Hinges are selected for leaf weight and overlay. Handles are set out from a rod so they line through along the run rather than being measured door by door. Finishes are sprayed off site, flatted between coats and stacked to cure, because a door finished in an occupied room never matches one that was not.

Room Types and Custom Joinery

Cupboards get asked for in the parts of a house nothing standard fits: stair voids, landings, box rooms and the recesses either side of a flue.

A stair void takes graduated pull outs rather than one deep cupboard nobody can empty, with the shallow end holding shoes where the headroom runs out. A landing cupboard is shallower than a wardrobe and takes a full height door to keep the line of the wall. Where a meter, stopcock or consumer unit sits inside the run, the panel over it is made removable and that is settled on the drawing rather than improvised on fitting day.