01Bench or countertop: the load path decides
Put a 40 kg stock pot on a countertop and the plate carries it into the cabinets. Put the same pot on a bench and the frame carries it into the floor. Neither is better; they are different structures.
If the bench is going into a fitted run between cabinets, this does not matter much. If it stands alone — a pot wash area, a back-of-house corner, a hospital sluice — only the bench version is possible, because there is nothing else to carry it.
02The frame, sized by what goes on it
We build frames from 38 × 38 mm square tube at 1.2 mm wall, welded into a rectangle with one or two cross members. The cross members are the part that gets left out of cheap benches and the part that decides whether the top stays flat.
| Duty | Tube | Cross members | Rated load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | 25 × 25 × 1.2 mm | None | 60 kg |
| Standard | 38 × 38 × 1.2 mm | One, mid-span | 150 kg |
| Heavy | 38 × 38 × 1.5 mm | Two, at third points | 250 kg |
| Mobile | 38 × 38 × 1.2 mm | One, plus diagonal brace | 120 kg |
Those figures are for a static bench at 900 mm height with a 1.2 mm top and evenly distributed load. A single point load at mid-span halves them, which is why a bench that will take a heavy mixer gets the heavy frame and not a thicker top — the top is rarely the weak part.
We weld every frame on a jig, square and flat, then check the diagonals before the top goes on. A frame that is 2 mm out of square shows as a gap at one upstand and cannot be pulled back once the top is welded. Our tube is 1.2 or 1.5 mm wall in grade 304, or 316L for a wet room, and the tolerance we hold on the finished height is ±2 mm with the feet set mid-range so there is adjustment left both ways.
03Fall to drain, and why 1 mm per metre is not enough
A sink bench that pools water is a complaint waiting to happen, and the usual cause is a fall specified as “a slight slope”.
- Flat top, no fall — acceptable only when the bowl has a rim below the surface and the whole top drains to it by squeegee. Common in the UK, needs discipline.
- 1 mm per metre — 3 mm across a 3 m bench. Water moves, but slowly, and it leaves a film.
- 2–3 mm per metre — what we press into a top that is specified to drain. Fast enough to clear, shallow enough that a pan does not slide.
- Pressed bowl pan — the alternative: a dished section around the bowl, so the fall is local and the rest of the bench stays level.
Fall is formed into the plate, not shimmed under the frame. If you need it, it goes on the drawing before cutting, because forming it afterwards means a new top.
04Workstation benches, drainboards and tray slides
Most sink benches are a bowl and a flat top. The versions that sell into commercial kitchens add one of four things beside the bowl, and each one changes something in the drawing.
| Adjacent feature | What it does | Formed or added | Drawing impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fluted drainboard | Ridged area where washed items stand and drip back into the bowl | Formed in the same sheet, falling towards the bowl | Drainboard length, rib pitch, fall direction |
| Slotted channel | A narrow channel draining into the bowl | Formed — a fold rather than a weld | Channel width, and where it ends |
| Tray slide | A ledge that takes a gastronorm pan or a board over the bowl | Formed ledge or welded rail | Ledge depth, load, and clearance above the bowl |
| Second bowl | A wash and rinse pair | Welded, or dropped in | Divider position from the datum, and two drains |
The trade name for the tray slide version is a workstation bench. Ask for it by that name when one footprint has to be both preparation space and wash space. It is also the configuration that comes back wrong most often, because a tray slide is defined by three numbers that all have to agree: the ledge depth, the height of the accessory above the top, and whether the bowl is covered when the accessory is in place.
Two practical rules. A drainboard added beside the bowl shortens the usable flat top, so state the drainboard length and let the overall length follow — not the other way round. And on a bench the drainboard has to fall towards the bowl, which means the fall pressed into the top and the way the frame is levelled have to be agreed together: a bench levelled dead flat under a top pressed at 2 mm per metre will pool water at one end.
05Undershelf, legs and the details that fail first
Everything that fails on a sink bench fails at a joint between two materials or at a foot.
A welded undershelf is not decoration: it stiffens the frame as much as it stores things, which is why a bench with an undershelf holds a heavier load than the same frame without one.
06Sizes we build and how it is ordered
Standard depths are 500, 600, 650 and 700 mm; standard heights 850 and 900 mm; lengths from 600 to 2400 mm in 100 mm steps up to 1800 and then any length, since the frame is made to length rather than cut from stock.
Ordering needs four numbers and two choices: length, depth, height, bowl size; and bowl position plus undershelf yes or no. 1.2 mm 304 is the default; 1.5 mm 316L for wet or chlorinated environments, and that is the only choice that changes the plate thickness rather than the frame.
The top is laser cut, the bowl aperture cut to ±0.5 mm from the template, the upstand folded and the whole thing welded, dressed and grained before the frame is fitted. We inspect height, squareness and bowl position, and record all three on the sheet that ships with the bench. Lead time is 15 working days, and the bench ships assembled, wrapped, with the upstand protected by a formed card edge — which is why a container of benches is measured in cubic metres rather than weight, and why packing is planned before the order is released.
Integrated sink countertops · A sink fabricated to your drawing · Stainless steel workbenches · Send a drawing for quotation