Stainless Steel FAQs Brisbane

Most commercial kitchen benches are built 900mm high with 600mm to 700mm of depth, and those two numbers drive everything else. Height drops to around 850mm for a shorter operator or a seated workstation, and rises to 950mm in some dish and pot wash areas to reduce bending. Deeper tops at 900mm suit pass counters. Settle height before the drawing, because it changes the underframe as well as the top.

We measure the actual opening on site, taking several points along each wall rather than one centre span. Kitchen walls routinely vary 10mm to 30mm across three metres, and a bench built to nominal dimensions either will not fit or leaves a gap you cannot seal. We build to the tightest point and scribe the upstand to the wall, or allow a packer gap that gets sealed. Severe variation gets a template first.

Allow a working gap of roughly 50mm between stainless and a hot cookline or fryer, and more where the appliance radiates strongly. The gap gives airflow, stops heat discolouring the adjacent panel, provides cleaning access, and lets the appliance be pulled for service. A bench butted hard against a cookline absorbs heat into the top, can warp a light gauge, and traps grease in a seam nobody can reach.

Yes, and for a commercial kitchen a single welded unit is usually the better specification. Coved internal corners and welded bowls leave no silicone joint for grease and bacteria to sit in, which is what a health inspector checks. The trade-off is weight, and the unit must be built to the measured opening, so it goes in before the surrounding fitout closes up. See our custom fabrication range.

A plan, an elevation and at least one section detail, with the appliance schedule attached. We need overall length, depth and height, wall positions, tap centres, waste and drain locations, bowl sizes, appliance cut-outs with tolerances, upstand heights, and where services fall. A photo and a rough sketch is enough to quote from, not to fabricate from. Send DWG or CAD if you have it, and if not we draw it and you approve before anything is cut.

304 is the right default for general kitchen work, and 316 is the right call wherever chlorides are present. That means seafood and wet processing, heavy salt, sanitiser left to sit, coastal sites, or any bench cleaned aggressively. The difference is molybdenum in 316, which resists pitting and crevice corrosion. 316L is the low carbon grade and is what you specify on a heavily welded unit. Upgrading when it is not needed adds cost for no benefit, and staying on 304 in a seafood room costs you the bench.

1.2mm is the practical minimum for a light duty top, 1.5mm suits most commercial kitchens, and 2.0mm is for pot wash, butchery and anywhere the top takes knocks. Thinner material at 0.9mm drums under a loaded pot and telegraphs the substrate through the surface. Gauge and stiffening work together: a 1.2mm top on a properly braced frame outperforms a 1.5mm top with nothing underneath.

Brushed and satin are the working finishes, and mirror is a feature finish. Both brushed and satin are directional grain surfaces that disguise fingerprints and fine scuffs, and both can be re-grained in place years later. Mirror reflects every mark and cannot be repaired without stripping the whole panel, so it belongs on a bar or a front of house counter rather than behind a cookline. Put it where it will be seen and not touched.

Almost always the surface, not the steel. Tea staining is chloride discolouration, and rust spots usually come from carbon steel contamination: a mild steel offcut off the rack, grinding sparks from another trade, or swarf left behind during the fitout. Weld heat tint removes the passive layer locally and will corrode first. All of it responds to the right cleaner and re-passivation. A genuine material defect presents differently and is rare.

Yes, with the right grade. Within a few kilometres of the coast, specify 316 rather than 304, because airborne salt will eventually pit 304. Keep the surface rinsed, avoid crevices where salt sits wet, and favour a grain finish over mirror. Cleaning frequency matters more outdoors than indoors, because salt left sitting on the surface is the entire problem.

Stainless is one of the most hygienic bench surfaces available: non-porous, non-absorbent and cleanable. The reference point for food premises construction in Australia is AS 4674-2004, which is concerned with surfaces being smooth, impervious and free of crevices where soil accumulates. On a bench that means coved corners, welded joins rather than silicone, and no exposed fasteners on a food contact surface.

Fully welded and dressed, TIG welded on both top and frame. A welded frame is one rigid unit, so it does not rack, the legs do not splay, and the top does not walk off the frame after two years of service. Knock-down benches bolt together, which is cheaper to freight and easier through a tight door, but the joints work loose under commercial load. We build knock-down only where access genuinely requires it, and we say so before the quote.

Span and bracing decide it more than the top does. A 1.5mm top on a welded frame with a mid-span stiffener and an undershelf will carry a bench mixer or a full pot wash load without complaint. Long unsupported spans are the weak point, not the sheet. Tell us what will sit on it and where, and the bracing and undershelf get specified to suit rather than guessed at.

On food contact and visible surfaces, welds are ground and polished flush, then the grain is blended so the join cannot be picked. On frame work and structure, welds are left as laid. Heat tint from welding is removed and the area re-passivated, because tint is where corrosion starts. Dressing work on a mirror finish is substantially more involved, which is part of why mirror costs more.

Yes. Alongside 304 and 316 stainless we fabricate in aluminium, brass and copper. Aluminium suits structures where weight and cost matter more than corrosion resistance, while brass and copper suit bar tops, feature counters and restoration work where the metal itself is the finish. Each behaves differently under heat and under welding, so tell us the application rather than the alloy and we will advise on what will actually last.

Size it to the appliance line, then extend past the ends. A canopy has to cover the full length of the equipment beneath it and overhang the cooking surface on the open sides, with more overhang where the cookline sits against a wall or in a cross draught. AS 1668.2 sets the capture performance the system has to achieve, and overhanging the appliances is how you get there. No amount of fan speed fixes a canopy that does not capture.

Yes, if it is ventilating a commercial cooking process. AS 1668.2 is the mechanical ventilation standard, and a commercial kitchen exhaust is assessed against it for capture and exhaust performance. Compliance is a system property rather than a canopy property: canopy, duct, fan and make-up air have to work together, and it is proven by commissioning and airflow measurement, not by a spec sheet. We build canopies to AS 1668.2. See our exhaust canopies range.

Baffle filters are stainless, reusable, and arrest grease by turning the airflow through a series of directional changes. They handle heavy grease loads, go through a dishwash or soak cycle, and are the standard choice for commercial cooking. Mesh filters are cheaper and lighter and suit light duty or a tight space, but they load up faster and become a fire risk when cleaning slips. Baffle is the safer default.

The canopy is one part of four, and the others are duct, a fan sized to the run, and replacement make-up air. A canopy alone does not ventilate a kitchen: without make-up air the exhaust starves, the room runs negative, and doors pull or draughts appear. This is the boundary that most often blows a kitchen budget, so establish in writing who is providing each of the four before anyone signs.

Fire suppression is a separate system from the canopy and is required over most commercial cooking, especially with a fryer or solid fuel. It is supplied and maintained by a fire protection contractor, not the fabricator. A UV hood adds grease and odour control inside the canopy and suits sites with neighbours or discharge constraints. A condensation hood is a different product, used over dishwashers and combi ovens to manage steam.

Filters come out weekly in a busy kitchen and more often on heavy frying, and the duct and plenum need scheduled professional cleaning. Insurers increasingly ask for evidence of that cleaning, and a grease-loaded plenum is the most common reason a kitchen fire spreads beyond the cookline. The practical point at build stage is access: put panels into the duct run so it can actually be cleaned, because a sealed run never gets done.

Yes. We build island canopies, single and double sided wall canopies, and units to suit raked or low ceilings and corner layouts. Cooking in the middle of a room normally means an island canopy with a central duct riser, which affects the structural and ducting plan as much as the canopy itself. Send the ceiling height, the appliance layout and where the duct can discharge, and the geometry follows from those three.

It depends on the site, but the usual set is a food business licence from the local council, plumbing and drainage approval covering the sink, grease trap and trade waste, and a building or development approval where the fitout changes the building. Gas work needs its own compliance certificate. None of that is the fabricator’s to lodge, but the drawings and specifications we produce feed straight into all of it. Call us on 07 3888 7534 about a specific site.

We provide fabrication drawings, a specification sheet with grade, gauge and finish, and installation details. Those are what a private certifier or mechanical consultant needs from the bench and canopy supplier. What they will also ask for, from other parties, is the ventilation commissioning data, the plumbing and gas certificates and the food licence. Confirm in writing which documents come from whom, so nothing is assumed and left to the last week.

Where the kitchen serves aged care, a hospital, or a school assessed for inclusive access, working surfaces need to suit both seated and standing users. In practice that means a bench height commonly set between 800mm and 850mm, knee clearance with no undershelf or bracing in the knee zone, and reach ranges that keep the working area in front of the user. Settle it at drawing stage, because it changes the frame, not just the height.

Licensed trades, and not the fabricator. Plumbing and drainage, gas fitting and electrical work must be done and certified by the appropriately licensed contractor, which is a legal requirement rather than a preference. What we do is build the bench to suit the service positions the plumber and electrician have set, and cut tap and waste holes accordingly. Get those positions confirmed before fabrication starts, not after.

We quote at no charge, and a standard bench is usually back the same business day. Larger fitouts take about one business day once we have drawings or a clear brief. On jobs we are measuring and installing, the site measure is part of the job rather than a line item. If you sit outside South East Queensland, ask before booking a measure, because travel changes the calculation.

Five things, in order of impact: material grade and gauge, fabrication hours, finish, delivery, and installation access. 316 costs more than 304, and 2.0mm more than 1.2mm. Fabrication hours climb with welded bowls, coved corners, dressed welds and multiple cut-outs. Mirror sits well above satin. Then a three metre welded unit carried up a stairwell is real labour. Those five explain the price, not margin.

Because the scope is rarely the same, even when the drawing is. Check construction first: knock-down instead of fully welded. Check the sink: a drop-in bowl instead of a welded one. Check the exclusions: delivery, install, silicone, waste connection, and GST left off the number. Then check the schedule for what was quietly deleted. Compare line by line against the specification, not the total, because the total is the easiest thing to move.

Any single figure without a scope is meaningless, because fitout cost tracks the appliance list and the state of the room. The heavy variables are the canopy and exhaust run, whether cool room and refrigeration are included, how many benches and at what grade, and how much demolition and make-good the room needs. Send the appliance schedule and a plan, and the stainless scope gets broken out separately so you can see what fabrication itself costs. See our commercial kitchen fitouts.

Cheaper to buy, usually dearer to own. Imported units travel by sea with a long lead time, arrive in fixed sizes that may not suit the room, and often arrive lighter gauge than specified. Parts are not available locally, and nobody here can adjust a unit for an out of square wall. For a single temporary bench it can work. For a fitout you intend to run for ten years, it rarely does.

They solve different problems, and only one of them belongs in a commercial wash-down area. Stainless is heat tolerant, water tolerant, repairable, and weldable into a seamless hygienic surface, which is why food premises are built from it. Laminate chips and swells at the edges. Timber needs oiling and will not survive daily wet cleaning. Stone performs in front of house and stains, chips, and cannot take a hot pot off the stove.

Seven steps: brief, site measure, a drawing you approve, deposit, fabrication, delivery and install, then handover. Drawing approval is the gate, and nothing is cut until you have signed off dimensions, sink position, cut-outs and heights. Changes after that point cost money and move the date, so every decision touching the bench should be made before you approve. Get that right and the rest of the job runs quietly.

A standard bench typically runs one to two weeks from a confirmed order and an approved drawing. Full fitouts run longer and are governed by appliance lead times as much as by fabrication. Book early if the install falls near Christmas or the end of a quarter, when everyone wants the same week. The clock starts at deposit and drawing approval, not at the enquiry.

Often, because the workshop is ours rather than a container on the water. Urgent work moves when the drawing is simple and capacity allows, so the fastest path is a clear brief, a measured opening and a decision on grade, not a long specification conversation. Tell us at first contact that it is urgent and what the deadline actually is, and we will say honestly whether it is achievable.

The unit has to clear the tightest point on the path, which is usually a doorway or a stair turn. Measure that point before you order, along with lift car dimensions and any corner the bench has to negotiate, because a three metre welded unit does not bend. Where access is genuinely tight we can build in sections with a welded-in-situ joint, or arrange a crane or after-hours lift, but that is decided before fabrication and it affects price.

Often yes, and it is planned rather than improvised. The usual approach is a staged install with the new bench in before the old one comes out, or out-of-hours work across one or two nights. The constraint is rarely the stainless, it is the services: water, waste and power have to be isolated and reconnected by licensed trades, and food safety has to hold through the changeover. Agree the sequence in writing beforehand.

The room needs to be at the right stage: walls and floor finished or at least set out, services roughed in and in the agreed positions, gas and power isolated where they need to be, and clear access to the install location. If tiling or sheeting is still underway, the bench goes in and comes straight back out, and that becomes a second visit. Walk the site with us a week out.

It covers our workmanship and the installation: welds, joints, fixings, and anything we built or fitted that fails through our own work. It does not cover misuse, scratching from scourers and steel wool, corrosion from chloride cleaners left on the surface, or ordinary wear. Keep the cleaning regime right and almost nothing on that exclusion list happens. Read more about how we work.

Usually, yes. Light scratching and scuffing is re-grained in place along the existing grain direction, so the repair blends instead of leaving a bright patch across the top. A dent can often be worked out and re-finished, and a damaged section can be cut out and re-welded. A mirror finish is the exception, because it has to be re-polished off site. Most repairs are a short visit, not a replacement.

Warm water, mild detergent, a soft cloth or non-metallic pad, then rinse and dry. That is the whole regime. Damage comes from chlorides, meaning bleach, hypochlorite sanitisers and concentrated salt left wet on the surface, and from steel wool and wire brushes that leave carbon particles behind to rust. Dry the surface after cleaning, including under equipment, because trapped moisture causes the staining people blame on the steel. See our stainless steel guides.

Yes. Baffle filters, grease cups and trays, shelf brackets, feet and castors are all replaceable items. Because every unit is fabricated to your drawing rather than imported as a sealed package, a matching replacement can be made here rather than sourced from overseas, which matters most five years in when the original supplier has moved on.