01The four zones, and what each one actually needs
Read down the middle column: the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive zone is not the plate thickness, it is the grade and the edge.
The wash zone is where 316L earns its extra cost, and it is the only zone in a normal kitchen where it does. Prep and pass see food, not chloride; store sees neither.
02Prep: the zone that takes the knife
A prep bench is cut on, not just used on. That changes two things and leaves the rest alone.
- Plate, not skin — 5–6 mm solid plate, because a 1.2 mm top over a frame dents where a knife point lands and cannot be dressed back.
- No knife-edge detail — a folded lip is a place for soil to collect. A square, machined edge is easier to clean and easier to replace.
- Drainage — if the bench is butchery or fish, a fall to a drain and a raised rear upstand, not a flat top with a cloth.
- Sound — plate rings. A 5 mm top on a frame without a mid-span cross member resonates under a cleaver; one cross member fixes it and costs almost nothing.
We build prep benches as a solid-plate top on a welded frame, with the top and frame delivered as one unit. That is different from a fitted countertop and it matters when the unit has to be moved for a deep clean.
03The pass: heat, plate and reach
The pass is a shelf that happens to be a countertop, and it fails in the direction of heat.
A plated dish arrives at 60–70 °C and is set down on the same spot a hundred times a service. Over months, a thin top over a void will dish at that spot. The answer is not a thicker plate — it is plate that is continuously supported, and a pass shelf that is welded to its brackets rather than resting on them.
The second failure is reach. A pass is dimensioned from both sides, and the useful depth is 600 mm from the kitchen side plus whatever the front-of-house side can reach without leaning. We dimension pass tops from the kitchen-side datum and mark the front edge reach on the drawing, because that is the number a service manager will want changed after the first week.
04Wash-up: where 316L earns its price
The wash zone sees hot water, detergent and, in most commercial kitchens, a chlorine-based sanitiser. Chloride is what attacks 304, and a wash bench sits in it every day.
| Item | 304 | 316L | What we recommend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily chlorinated sanitiser | Pitting within 2–3 years | Holds indefinitely | 316L |
| Steam and condensate | Surface staining | Holds | 316L |
| Salt and vinegar contact | Etches | Etches more slowly | 316L, rinsed |
| Dry store, no contact | Holds | Holds | 304, save the money |
Two more decisions matter here. Splash zones at the wall should be the same grade as the bench, because a 304 upstand behind a 316L bench will be the first thing to pit. And the floor junction should be a coved skirting or a sealed plinth, not a bead of silicone, because a silicone bead in a wash zone is a maintenance item with a two-year life.
05What an inspector actually looks at
Whatever the local code says, the same five things get checked, and all five are joint decisions.
Which is why our drawings mark every joint, not just every dimension. The full rule set for each market is on the food contact compliance pages; the Australia-specific council requirements are set out separately, and the EU and UK position is a different document again.
06What a zone-by-zone quote needs
Send a plan with the four zones marked, and a line per unit: length, depth, height, what goes on it, and what is cleaned with. We will quote each zone as a separate line with its own grade and edge, so you can see that the wash zone is the expensive one and the store room is not.
Lead time is 15 working days from a confirmed drawing, delivered flat-packed by zone with the frames welded and the tops protected on edge. Every piece carries an inspection sheet recording dimensions, joint type and grade, which is the document a fit-out contractor needs at handover and the document a warranty claim is settled against.
Commercial stainless steel countertops · Writing a prep bench specification · Countertop technical data · Send a drawing for quotation