Hi dinkidi4, I'm dealing with the same thing right now. I did paint some of the walls white, which have been good for the time I've been here before doing the 'real' job, however, I don't want this really textured look from the bricks as there are too many walls. I'm about to try Dulux Acra tex on a wall to see if it gives a smoother bagged finish. So still showing the brick lines but not so rough. I'll show photos of the original bricks. Dark, very textured with lots of holes and missing bits of brick as well as deep grout grooves. Such a hard decision - cost and I don't want to make it a flat boring plasterboard house. I have extremely high cathedral ceilings so not a cheap job to plaster either. Excuse the white box - I was playing with it to look at removing arches. Any thing else you've found out since would be a great help

You are required a set down area of a minimum of 200mm either side of a cook top (I'd recommend more though as I don't like to feel like my pots are hanging over the edge of the bench). Your 3m width will leave enough for a small sink (400mm width?) so a quick calculation 600mm settle down + 900mm cooktop + 400mm sink = 1.9m... plenty leftover space in the 3m Good luck! Sophie

Although I'm not a professional in the matter, I've worked with enough bench tops to know that its good to find a happy medium when it comes to the thickness (or thinness) of bench tops. The thinner the top the more prone it is to cracking, instability etc. Not saying you have to get the thickest bench top around, but talk to a few professionals about what the daily usage looks like. How its being affixed, ie if you have a waterfall bench top etc, makes a lot of difference too.

Hi Wally, when your tops were made, all the corners and folds were welded and flushed, whereby making invisible joins. You could now get a Stainless Steel Fabricator back in to weld up these holes and then flush the welds and resurface the whole benchtop; bringing it back to its original condition and making the holes invisible. Hope this is of help to you. Malcolm