Aga/rayburn owners - worktop question

[SayrraT]

Just wondering what type of worktop you have and how much of a gap you have round it.

We are doing our kitchen and the previous people had a gap of 380mm on the left (next to a wall), 250mm at the back (wall) and 70mm on right (units) round the rayburn. It looks terrible so I want to have the gaps covered when we do the worktop.

I've spoken to one company who recommended gaps between 30-100mm all round. I don't want a gap that big!

Loads of pictures on Google look like they are very close (maybe a tiny gap) so I wondered what other people have and if you have no gaps around have you had any issues?

Hi - we’ve a granite worktop and the clearance space at the sides looks to be about 8- 10mm absolute max. No gap at the back.

Aga fitted our oven then the kitchen guys worked around their spec. Looks good, no worries here. Hope you get it sorted!

I have granite, no gap at the back the granite goes from upstands along the worktop to a half moon shape behind the cooker & very small gap at the sides.

30-50mm is the normal recommended planning gap for range cookers as they need some wiggle room when installing. Unless you are planning on needing to move your rayburn it isn't usually necessary to leave more than 10mm.
Depending on the make and model they can need a gap leaving between the units and the side of the appliance, the worktop can be fitted overhanging the cabinets to sit more flush though.

The exception would be wood worktops which should be 100mm away ideally as the heat can make them warp and or dry out. Granite and quartz are generally best for fitting close to a rayburn/aga, but anything other than solid wood will be fine under normal use if it helps.

I have solid wood worktops with no gap, other than a very miniscule one for sealant. They have warped though as someone else said.

Thank you very much for all your responses.

Definitely no plans to move the rayburn so that's fine.

I had been thinking about wood worktops but if they need a gap then I might see what granite around the rayburn then wood everywhere else would look like.

Oddly enough the worktop woman said wood (with end cap) could be 30mm and laminate had to be 100mm. She never said anything about granite but getting answers was hard going. She answered one thing at a time and never seemed to think to add any additional information like "for rayburns we'd recommend granite over wood or laminate if the gap around is important".

Thank again everyone

We have Walnut surfaces. We only have work surface on one side (butchers block to allow hot pans to come out on other side. The gap is about an inch but it abuts the electrical control unit rather than the hotter oven. The cupboards below do have a slightly bigger gap. Ours have been there a long time without warping. We’ve just had the space between the Aga and the wall covered in as I was fed up trying to reach socks and tea towels from behind. The wood touches the back of the Aga where there is a lip.

Another granite here, with about a 50ml gap either side.

I have standard "plastic/formica" type worktops around my aga and the gap is about 5ml and silicon sealed. Never had any issues at all. 100mm is ridiculous. Maybe wood is different.

I suggest you call your local aga/rayburn shop who will install them all the time and ask them. My local aga shop also installs kitchens so would definitely know the answer.

30mm, Wood worktops, no warping (6 years or so)

You can find the technical manuals here: www.rayburn-web.co.uk/DirectoryList.asp?SD=United%20Kingdom%20and%20Ireland/Rayburn/
Remember that any gap is not just for preventing overheating of adjacent worktops etc, it is also needed for maintenance.

I looked at the manual but I didn't see anything about worktops. I'll look again.

It says the left needs to be 150mm away from the wall and on the right 10mm away which it is. It didn't say if you could then have worktop right up to the edge. I just don't want to make an expensive mistake!

Yes, I will speak to aga themselves but I wanted some real life experiences as well. There is an aga shop near my work so I'll either go in or give them a call today.

I don't particularly want granite/quartz but I was just thinking that I could maybe get granite to go around the rayburn then have wood next to it. Not sure how that would look

Thanks for all your answers

Without seeing your kitchen it's hard to say whether mixing wood and granite would look right. It can certainly be done nicely and is a reasonably common worksurface combination so worth trying if you prefer not to have a stone worktop throughout. Who are you looking at getting the kitchen from? They should be able to show you the options on the CAD drawings which will give you a fair idea if it will work for you.

Their technical helpline number is on their website, I've always found them helpful with any queries so could be worth giving them a call if you want to be certain what clearance is correct for your exact model.

My age is standalone I.e. nothing around it. It is also old.
I have another oven because I turn it off in the summer.

We are just putting the kitchen in ourselves and we got it 2nd hand from a friend who was changing their own kitchen.

I have a rough sketch at the moment but my uncle is a draughtsman so he will do a proper drawing for us.

Kitchen is a reasonable size, whole room is 8m x 4m and the kitchen area will be about 4m x 4m.

Gap around rayburn as below

Thats a really nice sized room SayrraT. Is there something underneath to support the planned worktop around the rayburn?

Not yet pickles but we will put a frame in once we know what we are doing!

Planning on having some comfy seats in the little odd bit at the end. The French doors look into the garden.

Going to try and visit some worktop places and the aga shop this weekend.

My Stanley (also an Aga/Raybuyrn product) is in a fireplace. It is surrounded on three sides by Fired Earth tiles (Tuscan I think), which are very tough and you can put hot Le Creuset on them without any issues.

The old Stanley came out and the new one slotted in without any problems.

I'll try and upload a pic later if I can find one.