Building a shop counter?

[Pot Bellied Fool]

I need to build a counter in the new unit. It's going to be a service counter for the dropoff/collection of PCs for repair (and associated sales of bits & bobs).

'L' Shaped. About 15ft long and then a right angle and about 5ft to a wall.

This doesn't need to be a real nice mega bucks installation from a shopfitter. I can't afford those sort of prices so need to do it fairly cheaply myself (well, I have a good local joiner who can install & get it level ).

I'm thinking along the lines of kitchen worktop material as I can get that fairly cheaply but then what to do to provide the facing elevation?

I can always re-do it in the future but for now I need a fairly cheap option that will get us working in the new place.

I'm sure many other PHers have faced similar situations so... How do you build a shop counter?

(I've been looking on eBay of course but new stuff is silly price and anything else is too big/old/transport nightmare so building in-situ is probably easier in the long run).

Cheers - Dunc.

Edited by Pot Bellied Fool on Saturday 16th May 16:27

[Steve H]

Plastic tongue and groove, like the stuff used by fascia and soffet installers is quite cheap and hardwearing

Edited by Steve H on Saturday 16th May 16:51

[sam.r]

I had a firework shop for 2 weeks so needed this cheap....

We went for a wooden frame with a kitchen top and at the front a good quality banner from the top to floor. Looked quite neat and was cheap as chips.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Steve H said:

Plastic tongue and groove, like the stuff used by fascia and soffet installers is quite cheap and hardwearing

Now that's interesting. I saw a counter done like that recently & wondered where the stuff had come from.

Thanks for that.

Any other ideas, keep 'em coming chaps!

[V12Les]

Just built a recpetion area for a garage workshop.
Studwork (CLS) frame with a worktop (Magnet) and fronted with WBP ply. Make sure all the joints are neat and cover with a 3mmdeep hardwood trim and the screws line up and paint with a roller.
All done in a day (larger than your dimensions), cheap as bugger(£120 materials) and looks perfect

[Taita]

Where abouts in Liverpool are you?

[jas xjr]

You could also use slatwall to face the counter.it's available in lots of finishes and colours

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Taita said:

Where abouts in Liverpool are you?

Southport now, Crosby shortly

(I live in Crosby so looking forward to walking to work for a change!)