For Top Build Carpentry, growth has not come from making life simpler. If anything, owner and founder Karl Malone has built a reputation for saying yes to the jobs other people might prefer to avoid. And, as the company has grown, Lamello’s fixing systems have become an increasingly important part of how those ambitious ideas are turned into finished furniture.
From awkward angles and intricate wine walls to bespoke media units, understairs storage and increasingly ambitious fitted furniture, challenging projects have become something of a speciality for the Tamworth-based business.
“If there are loads of angles and awkwardness and somebody else sees it as a challenge, that’s the kind of job we like,” says Karl. “We don’t want to build a square box every day.”
It is an approach that is paying off. Around 90% of Top Build’s work remains residential – much of it generated through recommendations and longstanding relationships with interior designers – but the commercial side is growing too. The company has recently secured its largest project to date – a four-year contract building over 400 media walls for a care-home chain.
Now Karl is looking at premises around seven times the size of Top Build’s current operation, potentially doubling or tripling the team and adding further CNC capacity.
Behind that ambition is something less visible than a new workshop or another machine: a manufacturing system that Karl believes is becoming increasingly repeatable. Lamello has become an important part of it.
Karl first invested in a Zeta P2 around four years ago, initially seeing the P-System as a way of tackling more complicated furniture designs. Today, both the corded and cordless Zeta P2 machines are used alongside Tenso P-14, Clamex P-14 and Divario P-18 connectors.
“Now, design-wise, there’s not much you could chuck at us that we wouldn’t be comfortable having a go at,” he says. “Whatever the shape or angle, we know we’ve got a Lamello fixing that can help us make it work.”
That flexibility remains important, particularly during fitting. The cordless Zeta P2 is frequently taken to site for face trims and fillers, while the corded machine is Karl’s preference for sustained workshop use.
While the Zeta P2 remains a regular sight in the workshop and on site, it is Cabineo and CNC production that have really changed the way Top Build works. Top Build currently operates two CNC machines and Karl is already discussing a third and potentially fourth as the business expands. Around half of the company’s CNC work now incorporates Cabineo.
“The whole point of Cabineo for me is accuracy,” he says. “You combine the precision of the CNC with the fixing, and you get exactly what you’re looking for.”
Lamello’s downloadable CNC data helped Top Build introduce the connector into its machining process, and Cabineo 12 and Cabineo X are now programmed into the company’s CAD/CAM workflow. Top Build has even developed its own rules around connector positioning so workshop staff can immediately identify details such as the front and back of a component without further instruction.
It sounds like a small detail, but for Karl it is exactly this kind of standardisation that makes growth possible.
“The more the business grows, the more I realise how important systems are,” he says. “Once we move into the new workshop and implement more of them, that’s what will allow us to grow at a steadier pace.”
Two recent projects show just how far Top Build has taken that approach.
For a 3.5m-high hexagonal wine wall combining oak, black-stained oak, stone surfaces and two large wine fridges, CNC-machined positioning and Lamello connectors were used to achieve the symmetry and accuracy Karl wanted.
“That project wasn’t about rushing,” he says. “It was about creating the most premium finish and getting the most accurate result possible. Without Lamello, we would genuinely have struggled to achieve the same finish.”
An understairs wine cellar in Liverpool presented a different challenge. Because Top Build was travelling from the Midlands, accuracy in the workshop and straightforward installation on site were critical. The intricate structure incorporated angled champagne bottle storage and was manufactured in four transportable sections using a combination of CNC machining and the Zeta P2.
“We put the effort in at the workshop so that when we arrived on site it was like putting a jigsaw back together,” Karl explains. “Once the trims were fitted, you would never know it had been made in four sections.”
That ability to manufacture accurately, transport efficiently and assemble without compromising the finished appearance has become increasingly valuable as Top Build takes on larger and more complex work.
Karl is now turning his attention towards bespoke kitchens alongside the company’s established wardrobes, media walls and fitted furniture work. The next workshop will bring more space, more CNC capacity and, if current plans come to fruition, a considerably larger team.
Top Build’s growth story is clearly bigger than any one machine or fixing system. But listening to Karl, it’s equally clear that Lamello has helped shape the way the business now approaches production – and given him confidence that the same processes can work on a much larger scale.
“Lamello has certainly helped us move forward,” he concludes. “Once we saw what we could do with Cabineo, the speed and, more importantly, the accuracy, it helped set the path for where the business was going. Now, looking at a much bigger workshop and a very busy order book, having that reliability behind us makes the step up feel a lot less daunting.”
