Quick answer
Handing means taking one kitchen design and manufacturing it both ways, left-handed and right-handed, off a single cut list, because the two units mirror each other across a party wall. It is not the same as building identical kitchens or standardising types. On a terrace, Lots 1 and 2 are the same kitchen flipped, so you draw and price it once, flag the hand per lot, and run both hands off the same machine program. The volume price and the batch build hold, and the plumber and electrician get mirrored services either side of the wall.
Key points
- Handing is one design built two ways, left and right, off the same cut list, because terrace units mirror across the party wall.
- It is not typing and not identical units: the kitchen is a single spec flipped, not a second type and not a repeat of the same hand.
- One design drawn and priced once means the volume price and the batch build hold across the pair.
- The maker flags each panel left or right and runs both hands off one machine program, so a left and a right come off the same nest.
- Mirrored units put plumbing and electrical back to back on the party wall, which the plumber and electrician run as one set-out.
Seven townhouses in a row in Glen Eden, one long roof line, and the drawings arrive as seven kitchen sheets. Read them properly and there are not seven kitchens on the job. Lots 1 and 2 are the same kitchen mirrored across their party wall, so are 3 and 4, so are 5 and 6. Lot 7 is the wider unit on the end and stands on its own. That is three handed pairs and one exception, built from a much smaller pile of drawings than the sheet count suggests.
Handing is the word for that mirror. It is what lets one kitchen design go down the terrace as a left-handed unit and a right-handed unit off the same cut list, and it is worth understanding on its own, because it is not the same job as standardising kitchen types or building identical units. Here is how handing works, why it protects the price and the build, and what to watch on the end unit.
Handing is not typing, and it is not identical
These three ideas get used loosely on a development, so it is worth pinning them down. Standardising kitchen types is collapsing many different lot plans into two or three named kitchens, A, B and C, that repeat. Building identical kitchens across a development is one type repeated the same way over many lots. Handing is narrower than both: it is a single design manufactured in two mirror-image versions, a left hand and a right hand, because the two units it goes into are mirror images of each other.
The distinction matters because a handed pair is still one kitchen for pricing and one setup for manufacture. A left and its right share every cabinet width, every door, every drawer box, every benchtop detail. Only the assembly order flips. Treat the two as separate kitchens and you have doubled your type count for no reason and thrown away the saving. Note the hand against the lot and the pair stays one line on the schedule.
Why terrace units come in handed pairs
Terraces and townhouse blocks are drawn as mirror pairs on purpose. Two units share a party wall, and the cheapest way to build is to put the wet areas and the services back to back against that shared wall, so one run of drainage, one set of penetrations and one services wall does for both units. The kitchens follow the plumbing. If Lot 1's sink and appliances sit against the party wall on the right, Lot 2's sit against the same wall on its left, and the two kitchens come out as mirror images without anyone choosing it as a style.
Because the units are built around standard kitchen sizes and layouts for NZ townhouses, the runs land on the same module map on both sides of the wall. Same lengths, same cabinet widths, same bench runs, hand reversed. That is the ideal case for handing: nothing changes but the mirror, so the pair is genuinely one kitchen built twice in opposite hands.
A handed pair is one design flipped across the party wall.
Handing protects the volume price and the batch
The reason a development kitchen is cheaper than a one-off is repetition, and handing keeps the repetition intact across a mirrored pair. If you let a left and a right be priced and built as two different kitchens, the identical count halves: instead of the workshop proving one design and running it twice, it sets up twice, prices twice and checks twice. Handed properly, the pair counts as one design for the volume price, and the discount steps that come with quantity keep climbing because the identical count stays high.
The batch build works the same way. A left and a right come off the same cut list, so they are cut in the same nest, edged in the same run and assembled back to back on the bench. The setup, the proving of the first box, the program on the machine, all of it is done once and serves both hands. Split the pair into two jobs and you pay the setup twice for two kitchens that were always the same kitchen.
One cut list, two hands: how the maker sets it up
Here is the part that makes handing real on the workshop floor. The design is drawn and specced once. Every cabinet, every width in millimetres, every door and drawer, the bench runs, the hardware, all of it is fixed for the design, not for the lot. Then the cut list is nested with the hand carried as a flag: this panel is for a left-hand unit, that one for a right-hand unit, but they come from the same program and the same sheets of board.
On the machine, a left and a right run off the same program with the drilling and the hinge boring mirrored. Good cutting software handles the mirror automatically, so the maker is not drawing a second kitchen, they are telling the same kitchen to come out the other way round. The panels are labelled with the lot and the hand, boxed as pairs, and sent to site as Lot 1 left with Lot 2 right, so the install crew fits a pair at a time and never has to work out which hand goes where.
A left and a right come off the same program, mirrored automatically.
| Lots | Handing | Manufacture |
|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Design A, left and right | One cut list, both hands run together |
| 3 and 4 | Design A, left and right | Same cut list, both hands |
| 5 and 6 | Design A, left and right | Same cut list, both hands |
| 7 | Wider end unit, single hand | Its own cut list, built as the exception |
The end unit is the managed exception
Almost every terrace has one unit that does not pair, and it is usually the end. On this job Lot 7 was the wider unit on the corner of the block, with an extra bench run and a different services wall, so it does not mirror Lot 6 or anything else. Forcing it to be a handed version of the pair would mean cutting the kitchen about on site, so it does not get forced. It gets its own cut list and is built as a genuine one-off, the same way a lot that fits no type earns its own type.
The discipline is to name the exception and stop there. One end unit on its own cut list is fine: it is a known, priced one-off sitting alongside three clean handed pairs. What hurts is letting the exception spread, a small change to Lot 5 because it sits next to the corner, a tweak to Lot 3 to match, until the pairs stop being pairs and the batch falls apart. Keep the exception to the one lot that genuinely earns it and the rest of the terrace stays on rails.
Mirrored services are a gift to the plumber and electrician
Handing is not only a workshop saving. Because the two units mirror across the party wall, their plumbing and electrical mirror with them, and that is real value for the other trades. The sink wastes, the tap feeds, the appliance points and the switch runs sit back to back on the shared wall, so the plumber sets out one side and mirrors it for the other instead of reading two different kitchens. The rough-in for a pair is close to one job done twice the same way.
That only holds if the kitchen keeps the services in the mirror, which is another reason to hand the design cleanly rather than letting the two units drift apart. The appliances, the plumbing and the electrical are supplied and connected by others, but the kitchen sets the positions they work to. Leave the sink, the appliance spaces and the points in a true mirror and the plumber and electrician get a set-out they can repeat down the pair. Break the mirror and they are back to reading each unit on its own.
- One drainage set-out on the party wall does for both units, run once and mirrored.
- Tap feeds and appliance points sit back to back, so the rough-in for the pair repeats.
- The electrician wires one hand and mirrors it, instead of reading two kitchens.
- The kitchen leaves the spaces and points; the plumbing, electrical and appliances are connected by others.
The lots mirror across the wall, so the kitchens do too. Hand the design once and a left and a right come off the same cut list, same price, same batch.
Keeping the spec consistent down the pairs
A handed job lives or dies on the spec staying still. Because a left and a right are the same design, any change to the design has to flow to both hands at once, or the pair stops being a pair. That is the everyday work of keeping the kitchen spec consistent across the units: one version-controlled spec per design, the hand noted against each lot, and every change made to the design and re-issued, not scribbled onto one unit.
Do that and the handing schedule reads as cleanly at the end of the job as it did at the start: Design A in Lots 1 to 6 as three handed pairs, and the wider layout in Lot 7 as the exception. The build, the price and the QA all key to that one page, and every question about which hand goes in Lot 4 has an answer that does not depend on anyone's memory.
What goes wrong on a handed job
- A left and a right are treated as two kitchens, so the type count doubles and the volume price is lost.
- Panels or cabinets are not labelled by hand, so a left-hand carcass turns up for a right-hand unit.
- The end unit's differences leak into the paired lots, and the pairs quietly become one-offs.
- A change is made to one hand and not the other, so the mirror breaks and the services stop lining up.
- The handing is not marked on the schedule, so the workshop and the site are guessing which way each kitchen runs.
What to lock before the first pair is cut
- The handing schedule: each design, the lots it covers, and the hand, left or right, for every lot.
- The end or corner unit named as its own kitchen, priced and cut as the managed exception.
- One version-controlled spec per design, so a change flows to both hands at once.
- The cut list set up to run both hands off one program, with panels flagged and labelled by lot and hand.
- The mirrored services confirmed with the plumber and electrician, so the rough-in repeats down each pair.
Send the terrace and the party walls
A handed terrace is not a complicated job. It is a well-read one. Spot the mirror pairs, hand each design once, name the end unit as the exception, and run both hands off the same cut list so the price and the batch hold all the way down the row. Keep the services in the mirror and the plumber and electrician get a set-out they can repeat.
MTN Kitchens runs its own East Tāmaki workshop, 23 years, more than 2,000 kitchens, ten-plus a week, Laminex NZ accredited and Tōtika Performing. We read a terrace for its handed pairs as a matter of course, cut a left and a right off one program, and label the pairs so they land on site the right way round. Appliances, plumbing and electrical are by others; we supply and install the cabinetry, benchtops and sink benches, and leave the mirrored spaces and services for the other trades. Send the terrace plans and the party wall lines through our developer service and a trade-priced package comes back inside 24 hours, plus GST, with the handing marked lot by lot.
Frequently asked questions
What does handing a kitchen mean?
Handing means manufacturing one kitchen design in two mirror-image versions, a left hand and a right hand, off the same cut list. It happens when two units mirror each other across a party wall, so their kitchens come out as mirror images. The two hands share every cabinet width, door, drawer and benchtop detail; only the assembly order flips. A handed pair is one design and one price, not two kitchens.
How is handing different from standardising kitchen types?
Standardising types collapses many different lot plans into a small set of named kitchens, A, B and C, that repeat across a development. Handing is narrower: it takes a single design and builds it both ways because two units mirror across their shared wall. A handed pair stays one type with the hand flagged, not two types. You can hand within a type, so a Type A can appear as A left-hand and A right-hand down a terrace.
Do a left-hand and a right-hand kitchen cost the same to build?
Yes, near enough, because they are the same design off one cut list. The workshop draws and prices the design once, nests both hands in the same run, and proves the first box once for the pair. The mirror is handled by the cutting software, so a right hand is not a second kitchen to draw. The only real cost of handing is careful labelling, so the left and right land at the right units on site.
How does a workshop cut a left and a right off the same program?
The design is specced once, then the cut list is nested with each panel flagged for a left-hand or a right-hand unit. On the machine, the drilling and hinge boring are mirrored automatically, so both hands come off the same program and the same sheets of board. Panels are labelled with the lot and the hand and boxed as pairs. The maker is not drawing a second kitchen, only telling the same one to come out the other way round.
What about the end unit that does not have a mirror pair?
Almost every terrace has one unit, usually the end or corner, that does not pair, because it is wider, has an extra run, or its services sit on a different wall. It gets named as the managed exception and built on its own cut list as a genuine one-off. The important discipline is to keep its differences to that one lot and not let them leak into the paired units either side, or the clean handed pairs quietly turn into a row of one-offs.
How do mirrored kitchens help the plumber and electrician?
Because the two units mirror across the party wall, their services mirror too. The sink wastes, tap feeds, appliance points and switch runs sit back to back on the shared wall, so the plumber and electrician set out one side and mirror it for the other rather than reading two different kitchens. The rough-in for a pair is close to one job done twice the same way. The kitchen sets the positions; the plumbing, electrical and appliances are connected by others.
Should handing be marked on the kitchen schedule?
Yes, always. The handing schedule names each design, the lots it covers and the hand, left or right, for every lot, with the end or corner exception listed on its own line. That one page prices the job, sets the manufacture batches and answers every question about which way a given lot runs. Left unmarked, the workshop and the install crew are guessing the hand, which is where a left-hand carcass ends up at a right-hand unit.