Post machining of treated components after laser cladding are necessary in most cases. Depending on the quality of the chosen material this job could be laborious and time consuming. By preparing grooves of a certain design on the work piece before laser cladding, the excess material to be removed can be minimized and post machining operations facilitated. The paper describes experimental works with laser cladding in pre-made grooves on cast iron specimens to investigate the influence of special groove design on the cladding results. The results are discussed in terms of macro surface roughness, efficient layer thickness, residual stress in the cladded layer and base material intermixing in the cladding. The results indicate that laser cladding in grooves is a way to reduce cladding material consumption and to increase the coating rate.