Kitchen worktops in Aldborough Hatch

Yes. A low-density pocket on the edge of the Fairlop plain with a scattering of older cottages alongside post-war detached houses, so kitchen shapes vary a lot — some low-ceilinged and beamed with awkward window positions, others straightforward square rooms taking a simple U. Rear extensions here tend to be single-storey garden rooms rather than full side returns. On a street with no restrictions the constraint is other residents rather than a warden, so it is worth putting a cone or a car out early. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

older cottage, 1930s semi, post-war detached and 1960s estate house. The window sits in the middle of the run over the sink, and its board and cill set the limit on how tall an upstand can be. The fitting itself is about squaring up to walls that look modern and are not: block or breeze walls with a skim that has been patched over decades, so we still dry-lay and scribe rather than trust the template edge. That is the shape of the day.

Semi-rural feel with verges, unrestricted parking and generous frontages, so unloading is easy; the older cottages have low door heads and narrow openings that dictate how a slab is carried in. Where the van stands level with the front of the house a piece gets handled twice instead of five times, and stone breaks on handling rather than on the road. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. Two to three hours on site, with the sink, tap and hob physically present. Appliances on site, not on order. The older properties out here have uneven floors, so levelling the base units properly matters more than usual before any stone goes down.

The advantage of a U is that every join can be put over a gable in a corner, so nothing lands in the middle of a clear length. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. Window boards and cills stand proud of the plaster, so the back edge of the top has to be plotted to where the units actually sit rather than to the wall. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. Material runs from £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines rather than rolled into one figure.

The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. The templater needs the sink, tap and hob on site, and a Belfast sink installed at its final height. No stone is cut from a plan. Tell us the building when you book and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice get built into the day rather than found on it.