Kitchen worktops in Alperton

Yes. Two entirely different jobs in one district: interwar semis with a rear kitchen and a lean-to being replaced by a proper extension, and canal-side apartment blocks with compact open-plan kitchen-living rooms where the worktop doubles as the only dining surface. In the flats the peninsula end usually needs a 300mm to 400mm overhang for stools, which means brackets or a thicker deck. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1930s semi, canal-side 2010s-2020s tower and post-war maisonette. A tower block runs one or two lifts for many floors, so a lift out of service postpones a job rather than making it harder. The carry is the constraint. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

The houses have driveways and easy kerbside loading; the towers along the canal have controlled underground parking with height barriers that a Luton or a tail-lift van will not clear, so the drop-off point needs confirming before the slab is loaded. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation, worktop templating 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. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. A day, not a project. Height restrictors on the apartment car parks are the recurring problem here, and the fix is a smaller vehicle plus a longer walk rather than a bigger crew.

Peninsulas frequently land on a lightweight partition or on units that were never fixed down, and stone needs proper support under it before it goes on. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. One datum for the whole room. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Plotted, not estimated. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.