Kitchen worktops in Arnos Grove

Yes. Semis around Bowes Road with the original small rear kitchen still in place in a lot of cases, plus a fair number of converted maisonettes where the kitchen is a narrow galley in the back addition, 600mm clear between runs. Galley layouts here mean two parallel tops rather than one long one. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. Access out counts as much as access in.

1930s semi, 1930s purpose-built flat and post-war maisonette. These kitchens are full of boxed soil stacks, gas risers and heating pipework, and the boxing usually stops short of the ceiling. A mansion block is a logistics job before it is a stone job. What is behind the old splashback decides the new one.

Bowes Road and the North Circular approach carry heavy traffic with no stopping, so access comes off the quieter residential streets. Maisonettes have their own front door and a straight stair, usually with a tight turn at the top. The measurement that decides everything is the diagonal between the underside of the flight above and the outer edge of the turn below it. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Banisters and door frames are padded before anything moves.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A slipped slot takes the next one with it. In a true galley the two runs have to be templated together - if one wall bows the gap closes and the appliance doors stop clearing.

Both runs are in view at the same time, so the two pieces are taken off the same area of slab and the veining is set to run the same way on each side. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Laminate hides what the gables are really doing. A stack boxed diagonally across a corner leaves a triangle of dead space, and the top is cut to that triangle rather than to a square return. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Offered up twice, bonded once. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. A cleared crew arrives with its paperwork done. 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.

The tap and waste have to be disconnected by a plumber before we start and reconnected once the stone is in. Carcasses stay. Surface changes. That is the whole of it. The template can be taken with the old top still down, which is why one visit covers both. Where the frontage is a clearway the unload happens away from the door and the carry gets longer, which is a crew and time question rather than a stone one. 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. Waste needs a space of its own and the street rarely offers one.

The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we fit. Every piece is dry-assembled on the bench before it is loaded, so a fabrication mistake is found in the workshop rather than in your kitchen. Chips at an edge or a corner are the usual form, because that is where stone is least supported. There is no leaning a piece against a wall halfway up, so any flight longer than a dozen treads is planned around a rest point on a landing. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. Four hands or eight is settled before the tail lift drops.

The check comes before the measuring rather than after, because the whole drawing is set out from that plane. A long top on units that were shimmed once and never checked is the commonest version of this, and it is cheap to fix beforehand. Where the boxing stands proud of the finished wall the upstand behind it has to be broken into separate lengths, because one piece cannot pass it. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Sealant seals. It does not fit.

The tap hole is drilled in the workshop too, and its position depends on how far the tap has to swing. Undermount bowls are cut and polished in the workshop and dry-fitted to the stone on the bench before anything is loaded. A piece with a bowl and a hob cut into it is the fragile one, and it is handled accordingly. A galley closed at one end takes a short return across the top, and that little piece carries the same edge work, the same handling and nearly the same cost as a full length. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. A corner that was butted can be mitred this time.