Kitchen worktops in Arsenal

Yes. Tight Edwardian terraces with small rear kitchens of 2.4-3m sitting a few hundred metres from converted stadium apartments with modern open-plan kitchens, fitted islands and square walls. Two completely different fits, and the terraces rarely have room to change the layout at all. Where an event closes the road entirely, the van cannot be moved once it is in, which is a different problem from not being able to park at all. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. Two hours is the realistic figure.

Edwardian terrace, converted stadium apartment, Victorian terrace and post-war block. Half-landings mean the back of the house sits at a slightly different level from the front, and a knocked-through kitchen crosses that line. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Matchday road closures and residents-only enforcement make scheduling the real problem, since anything booked on a fixture day is effectively lost. The apartment blocks have controlled underground parking and service lifts that need booking in advance. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. A plumber either side of us. Book template and fit dates around the fixture list, because a closed road on the day wastes the whole slot and the material comes straight back on the van.

An island is a single visible piece with four finished edges and no wall to hide against, so it is the piece the whole kitchen is judged on. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. One datum for the whole room. Where a corner is a couple of degrees off, a mitre cut to a theoretical ninety degrees opens on the wall side and there is no closing it afterwards. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. The laminate has been covering it up. 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. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. 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.