Kitchen worktops in Ashburton

Yes. Estate-built semis and terraces with the original small rear kitchen, usually a 2.6-3m run with a larder recess. Owners here mostly replace worktops and doors rather than move walls, so the units stay and the stone has to work around existing cut-outs. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. Splashbacks are normally the last thing off, so a short parking window is exactly when they get rushed. One trip is always better than three.

inter-war semi, post-war estate housing, 1960s terrace and low-rise flats. The back door frequently opens straight into the kitchen, which is the best carry route in the house and the one people forget to mention. The carry is the easy part; the plaster around the old breast and the packing over a moved floor are not. That is the shape of the day.

Wide roads with verges and unrestricted parking, so the van gets close; most houses have a short concrete path and a low front wall rather than a drive. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, 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 fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. Reusing existing carcasses means the old laminate has to come off without wrecking the units, and any belfast sink or overhanging hob needs the cabinet rails checked for level first.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Carcasses have to be sound first. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. 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.

Consent for the work sits with the freeholder or the managing body, and getting it in writing first avoids a crew arriving to a locked door. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Protection goes down first. 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.