Kitchen worktops in Bayswater

Yes. Huge stucco houses cut into six or eight flats, so kitchens are small and often windowless - a 2.2m run with a combination microwave and no dishwasher is common in the letting stock. The better garden-square flats have proper kitchens with a 3m run and a breakfast bar. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. Upstands travel in a crate and can wait on the van, which gives some flexibility a full-height panel does not. One trip is always better than three.

Victorian stucco terrace, multi-flat conversion, hotel conversion and garden-square mansion flat. A villa cut into flats leaves kitchens in rooms that were never kitchens, with services run to wherever they could physically be made to reach. What the old top has been hiding is usually a floor that settled towards the back and units that were never fixed back to the wall. What is under the old top is the real question.

Almost all flats are conversions with a shared front door, a wide but long communal stair, and no lift above the second floor. Parking is metered and permanently full, and the hotel traffic on the main roads blocks the kerb all day. A walk-up with winders at every half-landing means the piece is rested and re-gripped on the way, so the crew size goes up before the piece size comes down. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. Where kitchens turn over between tenancies the priority is a surface that survives a decade of being treated as a chopping board. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. High-turnover rental flats want the cheapest workable spec, so keep it to a plain square-edge quartz with a matching upstand - budget dictates the material here more than taste does.

A peninsula is an island with one end tied to a run, which means the join between them has to be planned rather than allowed to happen. Upstands follow the run exactly, so every internal and external corner is a separate mitred or butted piece. The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted. 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. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. 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.

Where the owner is not local, the decisions happen remotely, so photographs and a clear itemised drawing carry more weight than a showroom visit ever would. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. 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.