Kitchen worktops in Belgravia

Yes. The stucco terraces put the kitchen in the lower ground floor, usually as part of a basement remodel with a lightwell and a rear vault, so the room is long, narrow and artificially lit. Islands are common but slim - 900mm wide rather than 1.2m - and the material is almost always a large-format marble or a marble-look sintered slab. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. Slack in the day gets spent on the street or on the fit.

Grade II stucco terrace, Cubitt townhouse, mews house and period mansion flat. A basement is often reached by its own door under the front steps, and that door is smaller than anything else on the route. We measure the front door, the hall width and the turn into the kitchen before anything comes off the van, because a 3m piece has to swing through that corner on edge and stone does not bend to help you. The units are shimmed to one datum before stone touches them.

Listed status and estate landlord consent govern everything, works hours are policed by the managing agent and neighbours, skips are effectively banned so waste goes out by hand, and slabs come down an external area stair or through the front door and down a stone flight with a tight turn at the bottom. Pendant fittings over the stairwell and anything hung on the half-landing come down first, because a piece on edge sweeps a wider arc than the people carrying it. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Four hands or eight is settled before the tail lift drops.

Worktop installation, in that order. Quartz suits let property well: no sealing, no annual maintenance, and nothing an incoming tenant has to be told to look after. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. A tenant moves in on the date on the contract. Basement kitchens here run long and thin, so the slab has to be brought in on edge down a stair with limited headroom - measure the stair soffit, that is what limits piece length, not the room.

Where an overhang is too deep for steel on its own the choice is a leg at the end or a bracket underneath, and a bracket that lands where a knee goes is worse than no bracket at all. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. The island is set against the perimeter, not a wall. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. The gap closes on the grinder, not in the sealant gun. Supply only, material begins at £110 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on separate lines rather than as one number.

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. The signature at the end belongs to somebody with authority. Describe the building when you book and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice get built into the schedule rather than met on the day.

A sloping floor is not the problem. The plane the unit tops finish in is. Levelling belongs in the carcasses, on their own legs and packers. An island is where this usually shows, standing free with no wall to level against. A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Level is checked across the room, not along one wall.

Undermount bowls are cut and polished in the workshop and dry-fitted to the stone on the bench before anything is loaded. The sink, tap and hob have to be physically in the room at the template, not merely ordered, because the cut-out is machined to the item itself. Nothing is cut out in the kitchen. Cutting a bowl on site is how worktops get cracked. A corbel on show under an overhang is a decision about how the piece looks from a stool, so it gets settled alongside the edge profile rather than left to whoever fits it. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Steel under the overhang before stone goes near it.

A seal is not waterproofing. It only buys time to wipe a spill up. Granite tells you when the seal wants topping up: water stops beading on the surface and starts darkening it instead. Where a top takes wine, oil and lemon most days, the non-porous materials ask least of the household. Georgian houses put the kitchen in a basement or a rear closet wing, and the stairs down to it are the tightest part of the whole route. Scribing takes longer than the carry does, so the quiet half of the day is the half that runs over. Fixings go into what the wall actually is.

A full-height piece behind the hob has to allow for the extractor, so that gets settled first. An upstand is a slim strip that follows the worktop up the wall; a full-height splashback runs from the worktop to the underside of the wall units. Walls are thick, lime-plastered and built in a soft brick, so they take a scribe well and take a fixing badly. Pieces are stood on edge for the turns and carried flat for the straights, and that sequence is agreed before anything comes off the van. Soft brick takes a different plug to blockwork.