Kitchen worktops in Blackfriars

Yes. Riverside flats put the living space against the glazing and the kitchen against the core, so the run is 3-3.5m with a peninsula facing the river and one polished exposed end on show. Older commercial conversions here have thick masonry cross-walls, meaning the kitchen sits in a defined bay and long single pieces are actually easier than in a modern open plan. 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. 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. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

riverside apartment block, 1990s-2000s conversion of commercial building, modern mixed-use tower and small period flat above offices. A riverside block is a managed building with a booked goods lift, a loading bay and a concierge, and all three have to line up on the same day. We work to the internal depth of the car and the diagonal you can actually stand a piece up on with the doors closed, then nest to that, which routinely turns a two-piece kitchen into a three-piece one with an extra join over a gable. Settled on the drawing, cut once.

Queen Victoria Street and the Embankment approaches are red route and bus-heavy with no stopping, so unloading is into a building's own basement bay or a booked side-street window, not the main road. Most buildings run a security desk with contractor sign-in, and the goods lift needs booking a few days ahead. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. The drawing carries that decision through to the saw.

Worktop installation, worktop fabrication and worktop replacement, 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 fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Riverside peninsulas are seen from three sides, so pay for the extra polished edge and end profile rather than leaving a sawn edge facing the room.

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. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. Carcasses have to be sound first. Taped internal angles in plasterboard belly at the corner, so the run picks up a few millimetres over the last 300mm and a plan-angle mitre will not close. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. A half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.