Kitchen worktops in Blackwall

Yes. Newer towers have small open-plan kitchens with an appliance wall and a short return, generally 2.4m to 3m of top plus a 1.5m island in the larger units. The 1990s riverside houses and townhouses have a kitchen on the ground or lower level with a straightforward U-shape. Bay bookings are usually an hour or two, which is fine for unloading and no use at all as a place to leave the van for a day. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

1990s riverside development, 2010s onwards apartment tower and post-war estate remnant. Access is a question about the plot rather than the house: a narrow frontage between older buildings with nowhere obvious to stand a van. The work is all in the building, not the kitchen. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

The tunnel approach and its slip roads carry heavy traffic with no stopping, so plan the drop for off-peak or you will be circling. Towers require a loading bay booking, dimensions confirmed for the goods lift, and building management usually insist on lift protection and a named delivery contact. Where the lift will not take the longest run we design a join in rather than gamble, because a piece that will not go up has to go back on the van. 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. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop templating, 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. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. One visit, done properly. Delivery windows are tight because of the tunnel traffic, so the fit gets sequenced to unload first and set out second.

A U shape uses more linear metres than people expect, and the two returns rarely nest together, so a second slab is a genuine possibility. 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. 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. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. 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. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. 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.