Kitchen worktops in Borough

Yes. Georgian terraces around the squares put the kitchen in the lower ground with a low ceiling, a chimney breast to work around and a run rarely longer than 3m; the mansion blocks have narrow galleys where a 600mm depth is already generous. Deep gravel takes the wheels of a loaded trolley and holds them, so either boards go down or the pieces are carried. 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. Where the van must move, the waste goes on first.

Georgian terrace, Victorian mansion block, 1930s flats and 2000s new build. The lift is a small passenger car with a gate, and the alternative is a stone stair winding round the shaft with a turn at every half-landing. The lift car is usually too short and too low to take a full-length piece flat or on edge, so stone either goes up the communal stairs with their half-landings and winders, or the run is designed with joins that suit the staircase rather than the kitchen. Nothing goes back on carcasses the building has pulled out of square.

Conservation area frontages with railings, a lightwell and a steep flight down to the basement door, plus a strictly enforced CPZ - the practical route is often the front steps and a hall turn rather than any side access. A front path with a gate and a turn or two adds handling before the door is even reached, and every handling movement is another chance to catch a corner. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Every piece is staged to it before fitting starts.

Worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. The person choosing the worktop is not the person using it, and that shifts the balance from appearance towards running cost. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A tenant moves in on the date on the contract. Listed and conservation frontages mean no hoisting through windows, so the piece has to be dimensioned around the tightest turn on the stair.

A window at one end and a doorway at the other means one end of the run is lit from behind and the other is interrupted, so the two ends of the same length behave differently. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Old runs are rarely square, and stone will not forgive it. An alcove is commonly wider at the back than at the front, so a piece cut to the opening drops in and then stands off the rear wall. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. The overhang is checked again once the feet are set. Expect material from £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised on their own lines rather than folded into one figure.

Flats bought out of managed stock keep the original kitchen dimensions long after the ownership changed, so the layout says very little about who is paying for the work. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Owner or agent, somebody has to be reachable. Mention the building when you book. The lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice then go into the plan instead of turning up on the day.

The template is taken in your kitchen after the units are in and fixed, never before. No money changes hands before the template. The template produces a drawing, and the workshop cuts to that drawing once you agree it. Old plaster built up over decades makes the scribing heavy, and that time has to be in the plan rather than found on the day. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the job is a day, and what makes it a difficult day is the building. A twenty-year-old run is replaced to its own shape.

Doorways, the newel post and the handrail usually take the room away, rather than the stairs themselves. A join forced by the route still sits over a gable, so it is no poorer a join for that. A carpeted hall runs a trolley badly, so a heavy piece is carried rather than rolled from the threshold in. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. The way in is walked with a tape before the van is opened.

Old tops are screwed or glued from underneath, so the drawer boxes come out before the worktop does. The template can be taken with the old top still down, which is why one visit covers both. The units stay where they are and only the surface changes. Block paving bedded on sand can rut under a fully loaded van, and that is said to the customer beforehand rather than explained afterwards. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. A skip on the frontage takes the space the van needed.

Marble is the one people underestimate. It is porous, like granite, and wants sealing. Sealing is the one maintenance job that genuinely differs by material, and it is worth knowing which you are buying before the slab is chosen. A seal is not waterproofing. It only buys time to wipe a spill up. External walls are thick and the run under the window sits in a deep reveal that has to be templated rather than assumed square. A full stone piece is several times the weight of the laminate coming out, and there is rarely room to turn it on a half-landing. Units kept, surface changed, one day.