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. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. 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. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Georgian terrace, Victorian mansion block, 1930s flats and 2000s new build. These kitchens are full of boxed soil stacks, gas risers and heating pipework, and the boxing usually stops short of the ceiling. This is the most managed day we do. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

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. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop replacement, 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. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. A day, not a project. Listed and conservation frontages mean no hoisting through windows, so the piece has to be dimensioned around the tightest turn on the stair.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. A chimney breast left in place splits a wall into two alcoves, and the two are rarely the same width and rarely parallel to each other. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Eased in, never forced. 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.

The same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Units kept, surface changed. 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.