Kitchen worktops in Botany Bay

Yes. Green-belt hamlet with a handful of farmhouses and large detached houses. Kitchens are big rooms with a range cooker in the old chimney recess, a freestanding-look layout and thick 30mm or 40mm tops rather than the 20mm you see in the suburbs. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. 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.

farmhouse, Victorian cottage and large modern detached. Lime plaster over rubble moves in and out enough that a single long panel will show a gap somewhere along its length. Big islands are what drive the number. That is what the itemised lines are for.

Narrow lanes with no pavement, no lighting and passing places only, plus horses and farm traffic. A long-wheelbase van fits but reversing out is not an option, so turning space has to be confirmed first. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. That is why the fitting line on a quote reflects manpower and time rather than square metres. It appears as its own line rather than buried in a rate.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop templating and worktop installation, 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. Comparing quotes only works when they itemise the same things, and this is where the differences usually hide. Itemised, so it can be compared honestly. Range cookers in these houses sit in a masonry recess that is never square - template the two flanking tops individually with a tolerance gap, do not assume a symmetrical opening.

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. It is fabrication time rather than material, so it appears on the fabrication line and not in the square metre figure. Better on the quote than in a variation. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. The quote is written so it can be read by whoever is paying rather than only by whoever is standing in the kitchen. Written to be read by whoever is paying. 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.