Kitchen worktops in Bow Common

Yes. Small kitchens dominate, mostly 2m to 2.5m single runs in maisonettes and low-rise flats, with washing machine and boiler both fighting for the same corner. The newer infill houses have a slightly larger L-shape opening onto a dining area. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. A long carry turns a light piece into an awkward one.

post-war council estate, 1980s infill housing and recent gasworks-site apartment block. Infill plots usually put the kitchen at the back with wide doors to a small garden, and that opening is the best route in. Every socket, switch and any USB point has to be cut out of the stone to the actual measured position, so the template has to be taken with the faceplates off and the back boxes visible. The wall gets made good first or the gap shows.

Wide estate roads and open parking courts make the physical unload easy, but bollards and locked gates between courts mean the shortest route on a map often is not open. The 1980s infill houses have a straight run from front door to kitchen, which is a rare thing round here. The barrier, the entry code and the estate rules decide when a van can get near the door, and none of that is negotiable on the day. 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. Out and in happen along the same protected route.

Worktop replacement and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. A specification repeated across several plots has to be repeatable, which quietly rules out the natural stones where no two slabs match. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A builder-finish kitchen upgrades in a morning. Boilers and gas meters are frequently mounted in the run, so cut-outs and clearances need agreeing on site before anything is fabricated.

A mitred corner is cut and dressed as a matched pair, and if either leg shifts by a millimetre on site the joint opens along its whole length rather than at one end. Long runs almost never take a single panel, so the joint positions want agreeing before anything is templated. The panel seam sits over the worktop seam. Where the boxing stands proud of the finished wall the upstand behind it has to be broken into separate lengths, because one piece cannot pass it. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The laminate was scribed thin. Stone cannot be. Material is quoted supply only from £110 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are given their own lines rather than one combined figure.

Residents are given written notice before anyone attends, and that notice period rather than the workshop is what governs the earliest sensible start. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Programme work takes the flats in sequence. Tell us what the building is when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are planned in rather than discovered.

Templating and fitting are two visits, not one, and the gap between them is when the stone is actually cut. The same firm templates and fits. Nobody else is brought in to install. No money is taken before the template happens. Developer carcasses are thin cam-lock chipboard, which is entirely adequate under laminate and wants bracing before stone. What decides between a slim upstand and full-height stone is nearly always the wall rather than the taste. Sockets move on paper more easily than in stone.

A groove set needs a clear stretch of worktop beside the bowl, so it competes with the run for length instead of being free surface. Grooves are machined into the surface rather than applied to it, so there is nothing to come loose later. Everything arrives through one controlled entrance with a booking sheet, and a delivery that misses its slot waits. Splashbacks come off the same slab run as the tops, which means the decision has to be made before fabrication starts. The tile line that was there proves nothing about level.

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. The bead where the sink and hob meet the stone is siliconed rather than sealed, and wants watching. A seal is not waterproofing. It only buys time to wipe a spill up. The house is designed to the width it was allowed, so the kitchen is long and narrow and the run has no real choice about where it goes. The plasterboard is flat enough for a full-height panel; it is the socket positions that cause the trouble. Solid plaster on brick takes a panel; a hollow wall wants thought.

Door frames and the stair route are protected too, since most contact happens on the way in. A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. Our own installers do the carry, so there is nobody in the middle to argue with about it. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. The van stands for both movements, not just the delivery.