Worktop installation in Brentford

Yes. Brentford is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are TW8. It is worked on our west London run, along with the rest of Hounslow. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. Where there is no space, the plan starts the night before. The work comes to you. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, with nothing to visit or collect.

Services run on the surface in these buildings, so conduit and pipework cross the wall behind the units and stand proud of it. The goods lift is often industrial and generous, but the flat entrance and any internal turn into a mezzanine or split level can be tighter than anything in the building, so we walk the full route with a tape before unloading. The building moved decades ago and the fit allows for it. Where the sill lands inside the height an upstand would occupy there is no upstand, and the stone either dies into the reveal or stops short of it. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Sealant seals. It does not fit.

The lift is only part of the route, and the corridor from the lobby to the flat door often holds a tighter turn than the car does. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. Four hands or eight is settled before the tail lift drops. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. The van does not stay on a main road once it is empty.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop replacement and worktop splashbacks & upstands. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Tenants are still in the building, so the stairs stay clear. Housings and integrated appliances are set out for a 38mm laminate top, so dropping to 20mm or 30mm stone changes the clearances and needs checking before anything is cut. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. A shared house stays occupied while we work in it.

A peninsula projects into circulation space, so its outer corners usually take a radius rather than a point, and that radius is agreed at template rather than assumed. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Scribed one piece at a time. The supply-only figure for material runs £110 to £550 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are lines of their own.

Casement handles and stays swing down into the space above the worktop, so the clearance that counts is the one measured with the window open. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. The awkward metre takes the longest. Confirm loading bay access and lift booking with the building's management, and clear any furniture from the mezzanine stairs or split-level approach. Where the owner is not local, the decisions happen remotely, so photographs and a clear itemised drawing carry more weight than a showroom visit ever would. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. The whole slot, or the stone waits.

Plumbing, gas and electrical work are not in the figure, because we do not do them. What moves the figure after templating is a change you make: a different edge, an extra cut-out, a bigger sink chosen late. Nothing is payable until the template, and the template measures the room as it stands rather than estimating from a plan. A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. It adds an hour or two to the day, and that time sits in the schedule rather than being taken out of the finishing. The scribe is cut on site or it is not cut.

The grooves sit inside the depth of the top with stone left either side, so a shallow run limits them. A groove set is its own item on the quote rather than something rolled in with the sink cut-out. These read as easy from the outside and rarely are, since the flat entrance is often tighter than the goods lift. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. The awkward piece goes in before the easy ones.

Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. The sink and hob are lifted out with the old top and kept aside if you are reusing them. The tap and waste have to be disconnected by a plumber before we start and reconnected once the stone is in. A skip, a delivery lorry or a run of scaffolding takes the frontage the van needed, so the street is worth a look the day before rather than on the morning. Two men and a long carry is a different day from two men and a drive, and the crew is sized on that. Time lost at the kerb never comes back later in the day.

Chips at an edge or a corner are the usual form, because that is where stone is least supported. Damage found on the bench never leaves the workshop, and damage on the carry is remade under the same cover. A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. A rated load sounds ample until three lengths of granite and two fitters are standing on it, so the stone goes up one piece at a time. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. Suction pads go on once the face is clean and dry, not before.