Kitchen worktops in Bruce Grove

Yes. Large Victorian houses that were built for single families and are now mostly split into flats, so kitchens end up in odd places - a former front parlour, a half-landing return room, or a back addition. Run lengths vary wildly between 1.8m and 3.5m in the same street. Permit hours are what matters, not the permit itself, because a bay that frees up at six in the evening is no use for a template at ten. 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. The day is built around that window.

Victorian terrace, Victorian villa conversion and flat above shop. Lease conditions and the other flats in the building decide when noisy work can happen, so the fitting day has a start and a finish that are not ours to set. Victorian party walls and chimney-breast returns bow along their length, so the template plots the real line rather than assuming a straight one - the laser picks up points every few hundred millimetres down the back of the run and the drawing carries that curve through to the saw. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

The High Road end has heavy bus traffic, market activity and loading restrictions, and the side streets are permit-controlled. Converted houses have a communal front door, a shared hall with buggies and bikes in it, and a stair with a tight quarter-turn. Stone goes up on edge, and it is the half-landing turn rather than the flight itself that sets the maximum piece. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. Because these are conversions, the kitchen is often above someone else's living room - drop cloths and a no-cutting-inside rule are worth agreeing with the freeholder up front.

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. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. Height change is checked before we cut. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the laser plots the intermediate points. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. One visit, our own installers. 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.