Kitchen worktops in Canary Wharf

Yes. Kitchens are almost entirely open-plan against a structural core wall, with a 3m to 3.5m run of full-height units and an island of 2m to 2.8m that doubles as the dining table. Specifications lean towards large-format porcelain and Dekton for slim edges and matching splashbacks, with waterfall ends on the island. Where the bay sits some distance from the core, the carry across the car park is the longest leg of the day and gets boarded and lit. 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. The day is built around that window.

2000s residential tower, 2015 onwards high-rise apartment and dockside penthouse duplex. Entry-phone access, a booked lift and a parking bay near the entrance all have to be arranged before a date is confirmed. The stairwell half-landing is usually the tightest point on the whole route and it dictates the maximum piece. Nothing is screwed into plasterboard and hoped for.

This is a privately managed estate: vehicles need a permit, deliveries go through designated basement loading docks with height restrictions around 2m, and security clearance plus insurance documents are checked at the gate. Goods lifts are booked in advance by the building manager in fixed slots, and residential floors are reached only after a long basement corridor trolley run. A goods lift booked by the hour puts a clock on the whole delivery, so pieces go up in a planned order and nothing is handled twice. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. Edge profiles are finished before the stone is ever stood on end.

Worktop installation and worktop fabrication, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Matched means the same block, not the same name. The paperwork and the goods lift booking take longer than the fit, and a missed slot means the slab goes back on the van.

Sockets set into the end panel keep the top clear, but they sit below the stone and are cut into the panel by the fitter rather than machined into the worktop. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Steel under the overhang before stone goes near it. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. The radius goes in at the bench, not on site. 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.

One owner can take a date next week while the flat below needs three weeks of notice, so several kitchens in one building end up scheduled by the slowest permission. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. The bench proves the fit before the van is loaded. 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.

Nothing is payable until the template, and the template measures the room as it stands rather than estimating from a plan. Cut-outs, edge profile and join count are itemised, so taking one out removes a line rather than starting an argument. No installed price per square metre is published, because it is not a real number. A room can be out of square in both directions at once, so the wall that leans is also the wall that runs downhill, and one scribe cannot answer both. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. A deep relief needs material left behind it.

No maintenance visit is built into the job. Soap, water, and on the porous stones a seal. Quartz and sintered stone never need sealing: quartz is non-porous and sintered stone has effectively zero porosity. Topping a seal up is a wipe-on job with a cloth. The kitchen is a narrow room off the hall with the window at the far end, so the run is a galley by construction rather than by choice. Fixings into concrete go in with proper anchors, and the dust is contained rather than swept up afterwards. Where the wall bellies, the top is eased in against it.

A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. Door frames and the stair route are protected too, since most contact happens on the way in. The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we 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. Getting that wrong leaves a finished, machined piece that cannot reach the room, which is a remake rather than a trim. The cut list answers to the way in first.

Tiling and stone can meet, but where they meet is decided before the template rather than after. The joint between splashback and worktop is siliconed, never grouted, so it can move a little without cracking. A full-height piece shows a wall that is out more than an upstand does, over the extra height. Panel joints run vertically down the walls at regular centres and each one is a slight step rather than a smooth curve. Carcass heights are corrected on the day where legs have bottomed out, because a top will not bridge a step between units. The shell has the last word on fitting day.