Kitchen worktops in Canonbury

Yes. Larger period houses where the kitchen has usually been moved into a rear extension at garden level, giving a squared-off room with a 3.5-4m run and a true island. The conversion flats off the main streets are the opposite job, a single 2.4m run in a former back bedroom with the boiler above it. Applying for a suspension means naming a length of kerb and a date, and moving the date generally means applying for it again. 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. An early slot is the cheapest parking arrangement there is.

Georgian square terrace, Victorian villa, Edwardian terrace and conversion flat. Where a side return has been infilled, the join between old brick and new blockwork lands mid-run and the two faces are never in one plane. The day is planned backwards from the hall. A dry-lined wall hides a void, and the void gets bridged.

Traffic filters close several through routes and the CPZ is permit-heavy, so the van often stops a street away from the address. Long front gardens and railed steps make for a ten to twenty metre carry before the door, then a straight hall to the rear. A tiled hall floor takes a dropped corner badly, so boards go down over the tiles before anything comes through the door. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Banisters and door frames are padded before anything moves.

Worktop installation, in that order. Several units in one building are fitted out to the same drawing, so an error on that drawing is an error repeated in every flat. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The void ends whether we have finished or not. Rear extensions here are frequently new build butted against old brick, so allow a movement gap at the junction rather than running one uninterrupted top across the old and new wall line.

A galley puts the sink on one side and the hob on the other, which spreads the cut-outs across two pieces instead of weakening one. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. A seam under a rooflight gets the extra minutes. Walls that bow along their length are the normal condition rather than the exception, and a straight-cut back edge will show a shadow gap at one end and touch at the other. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Carcasses get packed level before anything is offered up. Supply only, material begins at £110 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on separate lines rather than as one number.

The same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. A day out of use, told to whoever lives there. Describe the building when you book and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice get built into the schedule rather than met on the day.

Stone does not flex, so a run that rocks on its carcasses rocks just as badly once it is stone. Variation past what packing can take up has to be corrected in the carcasses before we cut, because the template records the units as they stand. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the template plots the intermediate points. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. A forced back edge cracks weeks later.

Upstands and splashbacks are templated after the worktop is down and settled, so they are a separate visit. On the fitting day floors and door frames are protected, joins clamped flush, sink and hob sealed. There is nothing to pay before the template visit. There is usually a step down into the back addition, so the kitchen floor and the hall floor are not the same level and neither of them is flat. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. Every unit gets a level on it before a piece lands.

A join is glued and clamped flush on the day, so it is fixed rather than something to be undone. Dark and heavily veined stone shows a join more than a pale even one, which is worth knowing before the slab is picked. Join count is a question about slab size and run length, nothing else. 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. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Overhangs are measured off the finished carcass.

Most breakages happen on the carry, which is why the route is walked and measured before anything comes off the van. The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we fit. The rest of the kitchen still goes in. One damaged piece does not hold up the pieces either side. Every internal doorway on the way through is another frame to clear, and internal doors come off their hinges rather than being propped open. 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.