Kitchen worktops in Cheapside

Yes. Residential units above the Cheapside retail frontage are modern and tightly planned, with a galley or L of 2.8-3.4m and a breakfast bar overhang of 250-300mm that needs proper bracketry rather than relying on the stone. New stock came with composite tops that owners are now upgrading to quartz, keeping the existing undermount sink position and tap holes. A dedicated loading bay or service yard is the easiest arrangement in a managed building, provided the slot is booked and someone has the key to the shutter. It is noted on the job sheet at template so the fitting crew inherit the answer rather than rediscovering it. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

modern apartment above retail, postwar block with upper-floor flats, office conversion and mixed-use development. 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. The laser plots the bow along the back of the run, which is why a tape reading taken beforehand never matches. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

Cheapside itself has bus lanes and daytime loading restrictions, and the residential entrances are usually a discreet side door off a neighbouring lane rather than on the main frontage. Retail servicing takes priority in the shared basement bays, so residential deliveries get an off-peak slot, generally mid-morning or after the shops shut. Where the van stands level with the front of the house a piece gets handled twice instead of five times, and stone breaks on handling rather than on the road. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. A licensed shared house has fire-door and escape-route rules that decide how and when stone can be carried through the common parts. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. Sound carcasses or it does not go ahead. Overhangs on these breakfast bars need steel flat bar, not faith - 30mm quartz unsupported past about 300mm will crack at the sink corner sooner or later.

Because a peninsula is seen from both sides, the underside of any overhang gets the same edge treatment as the top, which is easy to leave out of a spec. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. The drawing leaves site complete. Where a column lands in the run the template plots its actual outline so the stone is cut to fit around it rather than stopped short and filled. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. Found at template, not on fit day. 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. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. Plumber either side of us. 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.