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. The goods lift has its own booking sheet, and a bay slot without a lift slot only gets the stone as far as the lobby. 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. We would rather ask than guess.

modern apartment above retail, postwar block with upper-floor flats, office conversion and mixed-use development. The flat entrance door and the internal doorways are usually tighter than the communal stairs, which is the opposite of what most people assume. The day is planned backwards from the hall. The tops go on level even when nothing else is.

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. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. Two carries in one day needs the route free for both.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Shared-house kitchens take heavier use from more people than a family kitchen does, and the surface gets chosen on that basis rather than on looks. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. Cam-lock carcasses get braced before stone lands. 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.

Peninsulas frequently land on a lightweight partition or on units that were never fixed down, and stone needs proper support under it before it goes on. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The join is the last thing finished. A deep scribe comes out of the nest, so how far the stone has to be relieved changes which part of the slab the piece is cut from. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The old carcasses are rarely level and never were. Material is quoted supply only from £110 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are given their own lines rather than one combined figure.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. The plumber is booked by whoever holds the contract. Tell us what the building is when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are planned in rather than discovered.

No installed price per square metre is published, because it is not a real number. The design and quotation visit is free and carries no obligation, so a figure exists before any commitment. Ask for the lines rather than the total. One number for a kitchen tells you nothing you can check. A downstand over a run caps wall unit height before it caps anything else, and the splashback then takes its height from the steel rather than from the units. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. A filler strip is evidence, not decoration.

Quartz and sintered stone never need sealing: quartz is non-porous and sintered stone has effectively zero porosity. Bleach and limescale remover harm a polished finish rather than clean it, whichever material is on the units. Granite tells you when the seal wants topping up: water stops beading on the surface and starts darkening it instead. Cornice, picture rails and deep skirting survive in converted rooms, so the run stands off the wall and the back edge follows the units rather than the plaster. We measure the front door, the hall width and the turn into the kitchen before anything comes off the van, because a 3m piece has to swing through that corner on edge and stone does not bend to help you. What the building will take decides how it is fixed.

Doorways, the newel post and the handrail usually take the room away, rather than the stairs themselves. Where there is a lift, whether it can be booked out and padded matters as much as its size. The lift, if there is one, is measured on the diagonal, because that is the dimension a long piece actually uses. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. Waste goes out the way the stone came in, so the route stays clear.

The workmanship guarantee is the same either way. It does not extend to a material we did not supply. Thickness has to be known before quoting, since it decides the edge, the cut-outs and what the units carry. How the slab has been stored is worth telling us, because stone kept flat is not stone off a rack. Where a single building holds several small kitchens, the work arrives as one job rather than four, and it should be cut off the same slab run so the batches genuinely match. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. Housings set out for laminate are checked first.