Kitchen worktops in Chingford Hatch

Yes. Post-war semis with a kitchen of around 2.4m by 2.8m and a wide rear window, often left as a separate room with a U-shaped layout because the dining room is used for dining. Where extensions have been added they are typically modest rear infills giving a 3.2m run. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. 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.

post-war semi-detached, 1950s-60s estate house and cul-de-sac infill. Base units from the seventies and eighties are often only 500mm deep, so a 600mm stone top overhangs at the front and the doors want checking against it. Runs commonly finish at a doorway, and the architrave and skirting stand proud of the plaster, so the end of the top is notched or stopped on the drawing. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

Cul-de-sac layouts with wide verges and driveways make parking easy, though some closes are too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn and need reversing in. Level thresholds and wide rear access are the norm. A side gate and a back door mean the stone never goes through the house at all, which keeps the dust and most of the risk outside. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first. U-shaped post-war kitchens need three pieces with two internal corner joints, and the corner joints want to be mitred rather than butted for a clean line.

The advantage of a U is that every join can be put over a gable in a corner, so nothing lands in the middle of a clear length. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. The units stay, the surface changes. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. Appliances on site, not on order. 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.