Worktop installation in Church Street

Yes. Church Street is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are NW8, W2. It is worked on our central London run, along with the rest of Westminster. The practical answer is to check the fixture list before the date is offered, because a template slot lost to a road closure cannot be recovered that week. 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. It is why the arrival time is what it is. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Walls are dense in-situ concrete or blockwork with a thin skim, which will not be chased back and will not take a plasterboard fixing. The carry is the constraint. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted. Market days dictate the schedule here more than anything in the flat does - book the fit for a non-market morning or you will be carrying slabs through stalls.

The street market runs most of the week and the stalls occupy the carriageway, so vehicle access is effectively before the market sets up or after it clears. Above-shop flats are reached by a street door between stalls and a steep stair. Communal stairs get boarded and the handrail padded, and we walk the route with a tape before the first piece leaves the van. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop replacement. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. One visit, done properly. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional.

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. Dry-lay first, always. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

A notch around a boxed stack is machined with a radius at the internal corner, because a square inside corner there is exactly where a top will crack. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Eased in, never forced. Reserve a space as close to the block entrance as possible and clear the landing and stairs of prams, bikes and stored items. 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. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.