Kitchen worktops in Clapham

Yes. Whole houses in the Abbeville streets follow the rear-extension pattern with a long run and an island of about 2.2m, but a very large share of the stock is two-flat conversions where the upper flat kitchen is a knocked-through reception with a peninsula. Split-level conversions with the kitchen half a flight down are common. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian terrace, Mansion flat and Flat conversion. These were built with a scullery that has since been swallowed by an extension, leaving a change of floor level roughly where the run crosses. 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. That is the shape of the day.

Permit parking is enforced across the whole area with real pressure near the Common and the High Street. Conversion flats are entered through a shared hallway with a stair that turns twice, and the fire doors on each landing narrow the effective width to well under 800mm. Weight tells on a staircase more than anywhere else, because there is nowhere to set a piece down mid-flight and no way to change your grip once it is moving. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. Party-wall and lease conditions in a converted building set when noisy work can happen, which shapes the fitting day more than the kitchen does. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project. Take the fire doors off before you carry anything up in a converted house here, that 750mm leaf is what stops most jobs, not the stairs.

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. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. Real angles, not plan angles. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The laminate has been covering it up. 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.

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. Units kept, surface changed. 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.