Kitchen worktops in Clayhall

Yes. Larger inter-war semis and detached houses on wide plots, most with a rear extension and a garage conversion, which means a big open kitchen with a full island and a separate utility run in the old garage. Island tops of 2.4-3m with a waterfall end are common here, and clients usually want everything matching across the utility too. Overhanging branches clear the roof of a car and catch the roof of a van, so the drive is looked at from the driver seat rather than from the doorstep. 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. A booked bay only helps if it is empty when we arrive.

1930s semi, 1930s detached and post-war detached. Downstairs the hall and dining room are boarded but the kitchen was laid solid from the start, so the room sits on a different construction from the one beside it. The fitting itself is slower than the carry: original plaster on the party wall and around the old chimney breast is rarely square to the run, so back scribes get cut on site, and where a return wraps into a breast recess we template that shoulder tight and ease it in. Lath and plaster is not a fixing, and is treated accordingly.

Some of the easiest access in the borough: long driveways, wide verged roads and good side access down the flank of the house to the garden and extension. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. Getting that wrong leaves a finished, machined piece that cannot reach the room, which is a remake rather than a trim. Polishing a piece that cannot reach the room wastes a day.

Worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. Cutting several kitchens from different slabs and calling them matched is where firms get caught out. Quartz reorders in five years, a granite block does not. Islands here are big and often need a mitred waterfall, so we take a full template of the carcass frame, a waterfall joint that is 2mm out shows up straight away.

If the island is a few hundred millimetres longer than the usable length of a slab, a second slab gets bought to gain that overhang, and the whole slab is paid for rather than the part used. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Pieces are carried in the order they are laid. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Yield drops the moment the back edge stops being straight. The stone itself starts at £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting quoted on their own lines instead of rolled together.

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. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. Cutouts are checked against the actual appliances, whoever bought them. Tell us about the building at the point of booking, so the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are allowed for in advance.

On the fitting day floors and door frames are protected, joins clamped flush, sink and hob sealed. The fit follows 5 to 10 working days after the template, and nothing is cut before that visit because nothing is cut from a plan. No payment is due before the template. The scullery and the kitchen were knocked into one at some point, and the stub of the old dividing wall is still there under the plaster. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Levelled under the units first.

Disposal means it goes in the van, not into the garden to wait for a collection. The template can be taken with the old top still down, which is why one visit covers both. On a replacement the old top comes off in the morning and the new stone is down and sealed the same day. On a drive that only takes one vehicle nose-in, the van has to reverse the whole length of it to get back out, which decides which way it goes in. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. The clock on the bay runs whether the lift is free or not.

A groove set needs a clear stretch of worktop beside the bowl, so it competes with the run for length instead of being free surface. Grooves and an undermounted bowl are usually specified together, since the grooves are run to the bowl edge. Internal walls are hollow clay block or stud rather than solid brick, so two points a metre apart on the same wall want two different fixings. Protection down, dry-lay, scribe, then bond: the order matters more in a difficult room than an easy one. The awkward piece goes in before the easy ones.

The joint between splashback and worktop is siliconed, never grouted, so it can move a little without cracking. Tiling and stone can meet, but where they meet is decided before the template rather than after. Ordered later from a different batch, the match is not reliable where the two pieces meet. Deep timber window boards were fitted throughout and they stand proud of the plaster, so a top reaching the window meets a stepped edge rather than a flat one. The carry is the easy part; the plaster around the old breast and the packing over a moved floor are not. One datum, taken off the highest point of the floor.