Kitchen worktops in Coombe (Croydon)

Yes. A small pocket of large houses on wooded plots near Lloyd Park, where kitchens tend to be architect-specified rather than off-the-shelf: full-height cabinetry, a large island with a waterfall end, and a dedicated utility and laundry behind. Where the drive falls away from the house the trolley wants to run, and where it climbs the same load has to be pushed the whole way up. 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.

large detached, Edwardian house on wooded plot, gated modern development and converted lodge. Floors are chipboard deck on timber joists, which moves enough that level is taken with the units loaded rather than empty. If the diagonal is short we either split the run with a planned join or, on lower floors, carry up the stairwell, which needs the half-landing turn checking as well. A dry-lined wall hides a void, and the void gets bridged.

Private drives shared between a few houses, mature trees close to the drive edge and gated entrances that need a code and a swing radius a long van will not make. Concierge buildings want the goods entrance, a booked lift and proof of insurance, all of which is straightforward when it is asked for a week out. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. Machining happens after the carry length is fixed, not before.

Worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. New-build kitchens are usually smaller than the plan suggests once the appliances are in, so the usable run is shorter than the drawn run. Cutting several kitchens from different slabs and calling them matched is where firms get caught out. One kept offcut saves a whole flat later. Gated entrances with a tight radius are the deciding factor, so we confirm the gate opening width before the slab is even cut to length.

A corbel on show under an overhang is a decision about how the piece looks from a stool, so it gets settled alongside the edge profile rather than left to whoever fits it. 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. Taped internal angles in plasterboard belly at the corner, so the run picks up a few millimetres over the last 300mm and a plan-angle mitre will not close. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Upstands leave the bench in lengths, not as one run. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. A landlord repeating a kitchen gets the same detail cut. 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.

The same firm templates and fits. Nobody else is brought in to install. The design and quotation visit comes first. It is free and carries no obligation. The template produces a drawing, and the workshop cuts to that drawing once you agree it. The lift car, the loading bay and the building manager decide the piece sizes here, not the slab. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. The join is polished flat before we call it done.

What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. The template can be taken with the old top still down, which is why one visit covers both. The carcasses stay. Only the surface changes. A visitor or a neighbour parked on the drive is a five-minute problem at eight in the morning and an hour-long one at eleven. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. The clock on the bay runs whether the lift is free or not.

Dark and heavily veined stone shows a join more than a pale even one, which is worth knowing before the slab is picked. Veining carries through a join where both pieces come off the same slab, which is decided at nesting. Slabs come in finite sizes, so a long run needs a join whatever the room looks like. A downdraught extractor takes a long slot out of the middle of the piece and a motor housing out of the cabinet below it, so what sits under the top is settled before anything is cut. 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 return is offered up last.

Ordered later from a different batch, the match is not reliable where the two pieces meet. A full-height piece shows a wall that is out more than an upstand does, over the extra height. If it is a decision for later, say so at the template: the match is a question about the batch. A gated development controls when a van gets in, where it can stand and for how long, and none of that gets decided on the morning. The lift is measured before the piece is loaded, and once inside the flat the fitting is quick by comparison. Movement joints in the shell stay movement joints.