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. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. It sits in the fitting line as time on site rather than as anything to do with the stone. Nothing here is added after the fact.

large detached, Edwardian house on wooded plot, gated modern development and converted lodge. Houses on modern estates are built to a handful of standard plans, so the kitchen is square, predictable and modest in area. Runs are short enough that a small U or galley often comes out of one slab with good yield, which means the material band you pick (£110-£550/m² supply only) is doing most of the work in the total, not the shape of the room. Priced from the building, not from a rate card.

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. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. That is why the fitting line on a quote reflects manpower and time rather than square metres. Nothing about it gets estimated after the fact.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. 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.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. The bench proves it before the van does. A lightweight stud partition will not carry a breakfast bar or a peninsula end, and stone finds that out faster than laminate ever did. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Radiused, polished, and clear of the joins. 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. 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. 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.