Kitchen worktops in Cranham

Yes. Later suburban stock on the eastern edge, mostly detached houses and bungalows built from the 1950s onwards, so kitchens are already reasonably sized square rooms and rarely need structural work. The common job is a full refit within the existing shape, new units, a U-run with a peninsula, and quartz that has to work with an existing tiled floor the client is keeping. 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. 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. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

1950s-1970s detached, post-war semi, bungalow and 1980s estate house. Post-war terraces have a short straight hall to the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than the houses they replaced. Access is generally through the front door and a short straight hall into the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than a Victorian terrace, though rear access through a back garden or shared path is often the better route if it exists. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Very easy: wide estate roads, individual drives, garages, turning space and no parking restrictions to speak of. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation, worktop design & quotation and worktop replacement, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Comparing quotes only works when they itemise the same things, and this is where the differences usually hide. Itemised, so it can be compared honestly. Existing floors are usually staying here, so we protect them properly and check base-unit heights against the finished floor rather than the slab.

A U shape uses more linear metres than people expect, and the two returns rarely nest together, so a second slab is a genuine possibility. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. It is fabrication time rather than material, so it appears on the fabrication line and not in the square metre figure. Better on the quote than in a variation. 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.

Where someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. Nothing is payable until we template, so a quote can sit while consents and decisions catch up. Written to be read by whoever is paying. 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.