Kitchen worktops in Earl's Court

Yes. The huge stucco terraces here were cut into flats and bedsits decades ago, so most kitchens are small rooms carved out of former bedrooms or landings, taking a 2.0-2.8m run with an integrated washing machine eating a bay. Where flats have been reconverted into larger units the kitchen usually opens into the reception, which brings a peninsula with a 300mm overhang and the need for a supported cantilever. A resident bay and a shared-use bay can sit on the same street under different rules, and it is usually the shared one a visitor permit or a ticket touches. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. The old tops leave in one movement rather than piece by piece.

1860s-70s stucco terrace subdivided into flats, purpose-built Edwardian block, former hotel converted back to residential and garden square terrace. Cornice runs round the head of the wall, so the wall units stop under it and the splashback band is trapped between two things that are not going to move. In most Victorian terraces the kitchen sits in the back addition, so you get a narrow galley with one outside wall and nothing square to work off. The old top hid it; the new one will not.

High density of flats above shops and above each other means communal front doors, no lift in most stucco conversions, and steep original stairs with a half-landing window that dictates the maximum length you can swing. Kerbside is under permit and CPZ control with heavy competition, and the one-way system around the old exhibition site adds a long approach. The measurement that decides everything is the diagonal between the underside of the flight above and the outer edge of the turn below it. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. The opening is measured on the diagonal, not across the frame.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Batching several kitchens together is the one situation where buying a whole slab is cheaper per kitchen rather than more expensive. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A tenant moves in on the date on the contract. Expect a fifth or sixth-floor walk-up with no lift at least once a month here, and price the labour honestly rather than discovering it at delivery.

A peninsula is an island with one end tied to a run, which means the join between them has to be planned rather than allowed to happen. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. The old cut-outs prove nothing. An unsupported overhang off a stud wall wants noggins fixed between the studs before the boarding goes on, and once it is boarded and skimmed that option has gone. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Eased in, never forced. Material is from £110 per square metre supply only, and the templating, the fabrication and the fitting are each quoted on their own line.

A let property is specified for durability and for a fixed window, and both of those are legitimate reasons to choose differently. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Owner or agent, somebody has to be reachable. If we know the building when you book, the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are worked into the day rather than found on it.

An island is where this usually shows, standing free with no wall to level against. Small variation is taken up by packing under the top on the fitting day. Units have to be fixed down as well as levelled. A loose carcass moves under stone. Stud centres are almost never where the brackets would like to be, so fixing positions get set from the framing and the stone is designed to suit. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. It is the slow part of the day and it should be.

No maintenance visit is built into the job. Soap, water, and on the porous stones a seal. Quartz carries resin, so a hot pan wants a trivet, while granite and sintered stone will take one without complaint. The bead where the sink and hob meet the stone is siliconed rather than sealed, and wants watching. The chimney breast is usually still standing with the opening blocked up, and the alcoves either side of it are rarely the same width as each other. What the old top has been hiding is usually a floor that settled towards the back and units that were never fixed back to the wall. Same units, straighter line, better surface.

Our own installers do the carry, so there is nobody in the middle to argue with about it. A remake goes back through the same cutting and polishing, so it is a return visit rather than a patch. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. There is no leaning a piece against a wall halfway up, so any flight longer than a dozen treads is planned around a rest point on a landing. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. Pieces wait on trestles until the fitters call for them.

Money does not move until the template is done. On the fitting day floors and door frames are protected, joins clamped flush, sink and hob sealed. The template is taken in your kitchen after the units are in and fixed, never before. The original front door is narrow and the hall is often the only way in, which puts a ceiling on the longest single piece. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the job is a day, and what makes it a difficult day is the building. The old cut-outs rarely match where the new appliances go.