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. Permit hours are what matters, not the permit itself, because a bay that frees up at six in the evening is no use for a template at ten. 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. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1860s-70s stucco terrace subdivided into flats, purpose-built Edwardian block, former hotel converted back to residential and garden square terrace. Cornice, picture rails and deep skirting survive in converted rooms, so the run stands off the wall and the back edge follows the units rather than the plaster. 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. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

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. Weight tells on a staircase more than anywhere else, because there is nowhere to set a piece down mid-flight and no way to change your grip once it is moving. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. The strip-out is planned around it.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Where a single building holds several small kitchens, the work arrives as one job rather than four, and it should be cut off the same slab run so the batches genuinely match. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. 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. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. One datum for the whole room. Where a partition has been built off the floor screed rather than off the slab, it moves, and a mitre bonded across that corner is the first thing to open. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. 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.