Kitchen worktops in Eltham

Yes. Overwhelmingly 1930s semis, a kitchen of roughly 2.4m by 3m at the back with a garden door and a separate dining room in front. The standard job is a rear or side-return extension that merges the two into one long room with a 3.5m to 4m run and an island. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. Where a bay suspension or a permit is needed, that is a real cost and it goes on the quote instead of appearing later. It is one line among the others, and it is honest.

1930s semi, Edwardian terrace, postwar infill and 1960s flats. The addition wall is half a brick thick in places and has usually had a damp course injected and been re-plastered, which leaves it neither flat nor consistent. The day is planned backwards from the hall. That is the shape of the day.

Suburban streets with front drives and dropped kerbs on most roads, so the van usually gets within a few metres of the door; the stretches around the High Street and the station are the exception. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. 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 templating, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. 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. The classic Eltham job is templating a new extension where the old back wall has come out, get the steel-supported opening measured properly, it is rarely square to the new build.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Dry-lay first, always. Where a column lands in the run the template plots its actual outline so the stone is cut to fit around it rather than stopped short and filled. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Plotted, not estimated. 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 ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. The quote is written so it can be read by whoever is paying rather than only by whoever is standing in the kitchen. 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.