Kitchen worktops in Enfield Town

Yes. Big Victorian and Edwardian villas off Chase Side and Church Street usually have the kitchen in the old rear addition, so most jobs are a knock-through into the dining room giving an L-shape with a 3.2m main run and a short return under the window. The town-centre flats above the shops are the opposite - straight 2.4m single runs with an integrated fridge at one end. Time-limited bays are camera-enforced across a lot of managed estates, so the unload runs to the clock and the van moves off afterwards. 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. Where the van stands sets how the day runs.

Victorian villa, Edwardian bay-fronted terrace, 1930s semi and 2000s town-centre flat. The bay at the front and the back addition at the rear were built to different standards, and the kitchen is nearly always in the weaker of the two. The day is planned backwards from the hall. One datum, taken off the highest point of the floor.

The one-way system round the market and Church Street has timed loading only, and the multi-storey heights rule out a Luton, so slabs get walked in from a metered bay on the side roads. Villa properties usually have a decent front path but a step up at the threshold and a 90-degree turn into the hall. A meter cupboard set into the hall wall narrows the run at exactly the height a carried piece travels. 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. Out and in happen along the same protected route.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, 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. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. Specified for wear rather than for the photograph. Anything pre-1900 round here has settled - dry-lay the template and expect a 10-15mm scribe against the chimney breast rather than trusting the wall.

Where the return runs into a wall that is out of square, the corner is templated as the angle it really is rather than as ninety degrees. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. One datum for every run in the room. A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The old cut-out was hiding the notch you now need. Material is quoted supply only from £110 per square metre, and templating, fabrication and fitting are given their own lines rather than one combined figure.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Replacement suits occupied stock better than a strip-out. Tell us what the building is when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are planned in rather than discovered.

The same firm templates and fits. Nobody else is brought in to install. No money is taken before the template happens. Templating and fitting are two visits, not one, and the gap between them is when the stone is actually cut. Original quarry tile is often still down under two or three later floor coverings, which is why the finished floor height is rarely what anyone expects. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Old plaster gets scribed to, never fought with.

Dark and heavily veined stone shows a join more than a pale even one, which is worth knowing before the slab is picked. Veining carries through a join where both pieces come off the same slab, which is decided at nesting. A mitred join at a corner is a different job from a butt join along a run, and they are not priced the same. A mitred corner is cut and dressed as a matched pair, and if either leg shifts by a millimetre on site the joint opens along its whole length rather than at one end. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The island is set against the perimeter, not a wall.

An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. Taking the old tops off and disposing of them is its own line on the quote rather than something folded into the stone price. The units are untouched. Only the top of them changes. A dedicated loading bay or service yard is the easiest arrangement in a managed building, provided the slot is booked and someone has the key to the shutter. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. An early slot is the cheapest parking arrangement there is.

A groove set needs a clear stretch of worktop beside the bowl, so it competes with the run for length instead of being free surface. They read strongly across a dark stone and are nearly invisible on a pale one, so look before deciding. Ground floors fall away towards the garden across the whole footprint, so the units are packed up long before anything is measured for stone. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. Two lifts and a turn make it a four-man piece.