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. Where the bay sits some distance from the core, the carry across the car park is the longest leg of the day and gets boarded and lit. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Victorian villa, Edwardian bay-fronted terrace, 1930s semi and 2000s town-centre flat. A bay-fronted terrace has a long hall running past the stairs to the kitchen, so the hall turn caps the piece length before the run length does. The day is planned backwards from the hall. That is the shape of the day.

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. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. A day, not a project. 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.

An L can be mitred at the corner for a continuous look or butt-jointed over the gable, and the two are different money and different risk. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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.

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. Units kept, surface changed. 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.