Kitchen worktops in Enfield Wash

Yes. Interwar semis with long back gardens, so a lot of these have already been extended once by a previous owner - often a low flat-roof kitchen extension from the 80s being refitted rather than rebuilt. You end up with a U-shape and a run of tall units where the old back wall was. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

1930s semi, post-war terrace and 1970s infill. Walls look modern and are not: block or breeze with a skim that has been patched over decades, so dry-laying and scribing still apply. Runs commonly finish at a doorway, and the architrave and skirting stand proud of the plaster, so the end of the top is notched or stopped on the drawing. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

Wide residential streets off Ordnance Road with driveways or a hardstanding on most plots, so the van gets close. The catch is a side gate and a narrow passage down the side of the house if the kitchen is at the back. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. The template records it along with everything else.

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 fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. Old flat-roof extensions have thrown their base units out of level - shim and re-level the carcasses before templating or the quartz sits on three points.

A U shape uses more linear metres than people expect, and the two returns rarely nest together, so a second slab is a genuine possibility. 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. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Eased in, never forced. 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.

An owner living in the house makes the decisions and lives with them, so the specification tends to go towards the material rather than towards the lowest total. A half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. 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.