Kitchen worktops across Essex and east London

All of it. The patch runs from Romford through Brentwood, Billericay, Basildon and Chelmsford out to Maldon, Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is the widest area we work, so template and fitting days are run by region. The far end gets early starts and grouped dates rather than being squeezed onto the back of somebody else’s day.

No. It is 5–10 working days from template to fitted worktop across the whole patch. Where you are changes which day we can offer you, not how many days you wait. Scheduling by area is what keeps that honest when the two ends of the patch are an hour and a half apart.

Past roughly 300mm of unsupported overhang you want steel let into the cabinetry, not brackets. Brackets are a compromise you can see and knock your knees on for the next ten years. It has to be decided before the units are closed up, which is why we raise it at quotation rather than turning up with the stone and pointing at the problem.

Yes, and estate kitchens price accurately from plans because the rooms are square and the runs are standard. Send the plan or a sketch with rough measurements and an indicative range comes back the same working day, then a fixed itemised quote once the sink, tap, hob and edge profile are settled. Material starts at £110/m² supply. That is stone only, with fabrication, cut-outs, edges and fitting shown as their own lines.

It depends on the slab size of the material you choose, and that varies across the quartz, granite and sintered ranges. We give you the likely number at quotation and agree exactly where they fall with you at template. A well-made join is 2–3mm, colour-matched and sanded flush: findable if you go looking, but not the first thing you see walking into the room.

Three things, all finished before the morning of the fit: a plumber to disconnect the tap, waste and anything plumbed in under the top; an electrician to isolate the hob if it sits in the worktop; and the base units emptied, because we work inside them and fix down through them. Book your plumber back in for the end of the day rather than the middle. The sealant needs time before the sink takes water.

We take it out (that is part of a replacement job), but have somewhere in mind to stack it as it comes out, whether that is a drive, a garage or the garden. If you want it removed from site, agree that with us in writing when you book rather than assuming it on the day. Laminate is usually screwed and glued from underneath and tends to come out in pieces.

Not the stone. Quartz and sintered surfaces are non-porous, and granite is sealed periodically to keep it that way. What damp affects is what sits underneath it: chipboard and MFC carcasses swell from the inside, and a soft unit will not carry the weight of stone. It is the most common thing we find when an old top comes off, and it has to be put right before we fit.

Yes, provided they are physically on site before we template, because cut-outs are machined to the actual item rather than to published dimensions. We seat and seal the sink and hob into the stone; we do not connect water, waste or electrics, so a plumber follows us. We also sell a small range of sinks and taps if you would rather have it all on one quote.