Kitchen worktops in Figges Marsh

Yes. Terraces off the London Road have narrow rear kitchens that stay galley-shaped, typically 2.2m of run against one wall with the cooker under a window. Flats over the shops on the main road are small single-run kitchens where the top and a matching upstand is the whole scope. Loading exemptions on red routes are narrow, time-limited and heavily camera-enforced, so we plan around them rather than relying on them. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

Interwar terrace, Edwardian terrace, Above-shop flat and Postwar infill. The structure below is commercial, so the floor is often timber over a shop ceiling and the load path under an island is worth thinking about. That step is exactly what an upstand covers and what a full-height panel exposes, so unless the wall is skimmed level end to end, a 100mm band is the reliable choice. Decided before fabrication starts.

The London Road frontage is a busy bus corridor with red-route style restrictions in places and no realistic standing, so deliveries go in early. Above-shop flats are entered through a shared street door with a straight steep stair and no turning space at the top. A walk-up with winders at every half-landing means the piece is rested and re-gripped on the way, so the crew size goes up before the piece size comes down. Splashback panels are lighter than a worktop and far more awkward, because a tall thin piece has to be carried on edge and cannot be tilted to clear a turn. It decides panel size before anything is cut.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop fabrication, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Same slab run, or it is not a match. Steep single-flight stairs to above-shop flats mean anything over 2.4m has to be cut down first — measure the stairwell before deciding where the joint goes.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. The same shape decides where splashback pieces break, and a joint in a corner reads as a detail while one in a clear run reads as a mistake. The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. Radiused, polished, and clear of the joins. 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. Changing an appliance after the nest is set means recutting the piece, not adjusting it. Changes cost a piece, not a tweak. 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.