Kitchen worktops in Fullwell Cross

Yes. Post-war semis and maisonettes with compact rectangular kitchens, mostly single-run or narrow galley, and a fair number of maisonette kitchens on the first floor. Owners here tend to keep the room shape and upgrade the finish, so we are matching new stone to existing wall units and tiling more often than designing from scratch. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1930s semi, 1950s semi and post-war maisonette. The internal stair is usually a straight flight with a tight top landing, and it is the landing rather than the flight that is the limit. Ex-council flats and maisonettes are built in dense concrete and blockwork, so anything that has to be fixed back, such as brackets under a peninsula or support for an end panel, goes in with proper anchors and an SDS rather than plasterboard fixings. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

Residential roads are fine and most houses have a drive, but the maisonettes above and behind the parade mean a straight-flight staircase carry with a half-landing turn that limits what length we can get up in one piece. 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. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Landlord work is scheduled around void periods, so the whole thing is a fixed window and the template date matters as much as the fitting date. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project. For anything above ground floor here we measure the stair turn first, a 3m piece will not make the bend, so we plan a joint rather than find out on delivery day.

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 template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. Real angles, not plan angles. A notch around a boxed stack is machined with a radius at the internal corner, because a square inside corner there is exactly where a top will crack. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Plotted, not estimated. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Protection goes down first. 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.