Kitchen worktops in Gants Hill

Yes. Well-kept 1930s semis on generous plots, most of them extended at the rear at some point, so kitchens tend to be large open-plan rooms with an island and a separate utility. This is a long-standing Jewish area, so we regularly template kitchens set up for kashrut with two sinks, two hob areas and two separated prep runs — that changes the layout, the number of cut-outs and the drainer detail considerably. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. It is noted on the job sheet at template so the fitting crew inherit the answer rather than rediscovering it. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

1930s semi, 1930s detached and inter-war parade flat. A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. Where the room has been knocked through to the dining room or opened into a later extension, the two floors rarely sit at the same level and the laser has to be shot across the whole opening from one datum. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

Broad suburban roads with in-out or single drives on most houses, so the van gets onto the property and the carry is short and level. Side access is usually gated but wide. Where the parking court sits behind the block the carry crosses open ground and gets boarded, because loaded trolleys and block paving do not agree. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The prep list is not optional. Where a kitchen is being split into meat and dairy sides, the seam positions and the extra sink cut-outs need agreeing at template — it is not a job to guess at.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. It is the shape rather than the square metreage that moves the number, which is why two kitchens the same size quote differently. No installed rate per square metre, because it is not a real number. The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. That is why the visit takes two or three hours. 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. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. 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.