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. 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. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

1930s semi, 1930s detached and inter-war parade flat. The kitchen is usually a rear room extended into the garden, with the original external wall now standing inside the run. The typical 1930s kitchen sits at the back with a low window over the sink run, so the template records the exact sill height above the units to settle whether an upstand fits or the stone has to die into a window board. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

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. The barrier, the entry code and the estate rules decide when a van can get near the door, and none of that is negotiable on the day. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. 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.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. Each run is priced on its own line against the supply rate, with the join count and the reason for each join stated. Shape first, area second. A chimney breast left in place splits a wall into two alcoves, and the two are rarely the same width and rarely parallel to each other. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. 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.