Kitchen worktops in Globe Town

Yes. A lot of estate flats here still have the original compact kitchen off the hall, typically two short runs of 1.8m to 2.2m with a boxed-in soil stack in one corner. Owners tend to replace like for like rather than knock through, so it is small-piece work with a lot of cut-outs around existing services. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

1930s LCC walk-up flat, 1960s Lubetkin-era estate block and Victorian terrace. These are built in dense concrete, so support for a peninsula or an end panel goes in with proper anchors rather than plugs. Deck access or a single narrow staircase with tight half-landings means long pieces get walked up on edge, and the landing turn is checked before we commit. That is the shape of the day.

Balcony-access blocks mean carrying stone along an open deck and through a 760mm front door, and the older walk-ups have no goods lift at all. Street parking is CPZ-controlled and the estate roads have height barriers on the parking courts, so the van usually sits on the main road and the slab is carried in. 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. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands 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 fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Deck-access flats are a two-man carry every time, so pieces get sized to what will physically turn into the door rather than what looks best on paper.

Two parallel runs with a walkway between them is the most efficient shape there is on a slab, because both pieces nest as straight lengths with almost no waste. 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. Joint placement is a decision, not an accident. 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. It is usually what pushes a job towards a 100mm upstand instead of a full-height panel, because an upstand rides what a panel exposes. An upstand rides what a panel exposes. 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.

Consent for the work sits with the freeholder or the managing body, and getting it in writing first avoids a crew arriving to a locked door. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. 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.