Kitchen worktops in Ham

Yes. The Span and Wates estates give a very particular job - modular 1950s and 1960s houses with a compact kitchen on a fixed grid, often opened to the dining area with a 2.7m run and a slim peninsula, and the original units replaced within the same footprint; the Georgian houses on the common are a different scale entirely with large rear kitchens. On a street with no restrictions the constraint is other residents rather than a warden, so it is worth putting a cone or a car out early. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. The first hand off the van is the one holding the clock.

Georgian house around the common, 1950s and 1960s Span estate, postwar Wates housing and modern infill. The kitchen is at the front or the back depending on the plan, and which it is decides whether there is a rear door on the route at all. Access is generally through the front door and a short straight hall into the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than a Victorian terrace, though rear access through a back garden or shared path is often the better route if it exists. Settlement is packed out, never levered out.

Estate roads with communal parking courts set back from the houses so the carry is 20 to 30 metres, and pedestrian-only paths between blocks that a trolley handles but a van cannot follow. Concierge buildings want the goods entrance, a booked lift and proof of insurance, all of which is straightforward when it is asked for a week out. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. Timing the two carries is most of the planning.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. An open-plan extension puts the worktop in the middle of the living space, so it is looked at from the sofa as well as worked on. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. The annexe top goes in on the same day. The estate houses have thin partition walls and lightweight carcasses, so weight matters - 20mm quartz or porcelain rather than 30mm granite.

The free end is what needs deciding early: square edge, mitred apron down the end, or a full waterfall to the floor, and a waterfall is cut in sequence off the same part of the slab. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Steel under the overhang before stone goes near it. Stud centres are almost never where the brackets would like to be, so fixing positions get set from the framing and the stone is designed to suit. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. The stack was boxed in after the kitchen went in. Expect material from £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised on their own lines rather than folded into one figure.

Where someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Sequenced around access rather than around the workshop. Mention the building when you book. The lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice then go into the plan instead of turning up on the day.

The fitting itself is one visit: a plain run is a morning, an island with splashbacks takes most of the day. The fit follows 5 to 10 working days after the template, and nothing is cut before that visit because nothing is cut from a plan. Units are often only 500mm deep, so a standard 600mm stone top overhangs at the front and the doors need checking against it. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Levelled under the units first.

A remake goes back through the same cutting and polishing, so it is a return visit rather than a patch. Damage found on the bench never leaves the workshop, and damage on the carry is remade under the same cover. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. Bollards, planters and a one-way service road can turn what looks like a ten-metre carry into a fifty-metre one. 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. The room is cleared for the way out as much as the way in.

Machining is permanent. If a later kitchen moves the sink, the grooves stay where they were cut. Where there is no room for a separate drainer, grooves are usually what gets specified instead. A stub wall divides the kitchen from the back lobby, and it rarely stayed where the original drawing put it. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. The awkward piece goes in before the easy ones.

The alternative to a join is a shorter run, which is usually the wrong thing to trade away. A join forced by the route still sits over a gable, so it is no poorer a join for that. Doorways, the newel post and the handrail usually take the room away, rather than the stairs themselves. 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. We plan the strip-out and the carry as one movement so the kitchen is only out of use for a single day. Old material is stacked outside rather than left along the route.