Kitchen worktops in Hayes

Yes. Mostly private inter-war and post-war detached with square kitchens rather than long thin ones, so the layout is usually three walls of units with a table in the middle, and clients converting to an island for the first time. Chalet bungalows near the common often have a low-ceilinged kitchen with a rear door that has to stay in place. 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 sits in the fitting line as time on site rather than as anything to do with the stone. It is one line among the others, and it is honest.

1930s detached, 1950s detached, 1960s chalet bungalow and post-war semi. Walls look modern and are not: block or breeze with a skim that has been patched over decades, so dry-laying and scribing still apply. 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. That is the shape of the day.

Straightforward for the most part: driveways, dropped kerbs and side gates wide enough to take a slab round the back without going through the house. Garden routes carry their own hazards: a drain cover, a step up to a patio, wet decking, or a lawn that will not take a loaded trolley. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. 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. The square rooms here mean four separate pieces with three joints, so joint placement away from the hob cut-out matters more than in a galley.

With three walls in play the chance of one of them being out of square is high, and the template has to carry all three angles. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Window boards and cills stand proud of the plaster, so the back edge of the top has to be plotted to where the units actually sit rather than to the wall. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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.

The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.