Kitchen worktops in Headstone

Yes. Solid interwar family stock around the recreation ground and manor, with kitchens usually enlarged by taking in the old larder and a small rear addition rather than a full extension. Typical result is a U-shape of about 3m, 2.4m and 1.5m with a peninsula at the dining end. 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. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

1930s semi, 1920s cottage-style house and 1960s purpose-built flat. A side alley and a back door mean most pieces go in whole, and it is the alley width rather than the front door that decides it. The junction between the old floor and the extension floor is where a run crossing it needs packing before stone goes on. Sound carcasses are the one condition.

Wide verged residential roads with driveways, and a fair number of houses with a genuine side passage of 900mm or more that takes a slab on edge comfortably. A side gate and a back door mean the stone never goes through the house at all, which keeps the dust and most of the risk outside. We plan the strip-out and the carry as one movement so the kitchen is only out of use for a single day. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Worktop installation, worktop templating 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. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. U-shaped kitchens need three templated pieces meeting at two internal corners, and those corners want mitred joints rather than butts if the veining is directional.

Three runs means two internal corners, and each corner is a decision about mitre or butt joint before anything is nested. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Carcasses have to be sound first. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. Found at template, not on fit day. 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. Units kept, surface changed. 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.