Kitchen worktops in Herne Hill

Yes. Family houses on the Dulwich side take substantial rear or side-return extensions producing kitchens of 4m or more in width, with a long run, a full island and often a separate pantry cupboard with its own stone shelf. Conversion flats in the villas have kitchens fitted into former reception rooms with tall ceilings and a peninsula. Loading concessions differ from one zone to the next rather than following a single national rule, so what applied on the last job proves nothing about this one. 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. Camera enforcement does not take an explanation.

Victorian villa, Edwardian terrace, Large semi-detached and Conversion flat. Handmade brick and lime plaster move visibly along a run, and a straight-cut back edge shows it immediately. What costs time is the distance from where the van can park to the door, often down a long drive or across gravel, so we plan the carry with enough hands and board the route where it crosses gravel or lawn. Lath and plaster is not a fixing, and is treated accordingly.

The streets have front gardens and gate posts that narrow the approach, and permit parking is enforced. The area floods for events at the park and the railway bridge by the station is a bottleneck for anything arriving from the north. Whether the kitchen sits straight ahead or off a turn at the end of the hall changes the maximum piece far more than the hall width does. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. A piece is stood on end only where there is room to turn it.

Worktop installation, in that order. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A date agreed in spring is a hope by autumn. These are big rooms with big islands, so the carry through the hall and out to the rear is the deciding factor, measure the narrowest point on that route before agreeing a single-piece island.

A pop-up socket in the surface is one more cut-out through the full thickness, and it wants the same clear space beneath it that a sink does. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. A seam under a rooflight gets the extra minutes. 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. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Offered up twice, bonded once. The stone itself starts at £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting quoted on their own lines instead of rolled together.

Where two people share the decision it helps to know early which of them is settling the edge profile and which is settling the budget, because it is rarely the same person for both. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Keys confirmed the week before, not the morning of. Tell us about the building at the point of booking, so the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are allowed for in advance.

A template on a normal kitchen takes two to three hours in the room. Nothing is measured until the sink, the tap and the hob are in the room to measure against. The template produces a drawing, and the workshop cuts to that drawing once you agree it. There is usually a cellar head or a hatch somewhere in the floor, and whatever sits above it has to stay liftable. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. A bad floor is corrected under the carcass, never with sealant.

How much slab you hold matters: upstands and any remake have to come out of the same batch. Delivery to the workshop has to be arranged and dated, since nothing is nested until it is there. If your own slab breaks there is no matching replacement to hand, and that is the real difference. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. Book us when the units exist, not when they are ordered.

No installed price per square metre is published, because it is not a real number. Plumbing, gas and electrical work are not in the figure, because we do not do them. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Sealant seals. It does not fit.

Stone up a wall is heavier than tile and bonded rather than hung, so the wall has to be sound. Ordered later from a different batch, the match is not reliable where the two pieces meet. A full-height piece behind the hob has to allow for the extractor, so that gets settled first. These houses usually sit in their own grounds with a long approach, so the carry from van to door is longer than anything inside the building. Getting in is straightforward, so the day is spent dry-laying and scribing to walls that have never been straight. One datum, taken off the highest point of the floor.