Worktop installation in Hillingdon

Yes. Hillingdon is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are UB10. It is run from the High Wycombe side, covering Buckinghamshire & Berkshire. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. 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. The day is built around that window. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. The carry is the easy part; the plaster around the old breast and the packing over a moved floor are not. The slow parts are slow for a reason. Garage conversions need a second smaller top in the same material, so order it with the kitchen or the batch numbers will not match.

Broad avenues, drives everywhere and quick access from the A40. The A4020 Uxbridge Road is the only real delay on the way in. A short hard approach with no steps means a full-length piece can be walked in flat by two people rather than turned up on edge. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop replacement and worktop fabrication. Small kitchens in a shared house are all short runs and tight cut-out spacing, which is more bench work per square metre than one large kitchen would be. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave. A licensed shared house has fire-door and escape-route rules that decide how and when stone can be carried through the common parts. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. One visit, done properly.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

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. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. Unlock and clear the side gate and back door, and move bins, planters and washing lines out of the alley run. 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. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. One visit, our own installers.