Worktop installation in Honor Oak

Yes. Honor Oak is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are SE23. It is worked on our south east London run, along with the rest of Lewisham. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. 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. Van to door is the distance that matters. The work comes to you. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, with nothing to visit or collect.

Whole streets went up to two or three plans, so the house next door has the same kitchen and forty years of extensions have made none of them measure the same. The carry is the constraint. A structure this old is worked with, not corrected. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. It is the slow part of the day and it should be.

A piece carried on edge up a flight has to clear the ceiling above the stairs as well as the walls either side of it. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. None of it is worked out on the doorstep. 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. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. Where the van stands sets how the day runs.

Not particularly, and it would be easy to pretend otherwise. What the research on this patch actually lists is worktop replacement and worktop fabrication. That is a point about the buildings round here, not about the job. The quoting, the cutting and the fitting are identical here to anywhere else we work. A worktop replacement between tenancies is a single-day job by design, because the flat is not earning while it is empty. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. That family has lived on a building site long enough. Agents book this work at short notice, because the void only becomes a real date once the outgoing tenant confirms they are going. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. Access is agreed with whoever is still living there.

The two runs are read against each other rather than against the floor, so they are set to one datum taken across the aisle instead of measured up from the boards. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. The stone is £110 to £550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted separately.

A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Offered up twice, bonded once. Reserve a space as close to the block entrance as possible and clear the landing and stairs of prams, bikes and stored items. These kitchens tend to be compact and reasonably square, so the fixed template, fabrication and fitting lines are a larger share of the total than the stone is. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Notice periods decide the date more often than the workshop.

A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. A piece is never laid flat across a gap while it is moved, because that is how stone cracks unaided. The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we fit. Open-tread and cantilevered stairs give nothing to lean a piece against, so the whole weight stays on the crew for the full length of the flight. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. The crew size follows from it.

A boiling tap needs a hole of its own and a cupboard below for the tank, so the units change too. Undermount bowls are cut and polished in the workshop and dry-fitted to the stone on the bench before anything is loaded. A piece with a bowl and a hob cut into it is the fragile one, and it is handled accordingly. A galley that is also the route to the back door is a corridor first and a kitchen second, and what the shape can take is set by the traffic going through it. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The join is the last thing finished.

Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. The carcasses stay put. Only the surface changes. An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. Two men and a long carry is a different day from two men and a drive, and the crew is sized on that. An early slot is the cheapest parking arrangement there is.

Delivery to the workshop has to be arranged and dated, since nothing is nested until it is there. The workmanship guarantee is the same either way. It does not extend to a material we did not supply. A managed portfolio tends to repeat one specification across every flat, which keeps later repairs and replacements simple to order. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. A missing sink stops eight kitchens, not one.