Kitchen worktops in Hornchurch

Yes. The bulk of the stock is inter-war semis with the kitchen and dining room knocked together into an L, plus a rear extension on maybe half of them, giving a 3-4m main run with the sink under the original rear window. Above the High Street there are flats with small galley kitchens where the whole run is under 3m and every millimetre of the return matters. Where the bay sits some distance from the core, the carry across the car park is the longest leg of the day and gets boarded and lit. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

1930s semi, inter-war terrace, post-war semi and town-centre flat. These kitchens have been retiled at least twice, and stripping the tiles takes the bottom band of plaster with them because the old laminate ran underneath rather than up to them. What catches people out is the junction between the old floor and the extension floor, which is rarely at the same level, so a run carrying across it needs the units packed before stone goes on. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

Residential roads are easy with dropped kerbs and side gates, but the High Street and Station Lane flats have loading restrictions, timed bays and first-floor stair access with a tight turn. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. The strip-out is planned around it.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop templating, in that order. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Half the borough's semis have the sink stuck under a low rear window, so we check the sill height before specifying an upstand, often there is not enough room for one.

Where the return runs into a wall that is out of square, the corner is templated as the angle it really is rather than as ninety degrees. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. Real angles, not plan angles. 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. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

An owner living in the house makes the decisions and lives with them, so the specification tends to go towards the material rather than towards the lowest total. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Protection goes down first. 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.