Kitchen worktops in Kenley

Yes. Houses built into the sides of the Caterham valley, so kitchens often sit at the rear looking out at treetop level with a raised deck beyond. Chalet bungalows have wide shallow kitchens with limited wall-cupboard height; the detached houses take an L plus peninsula rather than a big island. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

1930s detached, chalet bungalow, 1960s detached on sloping plot and post-war infill. Everything on one level means no stairs, no landings and no turns, which is about the easiest carry there is in domestic work. The kitchen is normally the original back room with a later side-return or rear extension bolted on, and that helps us: most pieces can go down the side alley and in through the back door in one length, so we can avoid joins that a front-door route would force. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

The steepest access in the borough. Driveways drop or climb sharply off the road, several properties are reached by steps only, and a number of the lanes are unadopted with poor surfaces. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. The strip-out is planned around it.

Worktop templating, worktop installation 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. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. One visit, done properly. Where the only way in is a flight of garden steps we size every piece to be a genuine two-man lift, because there is nowhere safe to rest a full-length slab halfway up.

Two runs meeting at an internal corner is the most common shape we fit, and the corner is where the decisions are. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. Real angles, not plan angles. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.