Kitchen worktops in Kingston upon Thames

Yes. Town-centre flats dominate - riverside developments and converted offices with a kitchen along one wall of the living space, typically 2.4m to 3m of run with a tall bank of appliances and no room for a real island, plus a scattering of Georgian townhouses above shops with awkward first-floor kitchens. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. 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. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Georgian townhouse, Victorian terrace, 1990s riverside development and 2000s office-to-residential conversion. Goods access exists because the building had it when it was an office, which usually makes the carry the easiest part of the job. If the diagonal is short we either split the run with a planned join or, on lower floors, carry up the stairwell, which needs the half-landing turn checking as well. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

The core is pedestrianised with timed access only, riverside blocks have gated underground parking and booked service lifts, and the one-way system means a wrong turn costs you fifteen minutes and a loading slot. A car that takes 2.4m on the diagonal will not take a three-metre worktop however it is stood, and there is no trimming it on the landing. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, 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. One visit, done properly. Pedestrian-zone permits and lift slots dictate the day, so everything gets cut to liftable sizes and jointed in the flat.

A galley puts the sink on one side and the hob on the other, which spreads the cut-outs across two pieces instead of weakening one. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. A lightweight stud partition will not carry a breakfast bar or a peninsula end, and stone finds that out faster than laminate ever did. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. 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.