Kitchen worktops in Knightsbridge

Yes. Prime apartment stock with a main kitchen for show and a separate staff or prep kitchen behind it, both needing stone. The show kitchen is handleless with a large island and often a full-height stone splashback; the prep kitchen is a plain 3m run in the same material to keep continuity. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. It sits in the fitting line as time on site rather than as anything to do with the stone. It is one line among the others, and it is honest.

red-brick mansion block, prime new-build apartment and Victorian townhouse. External walls are thick and the run under the window sits in a deep reveal that has to be templated rather than assumed square. Ceilings are high and external walls are thick, so the run under the window sits in a deep reveal and the back edge has to be templated to the reveal rather than assumed square. The bench proves it before the van moves.

Buildings run 24-hour security and a strict delivery protocol - vehicle booked in, ID for every fitter, protection down through the lobby and lift, and noisy works restricted to a defined window. Some buildings insist all cutting happens off site with zero exceptions. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. Getting that wrong leaves a finished, machined piece that cannot reach the room, which is a remake rather than a trim. The drawing carries that decision through to the saw.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. Landlord work is scheduled around void periods, so the whole thing is a fixed window and the template date matters as much as the fitting date. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. Sealed before we leave. Nothing gets cut on site in these buildings, so the template must be dimensionally exact including appliance clearances - one wrong cut-out means a full replacement slab, not a rework.

An island is a single visible piece with four finished edges and no wall to hide against, so it is the piece the whole kitchen is judged on. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. The bench proves it before the van does. A notch around a boxed stack is machined with a radius at the internal corner, because a square inside corner there is exactly where a top will crack. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. The drawing decides it, not the fitter. 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.