Kitchen worktops in Ladywell

Yes. Conservation-area Victorian terraces and semis, many split into upper and lower flats, lower flats get the garden and a rear extension with a proper kitchen-diner, upper flats keep a compact galley over the back addition with a sloping ceiling at one end. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. Nothing gets buried behind something it has to follow off.

Victorian terrace, Victorian semi-detached villa, 1930s flats and postwar infill. The rear wall is usually a single brick thick and has been rendered, patched and re-rendered, so it bows in and out along the length of the run. The galley run down a side-return usually measures longer than a slab will give us, so a join is designed in from the start and nested to land over a cabinet gable rather than wherever the material happens to run out. Settled on the drawing, cut once.

Narrow streets parked on both sides and a level crossing that periodically closes the route through; most flats are walk-ups with a shared front door and a straight but narrow stair. Sintered stone at 12mm changes what a staircase can take, because the same run arrives at roughly half the weight of the granite equivalent. 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 way out is measured with the way in.

Worktop replacement and worktop fabrication, in that order. Several units in one building are fitted out to the same drawing, so an error on that drawing is an error repeated in every flat. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. Specified for wear rather than for the photograph. First-floor flat kitchens over a back addition mean a stair carry and usually a piece that has to be turned on the half-landing.

The two runs are rarely the same length, and the shorter one often carries the sink, which puts the cut-outs in the piece with the least material to spare. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. Book-matched pieces are cut adjacent or not at all. A window board sitting below finished worktop height leaves two choices, drop the top under it or notch the stone around it, and both cost more than a straight run. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. Found at template, not on fit day. Material starts at £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting sit on their own lines rather than inside 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. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Wear is what the next inventory records. Let us know the building when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are handled beforehand rather than on the fitting day.

On a replacement the old top comes off in the morning and the new stone is down and sealed the same day. What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. The units below stay exactly as they are; only the surface is replaced. 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. Pieces are loaded in reverse fitting order so the first thing off the van is the first thing that goes down. A short window means one pass, so the rack suits one pass.

The alternative to a join is a shorter run, which is usually the wrong thing to trade away. The carry route is measured before anything is cut, so a piece that will not make the turn is split at the drawing stage rather than discovered on the day. 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. 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. It decides whether the old top leaves whole.

Templating and fitting are two visits, not one, and the gap between them is when the stone is actually cut. Nothing changes hands until after the template. The fitting itself is one visit: a plain run is a morning, an island with splashbacks takes most of the day. Chimney breasts are often taken out at ground level and left standing above, so the middle of the run is newer wall than the two ends of it. All of that is settled at the nesting stage, because a machined piece cannot be adjusted afterwards. Joins over gables, always.

A tap under a window board still needs room for its handle to lift, which is checked at the template. We seat and seal the sink and hob on the day; water, waste, gas and electrics are for your plumber and electrician. Where the hob lands is set out against the units and the wall behind, not off the kitchen plan. A tall bank of housings at one end takes a chunk out of the working run, so the usable length of that side is always less than the length of the wall behind it. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. A recut loses the sequence for good.