Kitchen worktops in Lewisham

Yes. Town-centre stock splits between Victorian terraces off the high street with back-addition galleys and a growing number of tower flats with open-plan kitchen-living rooms and a peninsula. The new-build runs are short and precise; the Victorian ones are long, narrow and out of square. 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. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Victorian terrace, 1960s council tower, 1930s mansion flats and 2010s-2020s Loampit Vale towers. The back addition is a narrow two-storey outrigger with a single external wall, and the kitchen galley runs the length of it. Alcoves either side of the breast are rarely the same width and rarely parallel, so each one is templated as its own piece with its own scribe. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

The gyratory, bus lanes and shopping-centre servicing make kerbside stops difficult, the new towers need a booked goods lift, and the side streets are permit-only through the day. Where the lift will not take the longest run we design a join in rather than gamble, because a piece that will not go up has to go back on the van. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave. Two completely different jobs within 400 metres of each other — establish which stock you're in before quoting the carry.

A peninsula is an island with one end tied to a run, which means the join between them has to be planned rather than allowed to happen. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. One datum for the whole room. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. 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 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.

These kitchens tend to be compact and reasonably square, so the fixed template, fabrication and fitting lines are a larger share of the total than the stone is. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. One visit, our own installers. 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.