Kitchen worktops in Longbridge

Yes. Some of the better period stock in the borough sits around Barking Park, with larger bay-fronted houses whose original kitchens are big enough to work with once the old scullery wall comes out. Where houses have been converted to flats, the kitchens are carved out of former bedrooms with services run along one wall, which produces short runs and a lot of awkward boxing to scribe around. Permit hours are what matters, not the permit itself, because a bay that frees up at six in the evening is no use for a template at ten. 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.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian bay-fronted house, inter-war semi and period conversion flat. 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 day is planned backwards from the hall. That is the shape of the day.

Wider roads than central Barking with some off-street parking on the larger houses, but permit bays elsewhere and long stepped front paths on the bay-fronted terraces. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop templating, worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Party-wall and lease conditions in a converted building set when noisy work can happen, which shapes the fitting day more than the kitchen does. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. A day, not a project. Converted flats have boxed-in soil stacks in the corner of the kitchen almost as a rule, so we template around the boxing rather than trusting the wall line.

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 template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. One datum for the whole room. A boxed soil stack or service riser in the corner of a run eats into the worktop depth and has to be scribed around rather than cut square. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Plotted, not estimated. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Units kept, surface changed. 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.