Kitchen worktops in Lots Road

Yes. Converted industrial shells give open-plan kitchens with long uninterrupted island runs of 3-4m and exposed structure overhead, and the specification usually runs to thin 12-20mm porcelain on a mitred build-up so the top reads slim against the brick. The surviving cottage terraces behind are the reverse - single-storey rear kitchens at 2.4m with low ceilings and a stable door out to a yard. On an event day the controls are wider, tighter and enforced harder than the signage suggests on any other morning of the week. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

former power station and industrial conversion, Victorian artisan cottage terrace, riverside new-build apartment and warehouse loft. Original brickwork is uneven by ten millimetres or more across a bay, so the back edge is scribed to the actual face rather than to a line. The kitchen is open plan and the island is often long enough to need a join, and it sits in the middle of the room where every edge is visible, so the join goes over a gable and usually under the hob line where the eye does not follow it. Settled on the drawing, cut once.

This is a working riverside corner with the creek, boatyards and ongoing construction traffic, so road closures and contractor gate control are routine and worth checking the morning of. New riverside blocks want a booked goods lift and a delivery slot, while the loft conversions often have a wide freight lift left over from the industrial use, which is the easiest access in the whole borough when it is available. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. The maximum piece length is fixed at drawing stage and every join is placed over a cabinet gable from there. The drawing carries that decision through to the saw.

Worktop fabrication, worktop installation and worktop templating, 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. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. Sealed before we leave. If the building kept its old goods lift, use it and stop worrying about piece size - that is rare enough in SW10 to be worth planning the job around.

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. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. The bench proves it before the van does. A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. 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.

Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. A half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. 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.