Kitchen worktops in Manor House

Yes. Mostly flats with compact fixed kitchens of 2.4-2.8m and appliances already in position, so replacement runs and upstands are the bread and butter. The Victorian terraces on the side streets give occasional rear-addition kitchens with a bit more length to work with. The realistic answer on a main road is an early slot, a spotter on the van and pieces staged in one movement rather than several trips. Upstands travel in a crate and can wait on the van, which gives some flexibility a full-height panel does not. One trip is always better than three.

post-war estate block, Victorian terrace, 1930s block and new-build apartment. The addition wall is half a brick thick in places and has usually had a damp course injected and been re-plastered, which leaves it neither flat nor consistent. The day is planned backwards from the hall, and the scribing takes longer than the carry. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Sitting on a major junction with red route sections and no stopping, so loading goes to the residential streets behind. The older blocks are walk-ups while the newer ones have lifts that need booking through the managing agent. A car that takes 2.4m on the diagonal will not take a three-metre worktop however it is stood, and there is no trimming it on the landing. 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 replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A day, not a project. Appliance positions are effectively fixed here, so template around the existing hob and sink footprints rather than assuming they can be shifted along the run.

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. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Dry-lay first, always. 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. A tall panel that fits at the worktop will stand off the wall at the top unless the wall is dubbed out or the panel is scribed. An upstand rides what a panel exposes. 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. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.