Kitchen worktops in Marks Gate

Yes. A compact post-war estate cut off north of the A12, built to a small number of types, so kitchens are uniformly small — a single 2.4m run with the boiler above and no realistic room for an island or peninsula unless a wall comes out. Most work is replacement tops and sinks on sound units, with occasional full refits where a rear extension has been added. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. 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.

1950s LCC estate house, post-war maisonette and 1960s low-rise flat. An ex-council house is solidly built to a standard plan, with the kitchen at the rear and a back door next to it. The stairwell half-landing is usually the tightest point on the whole route and it dictates the maximum piece. That is the shape of the day.

Self-contained estate with parking courts, garage blocks and pedestrian paths between the blocks; the A12 means there is one way in and out, so timing around traffic matters. The barrier, the entry code and the estate rules decide when a van can get near the door, and none of that is negotiable on the day. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. The estate is small and repetitive, so once we have templated one of each house type we know the room, but every single one still gets checked for the boiler position.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Height change is checked before we cut. A notch around a boxed stack is machined with a radius at the internal corner, because a square inside corner there is exactly where a top will crack. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. 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.