Worktop installation in Marylebone

Yes. Marylebone is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are W1U, W1G, W1H. It is worked on our central London run, along with the rest of Westminster. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. An early slot is the cheapest parking arrangement there is. Template and fit both happen at the property, so there is nothing to drive to and nothing to collect.

Walls are solid brick with lime plaster and a hard skim over the top, and that skim comes away in sheets when old tiles are taken back. The porter has to be booked, the goods lift protected with the block's own blankets or our own boards, and communal carpet and stair runners covered from the entrance to the flat door before a single piece moves. The building moved decades ago and the fit allows for it. A live soil stack cannot be chased back into the wall, so the depth it steals is permanent and the run is planned around it rather than through it. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Offered up twice, bonded once.

A rated load sounds ample until three lengths of granite and two fitters are standing on it, so the stone goes up one piece at a time. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. The last piece off the van is the first one fitted. On a street with no restrictions the constraint is other residents rather than a warden, so it is worth putting a cone or a car out early. 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. A crew waiting for a space is a crew being paid to wait.

One of the three we are asked for most, although worktop replacement is asked for more. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Agents book this work at short notice, because the void only becomes a real date once the outgoing tenant confirms they are going. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A missing sink stops eight kitchens, not one. A managed portfolio tends to repeat one specification across every flat, which keeps later repairs and replacements simple to order. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. Back-to-back slots need every flat ready on the first day.

Waterfall ends are cut in sequence off the length either side of the top so the vein carries down the leg, and that sequence is gone the moment a piece has to be recut. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. Reckon on £110 to £550 per square metre for the material supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised separately.

Boxing built in plasterboard on a light frame will take no useful fixing, so nothing bears on it and the stone is carried off the carcasses either side. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Sealant seals. It does not fit. Have the works booking confirmed with the managing agent or porter in advance, with the lift slot and any parking permit or bay suspension in place. Nobody reseals a worktop annually in a let property, so a material that depends on being resealed is the wrong specification however well it photographs. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access rules can differ from one door to the next.

A sloping floor is not the problem. The plane the unit tops finish in is. Packing takes up small variation. It is not there to hide something that belongs in the units. Levelling belongs in the carcasses, on their own legs and packers. A stack boxed diagonally across a corner leaves a triangle of dead space, and the top is cut to that triangle rather than to a square return. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. The awkward metre takes the longest.

A full-height piece behind the hob has to allow for the extractor, so that gets settled first. The joint between splashback and worktop is siliconed, never grouted, so it can move a little without cracking. Tiling and stone can meet, but where they meet is decided before the template rather than after. Sash windows sit in deep reveals with a working box behind the lining, so a run dying into one has to clear more than the plaster. The finish time is set by the block rather than by the work, so the sequence is planned to end early rather than to run late. Nothing is screwed into plasterboard and hoped for.

The fit follows 5 to 10 working days after the template, and nothing is cut before that visit because nothing is cut from a plan. Upstands and splashbacks are templated after the worktop is down and settled, so they are a separate visit. These kitchens were service rooms once, so they are long, narrow and further from the entrance than the floor plan suggests. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Access, floor and wall in that order, then stone.

If your own slab breaks there is no matching replacement to hand, and that is the real difference. How the slab has been stored is worth telling us, because stone kept flat is not stone off a rack. Sinks, taps and hobs are yours to buy in any case, and they only have to be in the room for the template. Damage in a let flat is settled as a deposit deduction, so a surface that can be repaired in place is worth more than one that has to be replaced whole. Fitting is booked as a run of consecutive days rather than as separate visits, which is what makes several kitchens in one building workable. Booked around the turnaround, not our diary.