Kitchen worktops in Mill Hill East

Yes. Almost entirely new-build estate housing, so kitchens arrive as developer-standard open-plan layouts with a 3m run and an integrated appliance bank, and the work is upgrading tops and adding a matching upstand or splashback within the existing units. Townhouses put the kitchen on the ground floor with a small utility cupboard rather than a separate room. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. One trip is always better than three.

2010s-2020s new-build houses and apartments, converted barracks buildings and 1930s stock at the edges. Walls are dense block or in-situ concrete with a bonded plaster, so the bottom course of tiles brings plaster with it when the old top comes off. Plaster bonded straight onto concrete comes away with the bottom course of tiles, leaving a band behind the upstand. What is under the old top is the real question.

New estate roads are wide and well surfaced with allocated parking, though visitor bays are scarce and some blocks have underfloor parking with height limits. Apartment deliveries need a lift booking with the managing agent. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. We plan the strip-out and the carry as one movement so the kitchen is only out of use for a single day. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A day, not a project. Developer units here are set out to the millimetre, so a template that respects the existing carcass line will beat one that measures off the plasterboard.

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. Long runs almost never take a single panel, so the joint positions want agreeing before anything is templated. Joint placement is a decision, not an accident. Taped internal angles in plasterboard belly at the corner, so the run picks up a few millimetres over the last 300mm and a plan-angle mitre will not close. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. It is the usual surprise, and it is a known one. 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.

These kitchens tend to be compact and reasonably square, so the fixed template, fabrication and fitting lines are a larger share of the total than the stone is. 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.