Worktop installation in Moorgate

Yes. Moorgate is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are EC2M, EC2Y. It is run from the Essex side, covering Essex & East London. 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. 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. We would rather ask than guess. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The structure is a concrete or steel frame, so what looks like a wall is often a partition and what looks like a partition is often a column. If the diagonal is short we either split the run with a planned join or, on lower floors, carry up the stairwell, which needs the half-landing turn checking as well. That is the shape of the day. Windowless interiors are lit by spots and LED strip, which is unforgiving on a bad joint - dry-fit the joint and check it under the client's own lighting before it is glued.

Moorgate and London Wall are busy multi-lane routes with no stopping, so deliveries go into building basements with height barriers, or onto short side-street windows early in the day. Ongoing construction across this fringe means hoardings and lane closures change frequently, so confirm the approach the morning of the fit. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. None of it is worked out on the doorstep. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop fabrication and worktop replacement. 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. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. 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. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. Sealed before we leave.

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. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. The join is the last thing finished. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

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. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. Book the service lift and loading bay with the building manager for the whole fitting window, and have the fob or key for lift override ready. Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Protection goes down first.