Kitchen worktops in Mortlake

Yes. Modest Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the river with rear kitchens of 2.4m by 3.5m and a common single-storey infill, plus a growing stock of new apartments on the old brewery site with developer-fitted kitchens along one wall and a short island. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. 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. The day is built around that window.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian terrace, 1930s flats and 2020s brewery site redevelopment. Wider halls make the carry noticeably easier, and that alone can remove a join that a narrower terrace would have forced into the run. The day is planned backwards from the hall, and the scribing takes longer than the carry. That is the shape of the day.

The level crossing on the main road stops traffic repeatedly and the riverside streets are narrow with parking both sides; the new development has controlled access, allocated bays and lifts with booking sheets. Where the lift will not take the longest run we design a join in rather than gamble, because a piece that will not go up has to go back on the van. 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. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. Splashbacks and upstands are cut from the same slab run at the same time, which is the only way the batch actually matches. Same batch, same run, same day. New-build kitchens on the redevelopment come with thin composite tops that clients upgrade early, so it is usually a swap onto existing carcasses with the sink and tap reused.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Walls that bow along their length are the normal condition rather than the exception, and a straight-cut back edge will show a shadow gap at one end and touch at the other. It is usually what pushes a job towards a 100mm upstand instead of a full-height panel, because an upstand rides what a panel exposes. Make the wall good first, or accept the detail. 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. Full-height panels need the wall made good first, which is another trade and another timescale. Decided before fabrication, not after. 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.