Kitchen worktops in New Cross

Yes. A lot of houses in multiple occupation and student lets around the college, where kitchens are hard-used single runs of 2.4m to 3m and durability matters more than looks; the remaining family houses have back-addition kitchens with the side return opened up. Where the frontage is a clearway the unload happens away from the door and the carry gets longer, which is a crew and time question rather than a stone one. 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.

Georgian and early Victorian terrace, Victorian terrace, 1960s council block and student HMO conversion. Cornice, picture rails and deep skirting survive in converted rooms, so the run stands off the wall and the back edge follows the units rather than the plaster. We measure the front door, the hall width and the turn into the kitchen before anything comes off the van, because a 3m piece has to swing through that corner on edge and stone does not bend to help you. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

The main road junctions are heavy with traffic and red-route restrictions, so unloading happens on the side streets, and many terraces have steps up to a raised front door. Carrying through the house means protecting the whole route first: floor boarded, banister padded, and the front door held open on a wedge rather than by hand. 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 fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. Where a single building holds several small kitchens, the work arrives as one job rather than four, and it should be cut off the same slab run so the batches genuinely match. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The prep list is not optional. Landlord and HMO work here wants a hard-wearing, easily replaced run — not a book-matched island.

The step or level change between the original room and the return is real, and the units need packing before stone goes across it. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. The bench proves it before the van does. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. Internal corners are machined with a radius and polished, and kept well clear of any join or cut-out. Machined to the real line. 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.

Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. 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.