Kitchen worktops in New Eltham

Yes. Wider interwar plots than Eltham proper with more detached houses and chalet bungalows, so kitchens are square rather than long — usually reworked into a U with a peninsula. A fair number of bungalow kitchens have low ceilings and window sills that sit close to the worktop. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

1930s semi, interwar chalet bungalow, 1960s detached and postwar infill. Wide doorways and level thresholds mean full-length pieces go in whole and the join count comes down to slab length alone. The fitting itself is slower than the carry: original plaster on the party wall and around the old chimney breast is rarely square to the run, so back scribes get cut on site, and where a return wraps into a breast recess we template that shoulder tight and ease it in. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Good: nearly every house has a drive or hardstanding, the roads are wide and turning space is easy, with pinch points only around the station and the shops. Where the van stands level with the front of the house a piece gets handled twice instead of five times, and stone breaks on handling rather than on the road. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop design & quotation, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Low sills under the sink window are common in the bungalows — check upstand height at template stage or you'll be cutting on site.

The advantage of a U is that every join can be put over a gable in a corner, so nothing lands in the middle of a clear length. It is the shape rather than the square metreage that moves the number, which is why two kitchens the same size quote differently. Shape first, area second. Sill height gets settled with the template on site, because it is one of the few dimensions nobody has measured before we arrive. Send photographs of every corner of the room and it gets priced properly first time. Photographs are worth more than a plan here. 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.

The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. A half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. 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.