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. 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. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1930s semi, interwar chalet bungalow, 1960s detached and postwar infill. Where the roof has been converted there is usually a steel over the kitchen that went in after the walls, and the run beneath it is worth checking for square. Access is usually the easy part here, as most of these have a side gate and a back door straight into the kitchen, so we carry down the side alley rather than through the house and keep the mess outside. That is the shape of the day.

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. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop design & quotation, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. 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. Low sills under the sink window are common in the bungalows, check upstand height at template stage or you'll be cutting on site.

Three runs means two internal corners, and each corner is a decision about mitre or butt joint before anything is nested. Each run is priced on its own line against the supply rate, with the join count and the reason for each join stated. The join count is stated with its reason. A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. It is fabrication time rather than material, so it appears on the fabrication line and not in the square metre figure. Priced as fabrication, not as area. 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 someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.