Kitchen worktops in Newington

Yes. A mix of narrow Georgian and Victorian houses split into flats, where each flat gets a kitchen carved out of what was a bedroom - short runs of 1.8m to 2.4m, sink under a sash window, and a lot of appliance-under-worktop planning in a small footprint. Where the bay sits some distance from the core, the carry across the car park is the longest leg of the day and gets boarded and lit. 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. We would rather ask than guess.

Georgian terrace, Victorian terrace, Edwardian mansion flats and postwar estate. 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. The day is planned backwards from the hall, and the scribing takes longer than the carry. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Dense terraced streets with permit-only bays all day and no driveways, so a suspension or an early start is the only realistic way to get a slab trolley to the front door. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. 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 replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A day, not a project. Converted flats mean unknown floors - lift a laminate top here and you often find chipboard carcasses on a springy floor that need bracing before stone goes on.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. Real angles, not plan angles. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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 same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.