Kitchen worktops in Norbury

Yes. Edwardian terraces near the station with rear-addition kitchens, and 1930s semis climbing the hill towards Norbury Park with larger square kitchens that take a proper island. Shop-top flats have minimal kitchens of 2m or less along one wall. Where the drive is shared, the half-hour the van spends in the way is agreed with the neighbour in advance rather than apologised for at the time. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. A tall panel and a timed bay is the worst combination here.

Edwardian terrace, 1930s semi, flats above London Road shops and 1960s block. The addition wall is half a brick thick in places and has usually had a damp course injected and been re-plastered, which leaves it neither flat nor consistent. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Old fabric gets handled as old fabric.

London Road has red route restrictions through the day, so timing matters; the residential roads climbing east are steep with parking on both sides and short driveways. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. 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 replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. One flat out of use at a time. Anything on the London Road frontage has to be unloaded outside restricted hours, so we book those fits first thing rather than mid-morning.

The two runs are read against each other rather than against the floor, so they are set to one datum taken across the aisle instead of measured up from the boards. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Dry-lay first, always. A scribe has a working limit, and past twenty millimetres or so the back edge starts eating depth the run cannot spare. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The sill was always low. Nobody had to care until now. Material is from £110 per square metre supply only, and the templating, the fabrication and the fitting are each quoted on their own line.

Flats bought out of managed stock keep the original kitchen dimensions long after the ownership changed, so the layout says very little about who is paying for the work. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Owners phase this work; a void period cannot. If we know the building when you book, the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are worked into the day rather than found on it.

Variation past what packing can take up has to be corrected in the carcasses before we cut, because the template records the units as they stand. Levelling belongs in the carcasses, on their own legs and packers. Units have to be fixed down as well as levelled. A loose carcass moves under stone. 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. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. A straight swap is the exception in an older room.

Socket and switch positions have to be final before templating, because the openings are machined rather than chopped out on the wall. An upstand is a slim strip that follows the worktop up the wall; a full-height splashback runs from the worktop to the underside of the wall units. A full-height piece shows a wall that is out more than an upstand does, over the extra height. Where the side return has been filled in, the old external wall is now an internal one and still carries its render, its gutter line and its old fixings. 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. Lath and plaster is not a fixing, and is treated accordingly.

Which side of the bowl they go is about how you stand at the sink, and it is settled before cutting. They are cut with a fall towards the bowl, which is why they cannot be added on site later. Nothing in a house of this age is square, and the kitchen is usually the part that has been altered most often. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Overhangs get brackets before anyone leans on them.

If the units run late the template moves, not the fit: the gap between them is fabrication. Money does not move until the template is done. The template is taken in your kitchen after the units are in and fixed, never before. The kitchen normally sits in the back addition or a later side return, which puts the run against the oldest and least straight wall in the building. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. A settled floor adds an hour and the day allows for it.