Kitchen worktops in North Kensington

Yes. A high proportion of the stock is flats formed out of Victorian terraces or purpose-built estate blocks, so the typical job is a single-run replacement of 2.2-3.0m with a small return, keeping the existing sink and hob positions. Where whole houses survive intact the kitchen sits in a back addition with a step down into it, which puts a level change right where the worktop meets the wall. Estate roads inside a controlled zone are sometimes managed privately rather than by the council, which changes who has to be asked. 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. A booked bay only helps if it is empty when we arrive.

Victorian terrace in multiple occupation, postwar council estate, 1960s slab block and recent housing association infill. The original range recess often survives as a shallow alcove with an iron lintel over it, a hundred millimetres deeper than the wall either side of it. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Old fabric gets handled as old fabric.

Estate deliveries need the block entry code and often a lift key from the caretaker, and several blocks have a stepped podium between the parking and the entrance door. On the terraced streets the bays are resident-permit with short loading tolerance, so plan a two-vehicle approach: van in, unload, van out. Car depth is the number that settles it wherever a piece cannot be stood upright, and most residential cars are shallower than the run they are serving. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Every piece is staged to it before fitting starts.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Batching several kitchens together is the one situation where buying a whole slab is cheaper per kitchen rather than more expensive. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The building keeps working around us. Levels are the recurring problem in the back additions - the floor drops away from the house so the base units are packed and the worktop is the only thing hiding it.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. A run that flexed under laminate gets support now. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. It is usually what pushes a job towards a 100mm upstand instead of a full-height panel, because an upstand rides what a panel exposes. Height follows the sill, not the plan. Material starts at £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting sit on their own lines rather than inside one figure.

Two flats with an identical layout can want entirely different things from the same run of worktop, which is why the quote follows the run rather than the address. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. One visit where permission only stretches to one. Let us know the building when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are handled beforehand rather than on the fitting day.

An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. Taking the old tops off and disposing of them is its own line on the quote rather than something folded into the stone price. The units below stay exactly as they are; only the surface is replaced. A controlled parking zone means either a visitor permit sorted in advance or a suspended bay, and a suspension is applied for days ahead rather than on the morning. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. The clock on the bay runs whether the lift is free or not.

Two bowls means two cut-outs and a bridge of stone between them, which decides where the sink can go. Where the hob lands is set out against the units and the wall behind, not off the kitchen plan. A sit-on sink and an undermounted one are different cut-outs, so which it is gets settled before the template. The walkway between the two runs is fixed by the units either side, so any overhang added to one worktop comes straight off the space somebody has to stand in. Going from a 38mm laminate to 20mm or 30mm stone drops the surface, which shows against tiles, a window board and any freestanding appliance. Appliance gaps are checked against the new thickness.

A join added to get stone into the room is a different thing from a join added because the slab ran out, and the quote says which is which. Splitting a run costs a join, and that is the price of getting stone into the room at all. A car ceiling at 2.2m sets the tallest thing that will stand in it, and the trap panel and light fitting take a slice off even that. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. The way in is walked with a tape before the van is opened.

Say what you have and where it came from before anything is booked, because thickness and batch decide what can be done with it. Thickness has to be known before quoting, since it decides the edge, the cut-outs and what the units carry. A licensed shared house has fire-door and escape-route rules that decide how and when stone can be carried through the common parts. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. A slipped slot takes the next one with it.