Kitchen worktops in Oakwood

Yes. Deep rear gardens backing onto the Trent Park side means big single-storey rear extensions with a glazed roof, so the kitchen becomes a proper open-plan room with a 3m-plus island facing the garden and the working run pushed back against the old rear wall. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. It sits in the fitting line as time on site rather than as anything to do with the stone. It is one line among the others, and it is honest.

1930s semi, 1930s detached and 1960s bungalow. Houses of this period came with generous garages and utility rooms, so a second short run of stone is often part of the same job. The typical 1930s kitchen sits at the back with a low window over the sink run, so the template records the exact sill height above the units to settle whether an upstand fits or the stone has to die into a window board. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

Good - most houses have a driveway and the roads are wide, but the extensions themselves are often already built with the doors on, so the slab route is through the house rather than in from the garden. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Comparing quotes only works when they itemise the same things, and this is where the differences usually hide. Itemised, so it can be compared honestly. Where the extension has a large rooflight, the island reads far brighter than a showroom does - check the sample on site before settling a dark colour.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Sill height gets settled with the template on site, because it is one of the few dimensions nobody has measured before we arrive. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. The quote is written so it can be read by whoever is paying rather than only by whoever is standing in the kitchen. Nothing payable until template. 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.