Worktop installation in Old Oak and College Park

Yes. Old Oak and College Park is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are NW10. It is worked on our west London run, along with the rest of Hammersmith and Fulham. A timed school street shuts the road either side of the school day, so the van goes in between those two windows or it does not go in. 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. A booked bay only helps if it is empty when we arrive. Template and fit both happen at the property, so there is nothing to drive to and nothing to collect.

The chimney breast has almost always been taken out of the kitchen with the stack left standing above it, so that bay of wall is newer plasterwork on a different plane. Scribing takes longer than the carry does, so the quiet half of the day is the half that runs over. One datum, taken off the highest point of the floor. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. A forced back edge cracks weeks later.

Turning a heavy piece on edge indoors needs floor space at both ends of the turn, so the hall is cleared of furniture before anything comes off the van. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. Pieces wait on trestles until the fitters call for them. An event-day suspension can override a bay that is perfectly usable the rest of the week, so a booked space gets checked again nearer the time. 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.

One of the three we are asked for most, although worktop replacement is asked for more. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Handover-spec kitchens are square, plumb and predictable, which means the join count is honest and driven by run length rather than by the building. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. A missing sink stops eight kitchens, not one. A specification repeated across several plots has to be repeatable, which quietly rules out the natural stones where no two slabs match. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. Back-to-back slots need every flat ready on the first day.

A peninsula is an island with one end tied to a run, which means the join between them has to be planned rather than allowed to happen. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. A seam under a rooflight gets the extra minutes. Material runs £110 to £550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting each get their own line.

A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Mark it, lift it, cut it, offer it up again. Clear the full hall and stairs route of furniture, bikes, coats and stair-gates, and keep the front door propped and unobstructed for the carry. A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. A half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.

Stone does not flex, so a run that rocks on its carcasses rocks just as badly once it is stone. Packing takes up small variation. It is not there to hide something that belongs in the units. Units have to be fitted, fixed and level before templating, and it is better to hear that at the template than on the fitting day. Once the carcasses are levelled the gap under the plinth varies along the run, and that varying gap is the honest record of what the floor is doing. It adds an hour or two to the day, and that time sits in the schedule rather than being taken out of the finishing. The gap closes on the grinder, not in the sealant gun.

Upkeep is settled when the slab is chosen, since it belongs to the material rather than the fabrication. Granite is porous to varying degrees, so it is sealed when we fit it and topped up over the life of the worktop. A seal is not waterproofing. It only buys time to wipe a spill up. Ceilings are high in these, so wall unit heights and splashback heights are open choices rather than things the room has already decided. Pieces are stood on edge for the turns and carried flat for the straights, and that sequence is agreed before anything comes off the van. Settlement is packed out, never levered out.

Chips at an edge or a corner are the usual form, because that is where stone is least supported. Every piece is dry-assembled on the bench before it is loaded, so a fabrication mistake is found in the workshop rather than in your kitchen. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. Two people will walk a two-metre piece in through a front door; the same hall with a three-metre piece wants four, purely because nobody can let go halfway. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. Every re-grip is a chance to chip a piece, so they are planned out.

The quote is itemised, so a job where you already hold the slab is the same job with the material line taken off it. Order is what matters: a slab is templated before it is cut, so an uncut slab is straightforward and one already machined for another kitchen is not. Replacing one plot years after handover is the problem nobody plans for, because a quartz colour can be reordered and a granite block cannot. Fitting is booked as a run of consecutive days rather than as separate visits, which is what makes several kitchens in one building workable. Booked around the turnaround, not our diary.