Kitchen worktops in Palmers Green

Yes. Large Edwardian and interwar family houses, often extended to the full width of the plot, and the brief is usually a serious cooking kitchen - a 4m rear run with a range, an island with a second prep sink, and a separate tall bank of ovens. Extended families here cook a lot, so worktop area matters more than it does two streets north. Controlled hours that end in the middle of the afternoon make the second half of the day easy and put the whole problem in the first half. 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. The clock on the bay runs whether the lift is free or not.

Edwardian bay terrace, 1930s semi and purpose-built 1930s flat. A bay-fronted terrace has a long hall running past the stairs to the kitchen, so the hall turn caps the piece length before the run length does. 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. Carried once, and carried properly.

Green Lanes has controlled parking, a bus lane and loading restrictions outside the shops, and the side streets are permit-only in the day. Houses generally have a side gate wide enough for a slab if the front hall is too tight. Grass and gravel will not take a loaded trolley, so a boarded track gets laid from the gate to the door before the first piece moves. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Banisters and door frames are padded before anything moves.

Worktop installation, in that order. Extended households run kitchens hard, and that pushes the specification towards granite or sintered stone rather than a light quartz. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. That family has lived on a building site long enough. Islands here are frequently over 3m and need two men either side plus a joint or a slab upgrade - check the ceiling height for the bifold head before you plan the lift-in route.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. A galley is levelled as one plane, both sides together. A window board sitting below finished worktop height leaves two choices, drop the top under it or notch the stone around it, and both cost more than a straight run. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. The stone itself starts at £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting quoted on their own lines instead of rolled together.

Someone who expects to still be there in ten years asks different questions: how a honed finish marks, what a sealer does and does not do, and whether a chip by the sink can be repaired in place. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. A day out of use, told to whoever lives there. Tell us about the building at the point of booking, so the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are allowed for in advance.

If you want the old top kept for a garage or a utility, say so and it stays on site. Disposal means it goes in the van, not into the garden to wait for a collection. On a replacement the old top comes off in the morning and the new stone is down and sealed the same day. A short lunchtime window of control exists to keep commuters off the street, and it still catches a trade van standing there for an hour. 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. Slack in the day gets spent on the street or on the fit.

Dark and heavily veined stone shows a join more than a pale even one, which is worth knowing before the slab is picked. A join cannot cross a cut-out, so a sink mid-run takes away the position you would have used. Join count is a question about slab size and run length, nothing else. An island carries its own edge detail all the way round, so a mitred 100mm apron on four sides is four mitres cut, bonded and polished before the piece ever leaves the bench. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The last piece in has the least tolerance left.

If a piece cannot be got in at all, we say so at the template rather than on the day. Where there is a lift, whether it can be booked out and padded matters as much as its size. The lift, if there is one, is measured on the diagonal, because that is the dimension a long piece actually uses. A step up to a patio or a raised threshold at the back door means the piece is lifted rather than rolled, and that is where the crew size gets decided. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. Four hands or eight is settled before the tail lift drops.

Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. The rest of the kitchen still goes in. One damaged piece does not hold up the pieces either side. 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. A side gate and a back door mean the stone never goes through the house at all, which keeps the dust and most of the risk outside. It sets the crew: two fitters where the route is straightforward, four where it is not. Suction pads go on once the face is clean and dry, not before.