Kitchen worktops in Parsloes

Yes. Estate housing around Parsloes Park with a high proportion of terraced house types and a fair amount of rented stock, so the standard job is a hard-wearing replacement top on existing units with a robust sink and a full set of upstands. Where owners are improving properly, the dining room wall comes out and the run extends to about 3m with a small peninsula. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. 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. We would rather ask than guess.

1920s-1930s LCC cottage estate house, ex-council terrace and post-war flat. Many have been extended at the rear since being sold, so the kitchen is half original and half newer with a floor junction between the two. Plaster bonded straight onto concrete comes away with the bottom course of tiles, leaving a band behind the upstand. What is under the old top is the real question.

Consistent estate street layout with front gardens, hardstanding on some houses and rear service paths between the terraces, all with easy parking. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. A worktop replacement between tenancies is a single-day job by design, because the flat is not earning while it is empty. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave. Rental jobs here want durability over looks, so we push a thicker profile and a fully sealed sink cut-out rather than a delicate edge detail.

The free end is what needs deciding early: square edge, mitred apron down the end, or a full waterfall to the floor, and a waterfall is cut in sequence off the same part of the slab. Long runs almost never take a single panel, so the joint positions want agreeing before anything is templated. The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted. Anything that has to stay accessible, a stopcock, a gas meter, a riser panel, is marked on the template so the stone is cut around it instead of over it. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Eased in, never forced. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. One visit, our own installers. 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.