Kitchen worktops in Parsons Green

Yes. Bigger family houses than the Fulham average, so the extension is usually full-width rather than side-return, producing kitchen-dining rooms with a 4m island run plus a separate 3m back wall including a boot room or utility. Specification tends toward large-format porcelain or Dekton on the island with a 20mm mitred edge, and a second stone surface in the utility. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. 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 crew waiting for a space is a crew being paid to wait.

large Victorian family terrace, Edwardian semi, conversion flat in a period house and modern mews infill. A top-floor conversion puts part of the kitchen under the slope of the roof, so the wall behind the run stops at head height along one side of the room. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Carried once, and carried properly.

Wider streets and larger front gardens make kerbside easier, and a good proportion of these houses have a genuine side gate with a clear 900mm-plus alley to the garden, which is the route to take. Where there is no side access the hall is generous but the stair balustrade projects, so measure clear width at the balustrade not at the skirting. Where the garden is level and the back door is wide the pieces get staged outside on trestles and brought in one at a time as the fitters are ready for them. So the nesting is worked to the measured route first and to the slab second. It is settled on the bench, not on site.

Worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. A converted flat is measured off the original house, so no two units in the same building have quite the same kitchen run. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Reorderable later, or not specified. Measure hall width at the stair balustrade, not the skirting - that projection is what actually stops a 900mm island top.

Knee room under a breakfast bar is measured from the face of the cabinets rather than from the edge of the stone, so a deep apron quietly eats the depth somebody actually gets to sit in. 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 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 template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. The mitre is cut to the angle we found, not to ninety. Material starts at £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting sit on their own lines rather than inside one figure.

An owner paying for this directly tends to want the reasoning as much as the number, so a quote that explains why a join sits where it does is worth more than a cheaper one that does not. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. The signature on the drawing carries the cost of it. 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.

The template is taken in your kitchen after the units are in and fixed, never before. Between the template and the fit the slab is nested, cut, mitred and dry-assembled on the bench, which is work you never see and is most of the wait. Nothing changes hands until after the template. Gas, waste and later wiring were boxed in against the wall long after the house was built, and that boxing is what the run has to clear. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. Door fronts and stone edges get checked against each other first.

A groove set needs a clear stretch of worktop beside the bowl, so it competes with the run for length instead of being free surface. They read strongly across a dark stone and are nearly invisible on a pale one, so look before deciding. Original quarry tile is often still down under two or three later floor coverings, which is why the finished floor height is rarely what anyone expects. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. The whole run is dry-fitted before any adhesive is opened.

An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. The units below stay exactly as they are; only the surface is replaced. A skip, a delivery lorry or a run of scaffolding takes the frontage the van needed, so the street is worth a look the day before 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 carry length sets the number of hands on the job.

Ask for the lines rather than the total. One number for a kitchen tells you nothing you can check. Two kitchens the same length can be far apart, because material, edge and cut-outs move independently of size. Cut-outs, edge profile and join count are itemised, so taking one out removes a line rather than starting an argument. 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. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. Upstands leave the bench in lengths, not as one run.