Kitchen worktops in Pratts Bottom

Yes. Small hamlet stock with kitchens that are usually part of a rear extension or an old outbuilding brought into the house, so ceiling heights change mid-run and there is often a step down into the kitchen. Oil or LPG range cookers are more common here than in the suburbs. 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. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. That is the last thing settled before dispatch.

semi-rural detached, 1930s cottage, converted outbuilding and post-war bungalow. A period cottage has low ceilings, thick rubble-filled walls and a floor that has never been level, and the worktop is the thing that has to look straight. Getting in is straightforward, so the day is spent dry-laying and scribing to walls that have never been straight. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Off the A21 down single-track lanes with passing places and blind bends, and driveways that turn sharply off the lane, so a long wheelbase van has to reverse in. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop fabrication, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Cutting several kitchens from different slabs and calling them matched is where firms get caught out. Proven on the bench before dispatch. Where there is a step down into an old outbuilding kitchen the cabinet plinths get packed, so we set datum from the units and not the floor.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. 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.

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. Sink and hob are dry-fitted on the bench before dispatch, whoever supplied them. The approved drawing is the instruction. 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.