Kitchen worktops in Putney Heath

Yes. Postwar blocks around the heath have separate kitchens of a fixed size with a sink under the window and a hatch to the dining area, and the usual work is a like-for-like top with matching upstands. The detached houses backing onto the heath take larger open-plan schemes with an island. Unrestricted kerbside is straightforward as long as the space in front of the property is actually clear when the van arrives. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

Interwar detached, 1950s and 60s purpose-built block and Postwar estate housing. The window sits in the middle of the run over the sink, and its board and cill set the limit on how tall an upstand can be. Post-war terraces are typically blockwork or early lightweight block with a hard render coat, and the kitchen has usually been reconfigured at least once, leaving patched areas of newer plaster next to original render that sit at different depths. Cut from the same slab run as the tops.

The blocks are set in landscaped grounds with parking courts some distance from the entrances, so there is a long paved carry before you reach any lift or stair. Lifts in these blocks are small passenger cars that will not take a full slab upright. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. Splashback panels are lighter than a worktop and far more awkward, because a tall thin piece has to be carried on edge and cannot be tilted to clear a turn. Joint positions follow from that.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. One visit, done properly. Hatch openings between kitchen and dining room mean the worktop often has to be finished on two faces and polished on the exposed edge inside the opening.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. Long runs almost never take a single panel, so the joint positions want agreeing before anything is templated. Joint placement is a decision, not an accident. Sill height gets settled with the template on site, because it is one of the few dimensions nobody has measured before we arrive. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. 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 a landlord or housing provider is involved there is a specification to meet and a process to follow, and both are settled before a date is offered. 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. 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.