Kitchen worktops in Queenhithe

Yes. North bank riverside flats are built with the kitchen inboard against the core so the glazing stays clear, giving a 3-3.4m run and a peninsula that separates cooking from the living space. Original tops from the 1980s and 90s development wave are now well past their life, so replacement onto existing units - matching a moulded sink recess or an old inset hob cut-out - is the common request. Loading exemptions on red routes are narrow, time-limited and heavily camera-enforced, so we plan around them rather than relying on them. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

riverside apartment block, 1980s-90s development on the north bank, warehouse-style conversion and modern flat above commercial floors. These buildings have firm rules about what can be propped open, left in a lobby or carried through the residents entrance. The lift is measured before the piece is loaded, and once inside the flat the fitting is quick by comparison. That is the shape of the day.

Upper Thames Street runs below and alongside as a fast dual carriageway with no stopping whatsoever, so access is via the raised riverside walk and a building's own service entrance off a side street. The walk from the nearest permitted stopping point to the flat door can be long and partly on a raised deck with steps, so a route survey matters more than the lift dimensions. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Handover-spec kitchens are square, plumb and predictable, which means the join count is honest and driven by run length rather than by the building. The template visit is booked once the units are genuinely in, not when they are nearly in. The room as it is, not as it was drawn. Old inset hob and sink cut-outs never match modern appliance dimensions, so confirm the new appliances before templating or you will be cutting an oversized hole to hide an old one.

Because a peninsula is seen from both sides, the underside of any overhang gets the same edge treatment as the top, which is easy to leave out of a spec. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. Carcasses have to be sound first. A chimney breast left in place splits a wall into two alcoves, and the two are rarely the same width and rarely parallel to each other. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The laminate has been covering it up. 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 templater needs the sink, tap and hob on site, and a Belfast sink installed at its final height. Fitted, fixed and level, then we come. 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.