Worktop installation in Ruislip

Yes. Ruislip is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are HA4. It is worked on our west London run, along with the rest of Hillingdon. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. The day is built around that window. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The kitchen is usually a rear room extended into the garden, with the original external wall now standing inside the run. The carry is the easy part; the plaster around the old breast and the packing over a moved floor are not. The slow parts are slow for a reason. The wrap-around extension produces an L that is longer than a slab in both directions, so the choice is a joint under the hob or a joint at the corner, and that gets decided at template.

The village High Street is conservation-controlled with short-stay parking only, but the residential avenues have long drives and gated entrances with room for a full A-frame. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. 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.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop design & quotation and worktop templating. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The prep list is not optional. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave.

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. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

Where a breast interrupts a long wall the join can often go there, so it reads as a natural break rather than a line in the middle of a worktop. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Eased in, never forced. Unlock and clear the side gate and back door, and move bins, planters and washing lines out of the alley run. 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. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.