Kitchen worktops in Scrattons Farm

Yes. A small inter-war and post-war estate east of Thames View with modest semis and terraces, where the kitchen sits at the rear with a back lobby and pantry that most owners have absorbed into the room. Layouts end up as a squared L with the fridge in the old pantry recess and about 3m of usable run. 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. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. It is a full day at the kerb, not a delivery.

1930s estate house, post-war semi and post-war terrace. Post-war terraces have a short straight hall to the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than the houses they replaced. Post-war terraces have a fairly shallow, standardised kitchen, and the walls tend to lean rather than bow, so the scribe at worktop height is different from the one at plinth level - the template only cares about the line where the stone will land. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

Quiet cul-de-sac layouts with front gardens and hardstanding on many houses, and little through traffic, so the van can generally sit outside the property. 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. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. The carcasses have to be sound, because stone is several times the weight of what is coming off. Sound carcasses or it does not go ahead. The old pantry recess is rarely a clean rectangle, so if a full-height unit is going in there we template the recess rather than the room.

Two runs meeting at an internal corner is the most common shape we fit, and the corner is where the decisions are. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. Real angles, not plan angles. The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.