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. 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. 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. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1930s estate house, post-war semi and post-war terrace. Walls look modern and are not: block or breeze with a skim that has been patched over decades, so dry-laying and scribing still apply. Runs commonly finish at a doorway, and the architrave and skirting stand proud of the plaster, so the end of the top is notched or stopped on the drawing. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

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. A short hard approach with no steps means a full-length piece can be walked in flat by two people rather than turned up on edge. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, 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. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project. 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.

The return piece is the awkward one on a slab: short, full depth, and rarely nesting neatly against the long lengths, so yield rather than area is what moves the material figure. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. One datum for the whole room. 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. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Plotted, not estimated. 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.

The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Units kept, surface changed. 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.