Kitchen worktops in Seven Kings

Yes. Classic long-plot Edwardian terraces where the side return has been filled in and the kitchen now runs the full width of the house, giving a galley plus a short island or breakfast bar under a roof lantern. Runs of 4m plus are common, so tops here are usually two pieces with a joint planned to land under the hob or sink rather than mid-span. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. The van is packed to suit the walk at the other end.

Edwardian bay-fronted terrace, 1920s terrace and 1930s semi. Many of these had a bathroom or a WC built onto the far end of the addition, so the room now ends at a stud wall rather than at the original brickwork. The galley run down a side-return usually measures longer than a slab will give us, so a join is designed in from the start and nested to land over a cabinet gable rather than wherever the material happens to run out. Thin partitions get shallower overhangs, decided in the shop.

Terraced fronts with no driveway on most streets and a controlled zone near the station, though the back gardens are long enough that an extension gives us a clear side passage if the builder has not blocked it with materials. The side passage is the measurement that matters, because a piece has to be carried flat down it and then turned in at the back door, and the turn is always tighter than the passage. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Nothing is carried past an obstruction that could have been moved.

Worktop installation and worktop fabrication, in that order. 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. One kitchen out of use, never the whole house. Side-return extensions here are frequently a touch out of square where new brickwork meets the old flank wall, so we template the return properly rather than assuming a 90-degree corner.

The wall between the original room and the return usually carries a steel, and the plaster line above it steps, so anything full height behind the run is measured separately from the top. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. A waterfall leg is cut in sequence off its own top. The stone carries the scribe because the wall cannot be persuaded, so back edges are cut oversize and eased in rather than dropped straight down. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. A scribe is a cut. It is not an adjustment. Expect material from £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised on their own lines rather than folded into one figure.

One staircase can serve an owner on the first floor and a managed tenancy on the second, so the access arrangement changes at every landing while the building stays the same. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Scheme rules on working hours are checked first. Mention the building when you book. The lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice then go into the plan instead of turning up on the day.

The same firm templates and fits. Nobody else is brought in to install. The fitting itself is one visit: a plain run is a morning, an island with splashbacks takes most of the day. On the fitting day floors and door frames are protected, joins clamped flush, sink and hob sealed. The kitchen normally sits in the back addition or a later side return, which puts the run against the oldest and least straight wall in the building. All of that is settled at the nesting stage, because a machined piece cannot be adjusted afterwards. Yield is worked out against the run lengths the house allows.

The bowl position has to be settled before templating, since the grooves are set out from it. The alternative stands on the surface, so the choice is losing worktop permanently or only while you are draining. Lath and plaster, a settled floor and a hall with a turn in it are the three things that decide how this job runs. The workshop works to the template drawing and to the measured route, in that order. A short piece is cut short on purpose.

If a piece cannot be got in at all, we say so at the template rather than on the day. A join added to get stone into the room is a different thing from a join added because the slab ran out, and the quote says which is which. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. The hall is cleared before the first piece comes off the trolley.

Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. A piece is never laid flat across a gap while it is moved, because that is how stone cracks unaided. Door frames and the stair route are protected too, since most contact happens on the way in. Garden routes carry their own hazards: a drain cover, a step up to a patio, wet decking, or a lawn that will not take a loaded trolley. It sets the crew: two fitters where the route is straightforward, four where it is not. Boards go down wherever a loaded trolley has to run.