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. Permit hours are what matters, not the permit itself, because a bay that frees up at six in the evening is no use for a template at ten. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. Two hours is the realistic figure.

Edwardian bay-fronted terrace, 1920s terrace and 1930s semi. The back addition is a narrow two-storey outrigger with a single external wall, and the kitchen galley runs the length of it. The day is planned backwards from the hall, and the scribing takes longer than the carry. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

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. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop fabrication, 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. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Proven on the bench before dispatch. 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.

Side-return kitchens are long and narrow with one outside wall, and the wall the run sits against is often the oldest, least straight surface in the house. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Dry-lay first, always. 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. It is recorded on the drawing with the run dimensions so the workshop is not guessing. That is why the visit takes two or three hours. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. The workshop works from the approved drawing, so whoever signs it off is signing off the join positions too. The approved drawing is the instruction. 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.