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. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

Edwardian bay-fronted terrace, 1920s terrace and 1930s semi. A long piece has to come through the front door, down the hall, round the newel post and through a doorway with a step down into the addition. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

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. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop fabrication, 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. So the nesting is planned around it rather than around a standard kitchen. Same slab run, or it is not a match. 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 step or level change between the original room and the return is real, and the units need packing before stone goes across it. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Walls that bow along their length are the normal condition rather than the exception, and a straight-cut back edge will show a shadow gap at one end and touch at the other. The template 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. Changing an appliance after the nest is set means recutting the piece, not adjusting it. Dry-assembled before it leaves. 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.