Kitchen worktops in Sidcup

Yes. A wider range than the rest of Bexley: Edwardian and interwar detached houses with large kitchen-breakfast rooms and islands, plus town-centre and retirement flats with compact 2.4m runs. The bigger houses take 4m-plus runs and a separate utility. A controlled parking zone means either a visitor permit sorted in advance or a suspended bay, and a suspension is applied for days ahead rather than on the morning. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Edwardian villa, 1930s semi and detached, 1960s flats and 2010s town-centre apartment block. Houses of this period came with generous garages and utility rooms, so a second short run of stone is often part of the same job. The sill height over the sink is settled on site, because there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

The High Street and the main road junction are congested with limited loading, but the residential roads have generous drives; the apartment blocks near the station have controlled parking and a lift. A car that takes 2.4m on the diagonal will not take a three-metre worktop however it is stood, and there is no trimming it on the landing. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. That is part of what the visit is for.

Worktop installation, worktop design & quotation 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. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Appliances on site, not on order. Two different jobs in one postcode — a detached-house island in one piece, and a lift-restricted flat run in three.

If the island is a few hundred millimetres longer than the usable length of a slab, a second slab gets bought to gain that overhang, and the whole slab is paid for rather than the part used. Slab yield is worked out at quote stage, so if the layout forces a second slab you hear it before you commit rather than after. The join count is stated with its reason. The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. 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. The templater needs the sink, tap and hob on site, and a Belfast sink installed at its final height. No stone is cut from a plan. 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.