Kitchen worktops in Smithfield

Yes. Loft conversions in former market and warehouse buildings give big open plans with island runs of 3-4m under high ceilings, often with exposed brick and cast-iron columns landing awkwardly close to the run. The Georgian houses around the square are the opposite - narrow, listed, with kitchens at basement or ground of 2.4-3m and floors that are anything but level. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. The load plan follows from it.

warehouse and cold-store loft conversion, Georgian townhouse around the square, converted meat trade building and recent apartment scheme. Steel columns and downstands land where the frame put them, which is frequently in the middle of what would otherwise be a clean run. These read as easy from the outside and rarely are. That is the shape of the day.

The market end operates through the night and early morning with lorry movements and cleaning, so an early start clashes with trade rather than helping you, and mid-morning is the better window. Warehouse conversions frequently retain a wide goods lift or a loading door with a hoist beam, which if it is still usable is the easiest way to get a long piece up. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop fabrication, 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. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. One visit, done properly. Cast-iron columns in these lofts are never quite where the drawing says, so scribe the island around the column rather than trusting a plan dimension.

An island is a single visible piece with four finished edges and no wall to hide against, so it is the piece the whole kitchen is judged on. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. That is nested before any glass goes on the saw. An intruding steel column, a brick pier or a downstand breaks a run that would otherwise have been one clean piece. The template drawing carries the real geometry through to the saw, and the piece is machined to it rather than trimmed to it later. Radiused, polished, and clear of the joins. 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 the owner is not local, the decisions happen remotely, so photographs and a clear itemised drawing carry more weight than a showroom visit ever would. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.