Worktop installation in Smithfield

Yes. Smithfield is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are EC1A, EC1M. It is worked on our the City run, along with the rest of the Square Mile. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. We would rather ask than guess. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Original brickwork is uneven by ten millimetres or more across a bay, so the back edge is scribed to the actual face rather than to a line. These read as easy from outside and rarely are, because the flat entrance is tighter than the goods lift. The slow parts are slow for a reason. 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.

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. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop fabrication. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. 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. 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. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

Exposed structure means the back edge is not a straight line at all, and a scribe of fifteen or twenty millimetres across a run is normal. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. Confirm loading bay access and lift booking with the building's management, and clear any furniture from the mezzanine stairs or split-level approach. A let property is specified for durability and for a fixed window, and both of those are legitimate reasons to choose differently. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.