Worktop templating in Stepney

Yes. Stepney is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are E1. It is worked on our east London run, along with the rest of Tower Hamlets. 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. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Post-war terraces have a short straight hall to the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than the houses they replaced. The scribe at worktop height differs from the one at plinth level, and only the worktop line matters. Two to three hours, once the units are in. Original estate kitchens are frequently out of square where partitions were built off timber studs, so scribes matter more here than anywhere else in the borough.

Vehicle access is through estate roads with speed tables, resident-only bays and bollarded pedestrian links, so a route survey saves a long carry. Low-rise deck housing means walking the slab along a raised walkway with a step up at the door threshold. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. That is part of what the visit is for.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop replacement and worktop installation. 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. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. The room as it is, not as it was drawn.

Two runs meeting at an internal corner is the most common shape we fit, and the corner is where the decisions are. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. The drawing leaves site complete. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

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. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. Units fixed, packed level and pushed as far back as the leaning wall allows, walls made good to final thickness with tiling left until after the worktop, and the sink, tap and hob on site so cut-outs are set from the real items. Managed stock usually comes with its own rules about working hours, waste, and who is allowed on site. The template happens when the units are in, fixed and level, whoever is fitting them. No stone is cut from a plan.