Kitchen worktops in Sudbury Hill

Yes. Mixed older villas and interwar semis on the slope, where kitchens are commonly extended sideways into a garage rather than out into the garden because plots are narrow and steep. That produces an L-shaped kitchen with a step or a threshold in the middle of the floor and a shorter main run than the flat districts nearby. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. The van has to stand through both halves of the day.

Edwardian villa, 1930s semi and 1970s townhouse. Conservation and listing conditions are common, which affects what can be altered around the kitchen rather than what stone goes on the units. Any island overhang past about 300mm will not carry weight on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or brackets have to be let into the units first, and that is agreed at template stage, not on fit day. The floor has dropped since the kitchen went in.

The hill is the defining feature: sloping and stepped driveways, retaining walls and front doors above street level, with parking further from the door than the map suggests. Where the hall runs straight through to the back the piece can be walked in flat, and it is only the two door frames that have to be cleared. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. 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. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Lease hours decide when the noisy part happens. Where a garage has been absorbed, the floor slab is usually lower than the house, so verify the finished unit height on both sides before cutting a continuous top.

Corner sinks and corner hobs sit exactly where the joint wants to be, so on an L the cut-out positions get settled before the join positions do. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Laminate hides what the gables are really doing. An alcove is commonly wider at the back than at the front, so a piece cut to the opening drops in and then stands off the rear wall. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. The awkward corner goes in first, not last. The stone itself starts at £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting quoted on their own lines instead of rolled together.

Where two people share the decision it helps to know early which of them is settling the edge profile and which is settling the budget, because it is rarely the same person for both. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access confirmed rather than assumed. Tell us about the building at the point of booking, so the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are allowed for in advance.

Slabs come in finite sizes, so a long run needs a join whatever the room looks like. Veining carries through a join where both pieces come off the same slab, which is decided at nesting. Join count is a question about slab size and run length, nothing else. One leg of an L is nearly always the working run and the other little more than a landing space, but both are templated, cut and edged to the same standard. Going from a 38mm laminate to 20mm or 30mm stone drops the surface, which shows against tiles, a window board and any freestanding appliance. A corner that was butted can be mitred this time.

What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. Take the old tops off yourself if you would rather, and the quote simply carries one line fewer. An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. A shared drive is only useful if the neighbour is not the one parked behind the van, so we ask which side the standing belongs to before the date is set. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. A one-hour window will not hold a two-way job.

Say what you have and where it came from before anything is booked, because thickness and batch decide what can be done with it. Supply through us runs £110 to £550 per square metre for the slab alone, which is the line you would be removing. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. A tenant moves in on the date on the contract.

Cut-outs, edge profile and join count are itemised, so taking one out removes a line rather than starting an argument. Taking the old tops away is a line rather than an assumption, so it comes off if you do not want it. The face of a breast is rarely flat, and a top returning onto it picks up that bow across the last few hundred millimetres of its length. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Fixings find the studs or they find nothing.