Kitchen worktops in Sundridge Park

Yes. Houses around the golf course and station tend to be deep-plan with the kitchen in a rear addition, so the common job is a galley run down one side plus a short return under a window looking onto a long garden. Utility rooms are often carved out of the old outhouse or side passage. The distance from the standing to the actual kitchen door is the number that counts, since plenty of drives finish at a side gate and a garden path. 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, 1920s detached, 1930s semi and post-war infill detached. A side alley and a back door mean most pieces go in whole, and it is the alley width rather than the front door that decides it. The kitchen is normally the original back room with a later side-return or rear extension bolted on, and that helps us: most pieces can go down the side alley and in through the back door in one length, so we can avoid joins that a front-door route would force. The floor has dropped since the kitchen went in.

Sloping driveways and mature front hedges are the main issue, plus a lot of the older houses have a step up to a side gate that is too narrow for a slab, so it becomes a front-door carry with a turn at the bottom of the stairs. A side gate hung to open outward against a fence post is narrower in use than it measures, and lifting the gate off its hinges is usually the quickest win on the route. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Boards go down wherever a loaded trolley has to run.

Worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A tenant moves in on the date on the contract. Original rear additions here are rarely square, so the template has to pick up a taper across the run rather than assume parallel walls.

Where the return runs into a wall that is out of square, the corner is templated as the angle it really is rather than as ninety degrees. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. A corner that was butted can be mitred this time. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. A forced back edge cracks weeks later. Expect material from £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised on their own lines rather than folded into one figure.

Because the money comes out of a household rather than a maintenance budget, phasing is common: tops now, island or splashbacks later, quoted so the second visit still matches the first. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access confirmed rather than assumed. Mention the building when you book. The lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice then go into the plan instead of turning up on the day.

The template is taken in your kitchen after the units are in and fixed, never before. Templating and fitting are two visits, not one, and the gap between them is when the stone is actually cut. No money changes hands before the template. A shallow bay or a squared-off rear window means the run beneath it is rarely the same depth at both ends. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the job is a day, and what makes it a difficult day is the building. Twenty years of settlement is measured, not argued with.

Disposal means it goes in the van, not into the garden to wait for a collection. An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. Deep gravel takes the wheels of a loaded trolley and holds them, so either boards go down or the pieces are carried. 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.

If the carcasses are corrected, the template is taken again, since a drawing off units that then moved is worthless. Units have to be fitted, fixed and level before templating, and it is better to hear that at the template than on the fitting day. Levelling belongs in the carcasses, on their own legs and packers. A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Mark it, lift it, cut it, offer it up again.

Machining is permanent. If a later kitchen moves the sink, the grooves stay where they were cut. Where there is no room for a separate drainer, grooves are usually what gets specified instead. Grooves and an undermounted bowl are usually specified together, since the grooves are run to the bowl edge. Suspended floors at the front meet a solid slab in the extension somewhere in the middle, and the units sit across the change. Taking the old tops off is also the first honest look at what has been going on underneath them. The old top comes off in pieces, not whole.