Kitchen worktops in Thames View

Yes. A self-contained post-war estate south of the A13 built to a small set of house and flat types, so kitchens are consistently narrow galleys with the sink under a window at one end and very little worktop either side of the cooker. The realistic improvement is a full-length continuous top with a proper drainer rather than a change of layout. On a street with no restrictions the constraint is other residents rather than a warden, so it is worth putting a cone or a car out early. Splashbacks are normally the last thing off, so a short parking window is exactly when they get rushed. Handling is where these pieces get damaged.

1950s estate house, 1950s-1960s low-rise flat and post-war maisonette. An ex-council house is solidly built to a standard plan, with the kitchen at the rear and a back door next to it. Deck access or a single narrow staircase with tight half-landings means long pieces get walked up on edge, and the landing turn is checked before we commit. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Estate roads with parking courts and pedestrian-only paths between blocks, and the A13 severs the area from the rest of Barking, so getting in is a specific route rather than a general one. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. A worktop replacement between tenancies is a single-day job by design, because the flat is not earning while it is empty. Splashbacks and upstands are cut from the same slab run at the same time, which is the only way the batch actually matches. Same batch, same run, same day. Galley runs here are long and narrow, so a single continuous piece with a moulded drainer makes far more difference than any amount of cabinet upgrade.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Anything that has to stay accessible, a stopcock, a gas meter, a riser panel, is marked on the template so the stone is cut around it instead of over it. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. A 100mm upstand is the low-maintenance answer, and full-height stone is the one that has to be committed to early. Decided before fabrication, not after. 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.