Kitchen worktops in Tokyngton and Brent Park

Yes. Small original kitchens in semis and maisonettes, often still the 1980s or 1990s fit-out, replaced piecemeal rather than ripped out. The usual job is two straight runs of 2.5m to 3m either side of a back door, with the tall units left alone and only the tops and upstands changed. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

1930s semi, post-war maisonette and 1990s housing association terrace. Deck access means a long open walkway from the lift or the stair to the front door, and that walk happens with the piece on edge in whatever weather there is. Carcass heights are read individually, since legs bottoming out on concrete mean the units do not share one plane. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

Wide-ish estate roads with parking on both sides and a fair number of ground-floor flats reached across a shared forecourt, so a barrow across paving is the normal approach rather than a long hall carry. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. That is part of what the visit is for.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop templating, 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. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A plumber either side of us. Budget-led area, so most jobs are like-for-like replacement in a keep-the-units kitchen and the money question is always whether the existing carcasses will take the weight without extra noggins.

Two parallel runs with a walkway between them is the most efficient shape there is on a slab, because both pieces nest as straight lengths with almost no waste. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. One datum for the whole room. 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. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. The laminate has been covering it up. 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.

Where a landlord or housing provider is involved there is a specification to meet and a process to follow, and both are settled before a date is offered. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.