Kitchen worktops in Tollington

Yes. Mid-sized Victorian terraces, many still whole houses, where the kitchen occupies the rear addition and the usual improvement is a knock-through to the dining room. That gives an L of 3.5-4m with a peninsula at the knock-through point rather than a central island. Enforcement zones rarely accept a trade van unloading stone as an exemption, so this gets sorted before the date is confirmed rather than argued about afterwards. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. It is why the arrival time is what it is.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian terrace, conversion flat and post-war block. Deep original skirting is often left in behind the units, standing them off the wall, so the back edge of the stone is plotted where the carcasses actually sit. Alcoves either side of the breast are rarely the same width and rarely parallel, so each one is templated as its own piece with its own scribe. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

The streets between Hornsey Road and Seven Sisters Road are narrow, one-way in places and permit-only, while the main roads either side carry buses with loading limits. Straight halls with a rear door make the carry manageable once the van is parked. 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.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. Small kitchens in a shared house are all short runs and tight cut-out spacing, which is more bench work per square metre than one large kitchen would be. The template visit is booked once the units are genuinely in, not when they are nearly in. The room as it is, not as it was drawn. A knock-through joins two rooms with different ceiling heights and wall finishes, so batch-match the slabs and set your level off the longer span rather than the shorter one.

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. Going from a 38mm laminate to 20mm or 30mm stone drops the surface, which shows against tiles, a window board and any freestanding appliance. Carcasses have to be sound first. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the laser plots the intermediate points. It is recorded on the drawing with the run dimensions so the workshop is not guessing. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. No stone is cut from a plan. 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.