Kitchen worktops in Tottenham Green

Yes. Around the Green there are older villas and some period buildings converted to flats, which means high ceilings, deep skirtings and kitchens fitted into rooms that were never kitchens. Layouts are single-run against an internal wall with the services boxed in behind. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

Georgian villa, Victorian terrace and civic-building conversion. Original walls are thick, lime-plastered and rarely straight, which makes dry-laying and scribing the bulk of the fitting day. These are the multi-piece jobs: long runs, a large island and often a range cooker that cannot be moved, so the stone is templated in several pieces and how the vein runs across the joins matters. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

The Green sits on the High Road with bus lanes and event closures, and several of the converted buildings are listed with restrictions on fixing into original fabric. Communal entrances with a keypad and a hall that must stay clear as a fire route. Where the parking court sits behind the block the carry crosses open ground and gets boarded, because loaded trolleys and block paving do not agree. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. The strip-out is planned around it.

Worktop templating, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Deep original skirtings mean the base units stand off the wall - either scribe the top back or set the units forward consistently, but decide before you template or the run steps.

A galley puts the sink on one side and the hob on the other, which spreads the cut-outs across two pieces instead of weakening one. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. Real angles, not plan angles. A boxed soil stack or service riser in the corner of a run eats into the worktop depth and has to be scribed around rather than cut square. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. Found at template, not on fit day. 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 someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.