Kitchen worktops in Totteridge

Yes. The biggest kitchens anywhere in the three boroughs: islands of 3.5m or more, twin runs on opposing walls, butler's pantries and back kitchens, and often a separate catering or staff kitchen that is fitted to the same standard. Book-matched slabs, waterfall ends and full-height stone splashbacks are the norm rather than an upgrade. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. The load plan follows from it.

large detached on green belt frontage, gated modern mansion and period village houses. A period cottage has low ceilings, thick rubble-filled walls and a floor that has never been level, and the worktop is the thing that has to look straight. Big islands are what drive the number. That is what the itemised lines are for.

Long private driveways, electric gates and gravel that a loaded trolley sinks into, so the last stretch is usually a straight carry. Access has to be arranged with security or a house manager rather than by knocking on the day. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. We price the carry from what you tell us about the route, so photographs of the approach are worth more to us than a floor plan. It appears as its own line rather than buried in a rate.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop fabrication and worktop installation, 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. That changes what the quote should be compared against, because the shape of the job is not the same as a single family kitchen. Material is the slab only, and it says so. Book-matched pieces have to be dry-laid and viewed by the client before final fixing, so build an extra visit into the programme instead of expecting sign-off on the day.

An island is a single visible piece with four finished edges and no wall to hide against, so it is the piece the whole kitchen is judged on. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. Where a breast interrupts a long wall the join can often go there, so it reads as a natural break rather than a line in the middle of a worktop. 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.

The householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. One visit, our own installers. 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.