Kitchen worktops in Tulse Hill

Yes. A high proportion of subdivided villas means kitchens on upper floors in rooms never designed for them, with the run set against an internal wall and services chased in later. The 1960s blocks have compact kitchens with a fixed sink under the window and a hatch or opening to the living room. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

Victorian villa converted to flats, 1960s estate block, Interwar semi and Postwar low-rise. These kitchens are big rooms with long perimeter runs and an island, so level has to hold across the whole floor rather than along one wall. Getting in is straightforward, so the day is spent dry-laying and scribing to walls that have never been straight. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

The area is hilly with houses set above the road on stepped front gardens, so there is a climb before you reach the door and then two or three flights inside. Estate blocks have lifts but small cars, and the South Circular traffic dictates arrival timing. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first. Upper-floor kitchens in converted villas mean everything is carried up two flights, so the piece count matters more than the piece size — keep the number of separate carries down.

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. A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. That is why the visit takes two or three hours. 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.

Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. Appliances on site, not on order. 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.