Worktop installation in Valence

Yes. Valence is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are RM8. It is worked on our east London run, along with the rest of Barking and Dagenham. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. It is why the arrival time is what it is. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Many have been extended at the rear since being sold, so the kitchen is half original and half newer with a floor junction between the two. The stairwell half-landing is usually the tightest point on the whole route and it dictates the maximum piece. That is the shape of the day. Where the old scullery has become a utility, the customer usually wants matching stone in both, so we cut the pair from the same batch to avoid a shade mismatch.

Wide estate roads with verges and dropped kerbs on a good proportion of houses, plus straightforward side access to the rear where extensions have not blocked it. Rear access usually lets us fit longer pieces whole, so the join count ends up decided by the slab rather than by the building. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop replacement and worktop design & quotation. A licensed shared house has fire-door and escape-route rules that decide how and when stone can be carried through the common parts. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. 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 fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave.

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. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. Dry-lay first, always. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

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. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. Reserve a space as close to the block entrance as possible and clear the landing and stairs of prams, bikes and stored items. A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Protection goes down first.