Kitchen worktops in Waddon

Yes. Mostly inter-war semis with a square-ish rear kitchen and a side passage, where the usual upgrade is knocking through to the dining room for an L-shaped kitchen with a peninsula. Newer flats near Purley Way have small developer-spec galleys. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

1930s semi, inter-war estate housing, post-war terrace and modern flats off Purley Way. The classic arrangement is the original back room with a later extension bolted onto it, so the kitchen is two ages of building in one room. The typical 1930s kitchen sits at the back with a low window over the sink run, so the template records the exact sill height above the units to settle whether an upstand fits or the stone has to die into a window board. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

Good vehicle access with driveways on most residential roads, though anything near Purley Way means retail traffic and awkward turns in and out. A side gate and a back door mean the stone never goes through the house at all, which keeps the dust and most of the risk outside. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop templating, in that order. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project. Knocking a semi's kitchen into the dining room leaves a downstand beam and a floor level change at the threshold, so the run has to be set out from the new opening and not the old wall.

An L can be mitred at the corner for a continuous look or butt-jointed over the gable, and the two are different money and different risk. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. 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.

Consent for the work sits with the freeholder or the managing body, and getting it in writing first avoids a crew arriving to a locked door. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Units kept, surface changed. 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.