Kitchen worktops in Wallington

Yes. Tree-lined roads near the station with substantial Edwardian and inter-war houses, so kitchens are often in a rear return that gets widened, giving a long run plus a peninsula or a compact island. A fair number of the Edwardian villas have been split into flats with kitchens fitted into former bedrooms. Where parking runs down both sides the road is left as a single lane, and a van standing in it has to be somewhere it does not stop a bin lorry. 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. We would rather start at seven than argue with a warden.

Edwardian villa, 1930s semi, 1930s detached and 1960s flats. A deep butler sink and a boiling tap on the same length put two heavy cut-outs within a metre of each other. Access through the property is usually the simplest of any archetype, with wide doors and generous rooms, so we can often carry a full-length piece straight in without a planned join. Old fabric gets handled as old fabric.

Mature street trees with low branches make van positioning awkward on some roads, and the villas sit behind long front paths with a tiled step up to a recessed porch. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. Party-wall and lease conditions in a converted building set when noisy work can happen, which shapes the fitting day more than the kitchen does. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. One flat out of use at a time. Recessed Edwardian porches are narrower than the front door opening, so the real constraint is the porch, and we measure that rather than the door frame.

Two parallel runs with a walkway between them is the most efficient shape there is on a slab, because both pieces nest as straight lengths with almost no waste. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Steel under the overhang before stone goes near it. A floor that falls across the depth of a run rather than along it tips the carcasses front to back, and packing the front feet changes the overhang while it fixes the level. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. Strip out first, then measure what is actually there. Material is from £110 per square metre supply only, and the templating, the fabrication and the fitting are each quoted on their own line.

A quartz sample left on the counter for a week under the actual kitchen lights settles more arguments than any showroom, and an owner is the only person in a position to do that. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Nothing to reseal is the point in a let. If we know the building when you book, the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are worked into the day rather than found on it.

The carcasses stay put. Only the surface changes. What comes out goes by the same route the new stone comes in by, which is why that route is walked before anything is lifted. Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. With no scheme to work with there is nothing to book and nobody to ring, so the only levers left are an early arrival and a word with the neighbours. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. A booked bay only helps if it is empty when we arrive.

Where there is no room for a separate drainer, grooves are usually what gets specified instead. Grooves and an undermounted bowl are usually specified together, since the grooves are run to the bowl edge. The bowl position has to be settled before templating, since the grooves are set out from it. Ceilings are high enough that the wall units sit low against them, which leaves a tall band of wall above the worktop doing nothing. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. The room is swept and the offcuts leave with us.

Stone does not flex, so a run that rocks on its carcasses rocks just as badly once it is stone. Small variation is taken up by packing under the top on the fitting day. The check comes before the measuring rather than after, because the whole drawing is set out from that plane. Once the carcasses are levelled the gap under the plinth varies along the run, and that varying gap is the honest record of what the floor is doing. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. The old carcasses are rarely level and never were.

Chips at an edge or a corner are the usual form, because that is where stone is least supported. A piece is never laid flat across a gap while it is moved, because that is how stone cracks unaided. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. Carrying through the house means protecting the whole route first: floor boarded, banister padded, and the front door held open on a wedge rather than by hand. We plan the strip-out and the carry as one movement so the kitchen is only out of use for a single day. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.