Worktop design and quotation in Wapping

Yes. Wapping is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are E1W. It is worked on our east London run, along with the rest of Tower Hamlets. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. Where a bay suspension or a permit is needed, that is a real cost and it goes on the quote instead of appearing later. It is one line among the others, and it is honest. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Original brickwork is uneven by ten millimetres or more across a bay, so the back edge is scribed to the actual face rather than to a line. The second driver is getting stone into the building: often a single goods lift, a long carry from the loading area, and occasionally a hoist through an opening, all of which sit in the fitting line as men and time rather than square metres. You see it before you commit to anything. Exposed brick and reclaimed timber never give you a straight reference line, so the island gets set out to the floor and the perimeter gets scribed to the wall.

The high street is narrow, cobbled in places and lined with tall converted warehouses with no forecourt, and parking is permit-only with very few bays. Many conversions retain a small original hoist-style lift or a tight brick stair core, and buildings often require a river-side or courtyard route agreed with the porter in advance. A hoisted piece needs a clear drop zone, a lifting plan and someone stationed at street level, none of which gets arranged on the morning. 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.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop fabrication. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. That changes what the quote should be compared against, because the shape of the job is not the same as a single family kitchen. Nothing payable until we template. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. Comparing quotes only works when they itemise the same things, and this is where the differences usually hide. Itemised, so it can be compared honestly.

If the island is a few hundred millimetres longer than the usable length of a slab, a second slab gets bought to gain that overhang, and the whole slab is paid for rather than the part used. Each run is priced on its own line against the supply rate, with the join count and the reason for each join stated. The join count is stated with its reason. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

An intruding steel column, a brick pier or a downstand breaks a run that would otherwise have been one clean piece. This is the item most often left out of a cheaper quote, and it comes back as a variation once the templater has been. Better on the quote than in a variation. Send photos of the full route from where a van can park to the kitchen, including the goods lift and door widths, and tell us what the worktop is going back against. Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. The quote is written so it can be read by whoever is paying rather than only by whoever is standing in the kitchen. Written to be read by whoever is paying.