Kitchen worktops in Wembley Central

Yes. Mostly rear kitchens in narrow terraces and interwar semis, many opened into the old dining room so the run turns an L along two walls. Multi-generation households here cook heavily, so we get asked for a second hob or a separate wet-prep sink far more than for an island, and full-height splashbacks behind a wok burner are routine. 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. It is noted on the job sheet at template so the fitting crew inherit the answer rather than rediscovering it. Two hours is the realistic figure.

Victorian bay-fronted terrace, 1930s semi, 1960s low-rise flat and 2010s infill block. Floors are suspended timber over a shallow void and have moved, so the units are packed and levelled before anything is set on them. Lath-and-plaster and bowed brickwork mean we template for scribes rather than straight cuts, and each piece is offered up and eased in rather than dropped straight down. What is under the old top is the real question.

Terraced streets off the High Road are permit-controlled with no driveway on the older stock, so a 3m slab usually comes off the van at the kerb and goes in through the front door and down the hall. Match-day and event traffic management around the stadium closes and diverts roads at short notice, so a morning slot is safer than an afternoon one. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. 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.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Extended households run kitchens hard, and that pushes the specification towards granite or sintered stone rather than a light quartz. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A plumber either side of us. Half these houses have had the kitchen moved at least once, so the walls behind the old units are rarely square and the templater should expect to scribe the back edge rather than trust the plaster.

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. Long runs almost never take a single panel, so the joint positions want agreeing before anything is templated. The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the laser plots the intermediate points. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. The laminate has been covering it up. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. Full-height panels need the wall made good first, which is another trade and another timescale. The wall has to be ready. 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.