Kitchen worktops in West Barnes

Yes. Attached garages are the local feature, and a lot of kitchens here have grown sideways into the old garage rather than backwards into the garden, giving a long single-wall run of 4m or more plus a utility at the far end. Straight-line layouts with no island are the norm. 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. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. It is decided in the yard, not at the kerb.

1930s semi, Interwar detached and 1960s cul-de-sac house. A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. The fitting itself is slower than the carry: original plaster on the party wall and around the old chimney breast is rarely square to the run, so back scribes get cut on site, and where a return wraps into a breast recess we template that shoulder tight and ease it in. That is the shape of the day.

The cul-de-sac layouts have tight turning heads that a long wheelbase van struggles with, so the last stretch is often a hand carry from the mouth of the close. Once there, most properties have off-street parking and a level drive. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation, worktop fabrication and worktop templating, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. Garage-conversion kitchens run longer than a single slab, so plan a joint deliberately at a sink or hob position rather than letting it land mid-run.

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. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. Real angles, not plan angles. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. The template plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

An owner living in the house makes the decisions and lives with them, so the specification tends to go towards the material rather than towards the lowest total. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.