Kitchen worktops in West Ealing

Yes. Heavy on two-flat conversions: the ground floor gets the rear-return kitchen, the upper flat gets a galley in what was a bedroom. Runs of 2.2m to 3m with the sink under an existing window. Where a marked loading box sits on the red route the stop is legal but timed, so the unload runs as one movement with every hand on it. 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 ask than guess.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian terrace, two-flat conversion and Elizabeth line new-build. Cornice runs round the head of the wall, so the wall units stop under it and the splashback band is trapped between two things that are not going to move. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Lath and plaster is not a fixing, and is treated accordingly.

The Broadway and Uxbridge Road are red route with bus lanes, the side streets are permit-controlled, and the new blocks near the station have loading bays that must be booked in advance. A communal flight is out of use while a piece is on it, so the carry is timed so nobody is trying to pass on a half-landing. 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. Half a day can go on the strip-out where the way in is tight.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Studio and one-bed conversions put the whole kitchen against a single wall, so the job is one run and everything depends on that one length. 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. Upper-flat kitchens sit on timber joists in a former bedroom, so a stone island is usually off the table and the client needs telling early.

It is the heaviest single piece in the kitchen, so the number of hands needed on the day and the route in are worked out from that piece rather than from the runs. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. The laying order follows the shape. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The old carcasses are rarely level and never were. Material starts at £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting sit on their own lines rather than inside one figure.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Void periods do not extend to suit a lead time. Let us know the building when you book, and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are handled beforehand rather than on the fitting day.

On a porous stone the grooved area is sealed with the rest, and it gets wet more than anything else. The grooves sit inside the depth of the top with stone left either side, so a shallow run limits them. The bowl position has to be settled before templating, since the grooves are set out from it. The side return was an outside toilet and a coal store before it was ever a kitchen, and the walls left over from that are half a brick thick. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. Sink and hob seated and sealed before we go.

Old tops are screwed or glued from underneath, so the drawer boxes come out before the worktop does. Take the old tops off yourself if you would rather, and the quote simply carries one line fewer. Tiling bonded to the wall behind usually comes away with the old top, so that wall is agreed beforehand. A bus lane along the frontage brings its own hours with it, and stopping in one is enforced the same way the red route is. 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. The kerb decides the start time.

Stone cannot be filled and made good the way laminate can, so a damaged piece is remade rather than patched. Every piece is dry-assembled on the bench before it is loaded, so a fabrication mistake is found in the workshop rather than in your kitchen. The workmanship guarantee runs 5 years on every kitchen we fit. A fitted stair carpet is either lifted or covered, because grit trodden into it under work boots does more harm than the carry itself. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. Nothing new comes down a hall still full of old top.

Doorways, the newel post and the handrail usually take the room away, rather than the stairs themselves. Hoisting through a window is occasionally the answer, and it is a decision made at the template, not improvised on the fitting day. Stone goes up on edge, and it is the half-landing turn rather than the flight itself that sets the maximum piece. The old tops leave by the same route, so the carry out and the skip or van are planned alongside the carry in. The route is protected once and then used four times.