Kitchen worktops in West Hampstead

Yes. Heavy conversion-flat territory, with purpose-built Edwardian mansion flats where the kitchen sits fixed off the hall, plus terraced houses split into upper and lower flats. The recurring job is replacing a tired laminate galley run of 2.6-3.2m and adding upstands, rather than reconfiguring the room. Permit hours are what matters, not the permit itself, because a bay that frees up at six in the evening is no use for a template at ten. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

Victorian terrace, Edwardian mansion block, conversion flat and modern development. Cornice, picture rails and deep skirting survive in converted rooms, so the run stands off the wall and the back edge follows the units rather than the plaster. The laser plots the bow along the back of the run, which is why a tape reading taken beforehand never matches. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

West End Lane is congested with buses and has almost no loading, so you work off the residential side streets under a Monday to Friday CPZ. Mansion blocks are commonly three or four storeys with no lift and a communal stair shared with other residents, which has to be cleared before any carrying starts. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. That is part of what the visit is for.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop templating, in that order. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. Sound carcasses or it does not go ahead. Replacement work here means templating over existing units, so check for out-of-level base cabinets before cutting, because decades of settlement in these blocks show up as a 10mm fall across a 3m run.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. One datum for the whole room. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. It is the usual surprise, and it is a known one. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.