Worktop installation in Whitechapel

Yes. Whitechapel is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are E1. It is run from the Essex side, covering Essex & East London. A dedicated loading bay or service yard is the easiest arrangement in a managed building, provided the slot is booked and someone has the key to the shutter. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. We would rather ask than guess. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

A tower block runs one or two lifts for many floors, so a lift out of service postpones a job rather than making it harder. The carry is the constraint. That is the shape of the day. It is two different trades on one postcode: hand-carried small pieces into old estate kitchens, and booked service lifts and island slabs in the new towers.

The main road is a red route with a street market along it for most of the week, so unloading is via side turnings and a longer carry. New residential towers require a booked loading bay slot, a lift protection booking with concierge, and often a delivery window outside peak hours. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop replacement and worktop splashbacks & upstands. Housings and integrated appliances are set out for a 38mm laminate top, so dropping to 20mm or 30mm stone changes the clearances and needs checking before anything is cut. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. One visit, done properly. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. Sealed before we leave.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. Joins are pulled with suction clamps and finished flush, then colour-matched, which is the last thing done rather than the first. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

Anything that has to stay accessible, a stopcock, a gas meter, a riser panel, is marked on the template so the stone is cut around it instead of over it. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. Reserve a space as close to the block entrance as possible and clear the landing and stairs of prams, bikes and stored items. Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.