Kitchen worktops in Wimbledon

Yes. Around the Broadway and the streets running up towards the Ridgway you get Victorian and Edwardian houses where the original back addition has been opened into the rear reception, so the kitchen ends up L-shaped with a run down the flank wall and a peninsula where the old wall stood. Newer apartment blocks above the town centre are mostly straight galley runs with a breakfast bar returning off the end. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. Two loads, one space, one day.

Late Victorian terrace, Edwardian semi, 1930s mansion block and 2000s town-centre apartment. The chimney breast has almost always been taken out of the kitchen with the stack left standing above it, so that bay of wall is newer plasterwork on a different plane. In most Victorian terraces the kitchen sits in the back addition, so you get a narrow galley with one outside wall and nothing square to work off. Sound carcasses are the one condition.

The town centre one-way system and the bus lanes on the Broadway leave almost no legal standing time, and the residential streets either side are permit-only with short single-yellow windows. Anything going into a flat above the shops is a stair-only carry from a shared street door. A handrail that has to come off before a piece will pass is twenty minutes at the start of the day, and it goes back on the wall before we leave. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. Banisters and door frames are padded before anything moves.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. A missing sink stops eight kitchens, not one. The knock-through peninsula is where the money and the risk sit, you are butting new stone against a wall the builder made good after removing a chimney breast, so template after plastering, never before.

Peninsula tops are often the longest single piece in the kitchen, so if anything in the layout is going to force a second slab it is generally this one. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The island top is the one that may want its own slab. The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. A bonded mitre goes down on one plane or not at all. Material is from £110 per square metre supply only, and the templating, the fabrication and the fitting are each quoted on their own line.

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 half-day of access is not a fitting day, and it is better to say so at booking than to find out at eleven. Owner or agent, somebody has to be reachable. If we know the building when you book, the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are worked into the day rather than found on it.

Grooves and an undermounted bowl are usually specified together, since the grooves are run to the bowl edge. The alternative stands on the surface, so the choice is losing worktop permanently or only while you are draining. A picture rail, a deep skirting and a moulded architrave all sit in the way of anything that assumes flat wall from floor to ceiling. Taking the old tops off is also the first honest look at what has been going on underneath them. Units checked before stone goes on them.

A remade piece is cut from the same slab run wherever the slab allows, because a replacement from another batch will not match across a join. A dropped pan years later is a different question, and stone is remade rather than filled either way. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door. Spindles and a newel cap stand proud of the string, so the usable width on a turn is measured to the handrail rather than to the wall behind it. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. Four hands or eight is settled before the tail lift drops.

We seat and seal the sink and hob on the day; water, waste, gas and electrics are for your plumber and electrician. If the sink or hob changes after the template, the drawing changes first and nothing is cut meanwhile. Nothing is cut out in the kitchen. Cutting a bowl on site is how worktops get cracked. A peninsula is an island with one end tied to a run, which means the join between them has to be planned rather than allowed to happen. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. Level the units first, measure the shape second.

Money does not move until the template is done. Between the template and the fit the slab is nested, cut, mitred and dry-assembled on the bench, which is work you never see and is most of the wait. If the units run late the template moves, not the fit: the gap between them is fabrication. The rear wall of the addition carries both the back door and the window, which leaves very little unbroken wall for a run to sit against. Old top out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon, with a plumber either side of us. Whatever the old top hid comes to light.