Kitchen worktops in Wood Lane

Yes. Almost entirely modern apartment stock, so kitchens are handleless units against a service wall with an island or peninsula of 1.8-2.6m, and the original tops are usually composite or laminate being upgraded to slab quartz or Dekton. Because these are circular-plan and curved-facade buildings in places, some kitchen runs sit against a gently curved external wall, which needs the back edge templated rather than assumed straight. Time-limited bays are camera-enforced across a lot of managed estates, so the unload runs to the clock and the van moves off afterwards. 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. The clock on the bay runs whether the lift is free or not.

new-build apartment tower, former broadcasting building converted to flats, mixed-use block over retail and student and co-living scheme. Floors are chipboard deck on timber joists, which moves enough that level is taken with the units loaded rather than empty. Everything comes up in the lift, so we measure the lift car's internal diagonal before the piece is loaded, because a car that takes 2.4m on the diagonal will not take a 3m worktop no matter how you stand it. The units are shimmed to one datum before stone touches them.

Every building is managed, with a loading bay booked through the concierge, a contractor induction and a goods lift that has to be reserved in a time slot. Wood Lane itself carries heavy shopping-centre traffic with bus lanes and restricted stopping, and basement service yards have height barriers that rule out a high-roof van. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. 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. Out and in happen along the same protected route.

Worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. Several units in one building are fitted out to the same drawing, so an error on that drawing is an error repeated in every flat. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. Old top out Tuesday, tenant in on Friday. Curved facades mean some back edges are genuinely not straight - digital template it rather than trusting the drawings the developer hands you.

Three stools along one side need more clear length than most plans allow, and once the seating depth is fixed the piece either grows or it loses a seat. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. One datum for every run in the room. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the template plots the intermediate points. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. The old top hid it. The drawing will not. Expect material from £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting itemised on their own lines rather than folded into one figure.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. 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. Mention the building when you book. The lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice then go into the plan instead of turning up on the day.

Templating and fitting are two visits, not one, and the gap between them is when the stone is actually cut. If the units run late the template moves, not the fit: the gap between them is fabrication. No money changes hands before the template. The room is square, the walls are plumb and the floor is flat, so almost every complication in the job belongs to the building rather than the kitchen. The fitting day is planned backwards from all of it, before the first piece comes off the van. The awkward piece goes in before the easy ones.

A tap under a window board still needs room for its handle to lift, which is checked at the template. Each cut-out is priced on its own line, so a range, a bowl and a half, a boiling tap and a drainer are four items rather than one. Where the hob lands is set out against the units and the wall behind, not off the kitchen plan. Where an overhang is too deep for steel on its own the choice is a leg at the end or a bracket underneath, and a bracket that lands where a knee goes is worse than no bracket at all. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The island is set against the perimeter, not a wall.

Machining is permanent. If a later kitchen moves the sink, the grooves stay where they were cut. The bowl position has to be settled before templating, since the grooves are set out from it. Plasterboard partitions mean light scribes and clean joins, and the fabrication effort moves to the visible faces instead. Almost everything that makes a fitting day hard is a property of the building rather than of the stone. Older buildings get the extra hour.

Sealing is the one maintenance job that genuinely differs by material, and it is worth knowing which you are buying before the slab is chosen. Topping a seal up is a wipe-on job with a cloth. Quartz carries resin, so a hot pan wants a trivet, while granite and sintered stone will take one without complaint. A gated development controls when a van gets in, where it can stand and for how long, and none of that gets decided on the morning. If the diagonal is short we either split the run with a planned join or, on lower floors, carry up the stairwell, which needs the half-landing turn checking as well. Fixings go into what the wall actually is.