Quartz worktops in Waltham Forest

13th of 33 London boroughs, highest first

20th of 33 London boroughs, highest first

Council tax band F or above / 2.1%

The realistic upgrade on a kitchen this size is the worktop rather than the whole room, and that is usually the right call financially too. Nothing to seal on the day, and nothing to seal later.

Standing before 1919 / 45.4%

Victorian and Edwardian rooms move. We template after the units are fixed and cut the wall line from the room rather than the plan. It changes the piece list rather than the specification.

The middle half of our quartz range runs from £150 to £270 per square metre, across 69 colours. On kitchens this size the cut-outs and the joins cost more than the area does, so a rate per square metre would tell you almost nothing useful. We price the actual cut list.

The share of homes that are flats is not even across Waltham Forest: of the 19 neighbourhoods we list, it is highest in Wood Street at 75%, then Bakers Arms (63%) and Cann Hall (60%), and lowest in South Chingford at 25%. Where the kitchen is up a flight, each quartz piece is sized to the stairwell before it is sized to the room.

The share of homes in converted or shared houses is not even across Waltham Forest: of the 19 neighbourhoods we list, it is highest in Leyton at 20%, then Whipps Cross (18%) and Leytonstone (18%), and lowest in Friday Hill at 2%. A conversion usually means a stair that turns and a kitchen made out of another room, so the quartz is cut from a template taken once the units are in.

Free samples are posted for the Worktop Worx quartz collection; other quartz is judged from the slab.