Kitchen worktops in Alperton

Yes. Two entirely different jobs in one district: interwar semis with a rear kitchen and a lean-to being replaced by a proper extension, and canal-side apartment blocks with compact open-plan kitchen-living rooms where the worktop doubles as the only dining surface. In the flats the peninsula end usually needs a 300mm to 400mm overhang for stools, which means brackets or a thicker deck. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. 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. It is a full day at the kerb, not a delivery.

1930s semi, canal-side 2010s-2020s tower and post-war maisonette. Entry-phone access, a booked lift and a parking bay near the entrance all have to be arranged before a date is confirmed. Deck access or a single narrow staircase with tight half-landings means long pieces get walked up on edge, and the landing turn is checked before we commit. That is the shape of the day.

The houses have driveways and easy kerbside loading; the towers along the canal have controlled underground parking with height barriers that a Luton or a tail-lift van will not clear, so the drop-off point needs confirming before the slab is loaded. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop installation, worktop templating and worktop replacement, 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 units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A plumber either side of us. Height restrictors on the apartment car parks are the recurring problem here, and the fix is a smaller vehicle plus a longer walk rather than a bigger crew.

The free end is what needs deciding early: square edge, mitred apron down the end, or a full waterfall to the floor, and a waterfall is cut in sequence off the same part of the slab. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. The drawing leaves site complete. Where a corner is a couple of degrees off, a mitre cut to a theoretical ninety degrees opens on the wall side and there is no closing it afterwards. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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.

The same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Units kept, surface changed. 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.