Kitchen worktops in Beam Park

Yes. New development on former Ford-related land straddling the Havering boundary, so kitchens are almost all developer-fitted open-plan runs in apartments and townhouses — one wall, 2.4-3.2m, integrated appliances, no island except in the wider houses. Upgrades to stone happen early here, often within a couple of years of moving in, with the units left completely untouched. Where an event closes the road entirely, the van cannot be moved once it is in, which is a different problem from not being able to park at all. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. It is a full day at the kerb, not a delivery.

2010s-2020s apartment block, new-build townhouse and adjacent post-war housing. Infill plots usually put the kitchen at the back with wide doors to a small garden, and that opening is the best route in. 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. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Newly built streets with allocated parking, shared surfaces, controlled block entrances and lifts, plus ongoing construction traffic that can close a route without warning. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop installation, in that order. Upgrading a builder-finish kitchen is mostly a swap, so the cost sits in the material choice rather than in the shape of the room. Socket and switch positions have to be final before templating, because a cut-out in the wrong place means a new piece. Siliconed to the worktop, never grouted. Live construction next door means the agreed access route can change week to week, so we re-confirm the route the day before rather than at template.

Two parallel runs with a walkway between them is the most efficient shape there is on a slab, because both pieces nest as straight lengths with almost no waste. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Height change is checked before we cut. Taped internal angles in plasterboard belly at the corner, so the run picks up a few millimetres over the last 300mm and a plan-angle mitre will not close. It is usually what pushes a job towards a 100mm upstand instead of a full-height panel, because an upstand rides what a panel exposes. Make the wall good first, or accept the detail. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. Splashbacks are cut from the same slab run as the tops, so they have to be decided before fabrication, not after. The wall has to be ready. 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.