Kitchen worktops in Colindale

Yes. One of the densest concentrations of new apartments in London, where kitchens are open-plan single walls or L-shapes of 2.7m to 3.4m with an integrated hob, oven and full-height fridge already in place. Nearly all the work is replacing developer laminate with stone inside a kitchen nobody wants to reconfigure, plus a matching upstand and window sill. Bay bookings are usually an hour or two, which is fine for unloading and no use at all as a place to leave the van for a day. A templater circling for a space arrives late into a slot that was already tight, and the drawing is what suffers. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

2010s-2020s high-rise apartment, regeneration low-rise and 1930s semi at the edges. A tower block runs one or two lifts for many floors, so a lift out of service postpones a job rather than making it harder. The rear kitchen wall in ex-council flats and maisonettes is commonly dense in-situ concrete or blockwork with a thin skim, which means mechanical fixings are hard work and the splashback is held on adhesive rather than screwed. Cut from the same slab run as the tops.

Towers with booked goods lifts, concierge sign-in, insurance documentation and time-limited loading bays, and underground car parks with height barriers that stop a standard stone van. Lift internal dimensions decide the maximum piece. 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. It is usually the full-height panels rather than the tops that will not make the turn, and that only shows up when they arrive. That is agreed at template, not on fitting day.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop splashbacks & upstands, 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. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first. Measure the goods lift and the flat's front door before quoting, because on these blocks the building, not the kitchen, sets the largest piece you can deliver.

Two runs meeting at an internal corner is the most common shape we fit, and the corner is where the decisions are. Going from a 38mm laminate to 20mm or 30mm stone drops the surface, which shows against tiles, a window board and any freestanding appliance. The units stay, the surface changes. Window boards and cills stand proud of the plaster, so the back edge of the top has to be plotted to where the units actually sit rather than to the wall. This is the commonest reason a replacement turns out to need more than a straight swap. Found at template, not on fit day. 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.

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 template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. Appliances on site, not on order. 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.