Kitchen worktops in Covent Garden

Yes. Small flats with small kitchens, so 2-2.8m single runs are the norm, often open to the living space, with everything integrated because there is no room for anything freestanding. Layouts are dictated by an existing stack position that cannot be moved. Where the frontage is a clearway the unload happens away from the door and the carry gets longer, which is a crew and time question rather than a stone one. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. One trip is always better than three.

Georgian terrace above retail, Victorian model-dwelling block, warehouse conversion and modern apartment. Rooms are tall with deep window reveals, and a run finishing into a reveal is templated to it rather than assumed square. The laser plots the bow along the back of the run, which is why a tape reading taken beforehand never matches. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

Pedestrianised streets, timed vehicle bans, Congestion Charge and delivery windows that generally mean an early morning slot. The last stretch is almost always on foot from a loading point, then a narrow street door and steep stairs above a shop or restaurant. A walk-up with winders at every half-landing means the piece is rested and re-gripped on the way, so the crew size goes up before the piece size comes down. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop replacement, worktop splashbacks & upstands and worktop templating, in that order. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Appliances on site, not on order. Plan for a barrow carry of fifty metres or more and pieces short enough to handle without swinging them, because the walk-in rather than the kitchen sets the maximum slab length here.

A galley puts the sink on one side and the hob on the other, which spreads the cut-outs across two pieces instead of weakening one. Upstands follow the run exactly, so every internal and external corner is a separate mitred or butted piece. The joint to the worktop is siliconed, never grouted. Anything that has to stay accessible, a stopcock, a gas meter, a riser panel, is marked on the template so the stone is cut around it instead of over it. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. 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.

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. The template happens when the units are in, fixed and level, whoever is fitting them. 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.