Kitchen worktops in Cranbrook

Yes. Big Edwardian villas around Valentines Park with generous original footprints, so kitchens here are often already large enough without extending and the work is a straight replacement of a tired run plus an island the room can genuinely take. Where houses have been split into flats the kitchens are small, awkwardly shaped around the original chimney breasts, and need a template rather than a cut list. A front drive is the best thing that can happen to a fitting day, because the tail lift comes down within a few metres of the door and nothing is on a clock. It sits in the fitting line as time on site rather than as anything to do with the stone. Nothing here is added after the fact.

large Edwardian villa, inter-war semi and converted flat. A large villa has wide doors, a generous hall and somewhere to park, so the joins that go in are chosen for layout rather than forced by the route. Any island overhang past about 300mm will not carry weight on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or brackets have to be let into the units first, and that is agreed at template stage, not on fit day. Sound carcasses are the one condition.

Wide tree-lined roads with a good number of original carriage drives, so a van can usually get close to the door, but the front paths are long and often stepped up to a raised ground floor. Carrying through the house means protecting the whole route first: floor boarded, banister padded, and the front door held open on a wedge rather than by hand. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. The strip-out is planned around it.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop installation and worktop replacement, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. The house is wide but the front steps are the pinch point — we carry sideways up to the porch, and a heavy 30mm island top usually needs four hands rather than two.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. Slab yield is worked out at quote stage, so if the layout forces a second slab you hear it before you commit rather than after. The join count is stated with its reason. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Eased in, never forced. 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 householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. One visit, our own installers. 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.