Kitchen worktops in Edgware

Yes. Large interwar semis and detached houses with deep plots, where full-width rear extensions with an island and a separate utility are the standard specification, and kosher kitchen requirements are common enough that duplicated sinks and hobs should be assumed rather than asked about late. Town centre flats are the opposite: fixed compact galleys with no scope to change. 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. Where unloading has to happen in one go, the load order is planned so nothing has to come off twice. It is decided in the yard, not at the kerb.

1930s semi, 1930s detached, purpose-built 1960s flat and town centre redevelopment blocks. A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. Access is usually the easy part here, as most of these have a side gate and a back door straight into the kitchen, so we carry down the side alley rather than through the house and keep the mess outside. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Wide 1930s roads with driveways and clear side access on most houses, though a lot of side alleys have been filled by side extensions. Around the station and the shopping centre, loading is restricted and multi-storey height barriers rule out taller vans. The side passage is the measurement that matters, because a piece has to be carried flat down it and then turned in at the back door, and the turn is always tighter than the passage. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop installation, worktop design & quotation and worktop fabrication, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Nested for the job in front of us. Two sinks and two hobs in one run leaves very little solid material between cut-outs, so the piece needs rodding or a repositioned joint to survive transport.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. Each run is priced on its own line against the supply rate, with the join count and the reason for each join stated. Shape first, area second. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. It is fabrication time rather than material, so it appears on the fabrication line and not in the square metre figure. Better on the quote than in a variation. 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.

An owner living in the house makes the decisions and lives with them, so the specification tends to go towards the material rather than towards the lowest total. Sink and hob are dry-fitted on the bench before dispatch, whoever supplied them. Changes cost a piece, not a tweak. 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.