Kitchen worktops in Enfield Wash

Yes. Interwar semis with long back gardens, so a lot of these have already been extended once by a previous owner - often a low flat-roof kitchen extension from the 80s being refitted rather than rebuilt. You end up with a U-shape and a run of tall units where the old back wall was. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

1930s semi, post-war terrace and 1970s infill. Post-war terraces have a short straight hall to the kitchen, which is a good deal kinder than the houses they replaced. Post-war terraces have a fairly shallow, standardised kitchen, and the walls tend to lean rather than bow, so the scribe at worktop height is different from the one at plinth level - the template only cares about the line where the stone will land. Two to three hours, once the units are in.

Wide residential streets off Ordnance Road with driveways or a hardstanding on most plots, so the van gets close. The catch is a side gate and a narrow passage down the side of the house if the kitchen is at the back. 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. A template taken without walking the route produces a drawing that cuts beautifully and will not go in. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, 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. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. One visit, done properly. Old flat-roof extensions have thrown their base units out of level - shim and re-level the carcasses before templating or the quartz sits on three points.

Three runs means two internal corners, and each corner is a decision about mitre or butt joint before anything is nested. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. Real angles, not plan angles. Floors settle, and once base units are packed and levelled properly the stone sits true while everything else in the room admits it is not. On the day it means dry-laying, marking, and cutting the scribe on site before anything is bonded. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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 someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. 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.