Kitchen worktops in Fairlop

Yes. Newer estate housing towards Fairlop Waters with kitchens that were built as kitchen-dining rooms from the start, so they are broad and shallow with two facing runs and space for a small island. These are mostly first-replacement jobs where a 1990s or 2000s builder-grade top has failed around the sink and the customer keeps the units. 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. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. We would rather ask than guess.

1930s semi, post-war semi, 1970s-1990s detached and modern estate house. Rear access through a garden or a shared path means long pieces can usually come in whole from the back. Ex-council flats and maisonettes are built in dense concrete and blockwork, so anything that has to be fixed back, such as brackets under a peninsula or support for an end panel, goes in with proper anchors and an SDS rather than plasterboard fixings. What is under the old top is the real question.

Open modern layouts with driveways, turning space and no restrictions, so the van parks on the plot. Garages and side gates give a second route in if the hallway is tight. Garden routes carry their own hazards: a drain cover, a step up to a patio, wet decking, or a lawn that will not take a loaded trolley. 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. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. A worktop replacement between tenancies is a single-day job by design, because the flat is not earning while it is empty. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional. The recurring issue here is water damage in the sink base from the old top, so we check the carcass is still sound before we sit stone on it.

If the island is a few hundred millimetres longer than the usable length of a slab, a second slab gets bought to gain that overhang, and the whole slab is paid for rather than the part used. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. Boxing is rarely the same depth at worktop height as it is at floor level, so measuring it low down is the usual reason a top will not sit back. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. 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 a landlord or housing provider is involved there is a specification to meet and a process to follow, and both are settled before a date is offered. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. 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.