Kitchen worktops in Fish Island

Yes. Warehouse and live-work units have the kitchen as a free-standing block in an otherwise open shell, so it is long straight runs with an exposed island and full-height end panels rather than anything fitted into a corner. The newer blocks along the navigation have compact single-wall kitchens in an open-plan living room. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. Pieces are loaded in reverse fitting order so the first thing off the van is the first thing that goes down. The load plan follows from it.

converted industrial unit, live-work warehouse and 2015 onwards riverside apartment block. Poured screed over steel decking can fall away across a long run, so level is checked across the whole room before anything is packed. Open-plan layouts mean long, uninterrupted runs and islands, so slab yield and whether we can nest those lengths dominates the material figure — and an intruding steel column or brick pier can force a scribe or a break in a run that otherwise would have been one clean piece. You see it before you commit to anything.

Access is off narrow industrial roads with working yards and gates that get locked outside hours, so a delivery slot has to be agreed with the building manager. Older converted units often have a wide roller shutter at ground level, which is the easiest slab entry anywhere in the borough, but the upper live-work floors are reached by an open industrial stair. Stone goes up on edge, and it is the half-landing turn rather than the flight itself that sets the maximum piece. That is why the fitting line on a quote reflects manpower and time rather than square metres. You see that figure before we template, not after.

Worktop fabrication, worktop installation and worktop design & quotation, 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. Pieces are dry-assembled and checked on the bench before anything is loaded. Nested for the job in front of us. Ceilings are high and the units are open, so islands are exposed on all four sides and every edge and mitre is visible from across the room.

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. 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. No installed rate per square metre, because it is not a real number. Exposed structure means the back edge is not a straight line at all, and a scribe of fifteen or twenty millimetres across a run is normal. Cut it square where it should be radiused and the piece will fail on the lift, not in the kitchen. Machined to the real line. 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.

Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. Sink and hob are dry-fitted on the bench before dispatch, whoever supplied them. Dry-assembled before it leaves. 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.