Kitchen worktops in Fulham

Yes. The classic SW6 job is a side-return infill on a two-storey terrace, giving a kitchen of roughly 5m by 3.5m with a 3m run along the flank wall and an island of 2.4-2.8m, usually in quartz with a mitred 60mm edge. Because so many of these houses have also gone up into the loft, the structural work is done before you arrive and the walls are new and square, which makes single long pieces realistic. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. It rarely changes what we cut, but it does change how the pieces are stacked and strapped for the run out. That is the last thing settled before dispatch.

late Victorian two-storey terrace, Edwardian terrace, purpose-built mansion flat and loft-converted family house. Where the side return has been filled in, the old external wall is now an internal one and still carries its render, its gutter line and its old fixings. Alcoves either side of the breast are rarely the same width and rarely parallel, so each one is templated as its own piece with its own scribe. No stone is ever cut from a plan.

Uniform terraced grid with CPZ permit bays, so the van goes on a suspension or a short loading window and the trolley run is 15-30m. Front paths have a step and a gate, halls are around 1m wide with the stair on one side, and the kitchen sits at the far end past a doorway that is often only 760mm - the door leaf and stops come off before anything moves. Communal stairs get boarded and the handrail padded, and we walk the route with a tape before the first piece leaves the van. Door widths, turn diagonals and any change of level are recorded on the drawing alongside the run dimensions. The laser records it along with everything else.

Worktop templating, worktop fabrication and worktop installation, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. One visit, done properly. Take the kitchen door and its stops off first - a 760mm opening will not pass a 900mm island top and people always find that out at the worst moment.

The step or level change between the original room and the return is real, and the units need packing before stone goes across it. The nest is laid out around that, with joins placed over cabinet gables and kept clear of every cut-out. The bench proves it before the van does. Level has to hold across the whole room rather than along one wall, or a floor that falls end to end shows as a step where two pieces meet. Internal corners are machined with a radius and polished, and kept well clear of any join or cut-out. The drawing decides it, not the fitter. 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. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. 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.