Kitchen worktops in Gallions Reach

Yes. New-build houses here have a kitchen-diner across the rear with a 3m run plus a 1.5m island, generally already square and level, which makes the templating straightforward. Apartments have small single-wall kitchens with the washing machine inside the run. Off-street parking means the van stays put all day, so tools, packers and the offcut we would rather have than not are all within reach. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. We would rather ask than guess.

2000s new-build house, recent apartment block and 1990s estate housing. A gated development controls when a van gets in, where it can stand and for how long, and none of that gets decided on the morning. Everything comes up in the lift, so we measure the lift car's internal diagonal before the piece is loaded, because a car that takes 2.4m on the diagonal will not take a 3m worktop no matter how you stand it. That is the shape of the day.

Wide modern roads, retail park loading and driveways on most houses mean a full-size van can park at the door with no permit issues. Newer blocks have modern lifts of a usable size, but gated parking courts need a resident to let the van in. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop installation, worktop templating and worktop design & quotation, in that order. Developer-fitted kitchens come with thin cam-lock carcasses, which are fine under laminate and want bracing before stone goes on them. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. Sealed before we leave. Modern square rooms make this the closest thing to a drawing-office job in the borough, though the island's overhang still needs proper brackets, not just adhesive.

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. It is the shape rather than the square metreage that moves the number, which is why two kitchens the same size quote differently. Shape first, area second. Where a partition has been built off the floor screed rather than off the slab, it moves, and a mitre bonded across that corner is the first thing to open. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. That is why the visit takes two or three hours. 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.

Managed stock usually comes with its own rules about working hours, waste, and who is allowed on site. 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.