Kitchen worktops in Gospel Oak

Yes. Much of the stock is post-war flats with small purpose-built galley kitchens, two facing runs at 2.4-2.8m on standard 600mm depth, usually with a serving hatch the client wants closed up. The surviving Victorian terraces on the fringes are the opposite job, with a rear-addition kitchen and a knock-through to the dining room. Bay bookings are usually an hour or two, which is fine for unloading and no use at all as a place to leave the van for a day. Splashbacks are normally the last thing off, so a short parking window is exactly when they get rushed. That is why they are crated the way they are.

post-war estate block, 1960s tower, Victorian terrace and 1970s low-rise housing. A bay-fronted terrace has a long hall running past the stairs to the kitchen, so the hall turn caps the piece length before the run length does. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Estate roads with barriers, unloading bays that are already occupied, internal corridors, then a lift that will not take a 3m slab upright. Where the lift is out or the flat is on a deck access level everything goes up the stair core, which forces smaller pieces. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Rear and side-return extensions are where the islands appear, and an island is the piece that decides whether one slab does the kitchen or two. Socket and switch positions have to be final before templating, because a cut-out in the wrong place means a new piece. Same batch, same run, same day. Lift car dimensions decide the job on estate blocks, so measure the car and the stair-core turns at template stage and price a mid-run join as standard.

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. A layout that has been packed and levelled run by run instead of to one datum shows as a step where two pieces meet. The join is the last thing finished. A run can measure dead right at both ends and still belly out in the middle, which only appears once the laser plots the intermediate points. A tall panel that fits at the worktop will stand off the wall at the top unless the wall is dubbed out or the panel is scribed. An upstand rides what a panel exposes. 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 ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. Full-height panels need the wall made good first, which is another trade and another timescale. Decided before fabrication, not after. 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.