Kitchen worktops in Hillingdon Heath

Yes. Modest postwar kitchens, usually a U-shape with the old pantry cupboard taken out, worktop runs of 2.4m to 3m and the sink positioned under a window looking into the back garden. 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. Splashbacks are normally the last thing off, so a short parking window is exactly when they get rushed. One trip is always better than three.

Postwar estate house, 1950s semi and ex-local terrace. Rear access through a garden or a shared path means long pieces can usually come in whole from the back. Plaster bonded straight onto concrete comes away with the bottom course of tiles, leaving a band behind the upstand. What is under the old top is the real question.

Along the Uxbridge Road and Long Lane corridor. On-street parking is generally free and unrestricted and most front gardens have been paved into hardstanding. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. We plan the strip-out and the carry as one movement so the kitchen is only out of use for a single day. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Quartz suits let property well: no sealing, no annual maintenance, and nothing an incoming tenant has to be told to look after. Ordered later from a different batch, the match is not reliable exactly where the pieces meet. Sockets final before template. The sink-under-window arrangement means scribing into a plastered reveal on both sides, which is the fiddliest cut on an otherwise simple job.

A U shape uses more linear metres than people expect, and the two returns rarely nest together, so a second slab is a genuine possibility. Joins are pulled with suction clamps and finished flush, then colour-matched, which is the last thing done rather than the first. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. 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. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. Found at template, not on fit day. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. Splashbacks are cut from the same slab run as the tops, so they have to be decided before fabrication, not after. 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.