Worktop replacement in Hillingdon

Yes. Hillingdon is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are UB10. It is run from the High Wycombe side, covering Buckinghamshire & Berkshire. A drive that shelves towards the house needs the van chocked and the trolley controlled, since a loaded A-frame gathers speed quickly on a slope. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. The waste run is planned, not improvised. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The kitchen is usually a rear room extended into the garden, with the original external wall now standing inside the run. The junction between the old floor and the extension floor is where a run crossing it needs packing before stone goes on. What is under the old top is the real question. Garage conversions need a second smaller top in the same material, so order it with the kitchen or the batch numbers will not match.

Broad avenues, drives everywhere and quick access from the A40. The A4020 Uxbridge Road is the only real delay on the way in. Even an easy kerbside carry wants the pavement clear at the tail lift, because a three-metre piece on edge has a swing radius nobody expects until it is swinging. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. The strip-out is planned around it. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop installation. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. Batching several kitchens together is the one situation where buying a whole slab is cheaper per kitchen rather than more expensive. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A plumber either side of us. Batching several kitchens together is the one situation where buying a whole slab is cheaper per kitchen rather than more expensive. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project.

Galley runs are usually short enough to come out of a single slab, so the material band you choose does more to the total than the room shape does. Going from a 38mm laminate to 20mm or 30mm stone drops the surface, which shows against tiles, a window board and any freestanding appliance. The units stay, the surface changes. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

A chimney breast left in place splits a wall into two alcoves, and the two are rarely the same width and rarely parallel to each other. We would rather find it at template than on the morning, which is why the templater looks behind the units. The laminate has been covering it up. Unlock the side gate and clear the alley of bins, bikes and pots, and arrange a plumber for the sink and an electrician if the hob is hard-wired. Owner-occupied kitchens are usually being done once, which is why the edge profile, the vein direction and where a join falls are worth the conversation. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Plumber either side of us.