Kitchen worktops in Kennington

Yes. Georgian and early Victorian houses have their kitchens at lower-ground level in what were service rooms, so runs follow the original room proportions with a small island or a central table rather than a big open plan. Estate flats nearby have compact separate kitchens with fixed service positions. 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. A replacement is a two-way job, with old tops going out and new stone coming in, so the van needs to stay put across the whole day. It is a full day at the kerb, not a delivery.

Georgian terrace, Early Victorian terrace, Interwar and postwar estate block and Mansion flat. Walls are thick, lime-plastered and built in a soft brick, so they take a scribe well and take a fixing badly. What the old top has been hiding is usually a floor that settled towards the back and units that were never fixed back to the wall. Units kept, surface changed, one day.

Much of the Georgian stock is listed or in a conservation area with a lower-ground entrance down railed area steps that turn sharply at the bottom. Parking is permit-controlled and the northern edge falls close to the congestion charge boundary, so charges need checking by street. A narrow entrance hall with a turn into the back of the house caps the longest piece we can physically get in, whatever the run itself measures. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Worktop templating, worktop replacement and worktop installation, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. Sealed before we leave. Lower-ground rooms in this stock are damp-prone and rarely flat, so the run needs packing and the floor level checked at both ends before any long piece is cut.

On a heavily veined stone the island and the run behind it are nested off the same area of slab so the movement relates across the room. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. A junction between an original floor and a later extension slab is almost never at the same level, so units carrying a run across it need packing first. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. Units kept, surface changed. 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.