Kitchen worktops in Mitcham

Yes. The stock is genuinely mixed, so jobs range from a Victorian terrace near the Cricket Green having its back addition opened up, to estate flats where the kitchen is a fixed 2.1m by 3m box that only takes a straight run and a return. Buy-to-let refits with standard-depth units are a large share of the work. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. The day is built around that window.

Victorian terrace, 1930s semi, Postwar estate block and 1970s maisonette. Where the side return has been filled in, the old external wall is now an internal one and still carries its render, its gutter line and its old fixings. The day is planned backwards from the hall. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

Parking is largely uncontrolled away from the tram stops, which helps, but the estates have communal entry systems and shared stairs with landings too tight to turn a full-length slab. London Road and Streatham Road are slow, so timed slots need padding. Communal stairs get boarded and the handrail padded, and we walk the route with a tape before the first piece leaves the van. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. A worktop replacement between tenancies is a single-day job by design, because the flat is not earning while it is empty. Splashbacks and upstands are cut from the same slab run at the same time, which is the only way the batch actually matches. Sockets final before template. Estate kitchens frequently have a service duct boxed into a corner, and it is almost never square — cut the notch on site rather than from the drawing.

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. Dry-lay first, always. Anything that has to stay accessible, a stopcock, a gas meter, a riser panel, is marked on the template so the stone is cut around it instead of over it. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. It is the usual surprise, and it is a known one. 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.

The same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. 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.