Kitchen worktops in North Sheen

Yes. Long Edwardian and interwar terraced streets with smaller rooms than neighbouring Kew - kitchens run 2.4m to 3m with a return under the window, and where an extension has been done it is usually a simple 2.5m rear infill rather than a full side return. 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. The waste run is planned, not improvised.

Edwardian terrace, interwar terrace, 1930s semi and modern flats. There is usually a shared rear alley, and whether the gate onto it is unlocked decides whether long pieces come in from the back. The typical 1930s kitchen sits at the back with a low window over the sink run, so the template records the exact sill height above the units to settle whether an upstand fits or the stone has to die into a window board. Recorded as it is, not as it was drawn.

Terraced roads with permit parking and no off-street standing, cars parked tight to both kerbs, and shallow front gardens giving barely enough space to swing a slab from the pavement to the front door. Door width, hall width and the diagonal at the turn are three separate measurements, and it is the diagonal that catches people out. The templater measures that route on the same visit, so the drawing leaves site already knowing the maximum piece. It goes on the drawing with the run dimensions.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. A new extension slab is not automatically level, and that wants checking before templating rather than after the stone is cut. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first. Narrow halls with a stair straight off the door mean measuring the diagonal at the newel post before deciding piece lengths.

Side-return kitchens are long and narrow with one outside wall, and the wall the run sits against is often the oldest, least straight surface in the house. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Dry-lay first, always. Sill height gets settled with the template on site, because it is one of the few dimensions nobody has measured before we arrive. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. The laminate has been covering it up. 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 householder is normally on site at template, and that is the right time to settle sink position, tap centres and overhang rather than agree them by email. The template happens when the units are in, fixed and level, whoever is fitting them. Fitted, fixed and level, then we come. 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.