Kitchen worktops in Riddlesdown

Yes. Inter-war stock strung along the ridge, mostly semis with a rear kitchen extended by 2-3m to make a kitchen-diner with a peninsula and garden doors. Wall runs of about 3.6m are typical and full islands are rare because the rooms are long rather than wide. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. A van that has to move mid-fit costs the best part of an hour and takes a man off the tools to do it. The day is built around that window.

1930s semi, 1930s detached, post-war infill and chalet bungalow. The classic arrangement is the original back room with a later extension bolted onto it, so the kitchen is two ages of building in one room. The carry is the easy part; the plaster around the old breast and the packing over a moved floor are not. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Narrow hillside roads with parking on both sides and short steep drives, plus the railway cutting means several streets are dead ends with no turning space for a long van. The van gets close to the door and the stone comes off the tail lift onto a trolley, which is about the shortest carry we ever get. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement 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. Two to three hours on site, with the sink, tap and hob physically present. Appliances on site, not on order. Dead-end hillside roads mean reversing a loaded van out, so we take the smaller vehicle here and make two trips rather than one.

An island is a single visible piece with four finished edges and no wall to hide against, so it is the piece the whole kitchen is judged on. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Carcasses have to be sound first. Where a breast interrupts a long wall the join can often go there, so it reads as a natural break rather than a line in the middle of a worktop. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Measured at worktop height, nowhere else. 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. A template booked hopefully around another trade is the commonest cause of a wasted visit. No stone is cut from a plan. 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.