Kitchen worktops in South Acton

Yes. Predominantly new-build apartment kitchens in the regeneration blocks: straight runs of 2.4m to 3.2m, integrated appliances throughout, and leaseholders upgrading the developer-fitted tops. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. We aim for the first slot of the day where parking is tight, because that is when the street is emptiest. We would rather ask than guess.

1960s-1970s estate block, phased regeneration new-build and Victorian terrace fringe. Low-rise blocks are three or four storeys with a single stair and no lift, so pieces go up on edge and the half-landing sets the maximum length. That suits a full-height piece, because a large flat panel bonded across its back is more stable on concrete than a run of small tiles ever was. Cut from the same slab run as the tops.

A large estate under phased construction, so hoardings, site traffic and changing road layouts. Blocks have goods lifts, but access is arranged through the managing agent rather than the resident. Piece length is set by the internal diagonal of the lift car, not by the length of the slab. It is usually the full-height panels rather than the tops that will not make the turn, and that only shows up when they arrive. Joint positions follow from that.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Upgrading a builder-finish kitchen is mostly a swap, so the cost sits in the material choice rather than in the shape of the room. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A day, not a project. The road layout changes as the phases move, so confirm the current access route in the week of the fit rather than relying on the survey visit.

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. Upstands follow the run exactly, so every internal and external corner is a separate mitred or butted piece. Joint placement is a decision, not an accident. A boxed soil stack or service riser in the corner of a run eats into the worktop depth and has to be scribed around rather than cut square. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. 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.

Where ownership is split across a building, the common parts belong to someone else and the carry route is negotiated rather than assumed. A replacement keeps the units and changes the surface, which is the least disruptive way to do this in an occupied property. 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.