Kitchen worktops in St Katharine Docks

Yes. Apartments around the marina have modest kitchens, often 2.4m to 3m in a galley or L opening to a dining area, with plenty of duplexes where the kitchen sits on the entry level. Refits here are almost always replacements in a sound kitchen rather than a full knock-through. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. 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. We would rather ask than guess.

1970s-80s marina apartment block, converted dock warehouse and recent infill apartment. The kitchen is a small square room off a narrow entrance lobby, and the turn out of that lobby is the real limit on piece length. The carry is the constraint. That is the shape of the day.

The estate is privately managed with barrier-controlled vehicle entry, so the van needs booking in and a time-limited pass to reach the block door. Once inside it is a flat, level route across paved quayside, but lifts are small 1970s cars and some blocks route deliveries through a basement service corridor. Where the parking court sits behind the block the carry crosses open ground and gets boarded, because loaded trolleys and block paving do not agree. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. It gets checked before the first piece is lifted.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, 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. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A plumber either side of us. Barrier and dwell-time limits mean the slab comes off the van in one go, so the crew and the route need to be sorted before it arrives.

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. A layout templated off one wall instead of one datum will not sit right once all the pieces are down together. The drawing leaves site complete. Boxing is rarely the same depth at worktop height as it is at floor level, so measuring it low down is the usual reason a top will not sit back. 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.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. 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.