Kitchen worktops in Stockwell

Yes. The conservation-area villas have deep plans where kitchens go into the rear at ground or lower-ground level with a run plus a freestanding block, while the surrounding estates have standardised flat kitchens with a fixed sink and a boxed riser. Many villas are subdivided, so a single building can hold three different kitchen sizes. A free-parking street with cars both sides can still leave the van forty metres away, and that distance is carry, not driving. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

Georgian and early Victorian villa, Victorian terrace, Large postwar estate and Interwar block. Listing and conservation conditions apply to a good number of these, which constrains what can be altered around the kitchen rather than what goes on top of the units. The day is planned backwards from the hall. The slow parts are slow for a reason.

Estate blocks have secure entry, narrow lifts and shared stairs, and the parking courts sit away from the entrances. Villa properties have railed front steps and a lower-ground area entrance that is the only realistic way in for stone. Where the lift will not take the longest run we design a join in rather than gamble, because a piece that will not go up has to go back on the van. 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 replacement, worktop templating and worktop installation, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. Sound carcasses or it does not go ahead. Subdivided villas have kitchens fitted into rooms with original cornice and skirting, so the back edge has to be scribed around a skirting that is often 20mm proud at the bottom.

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. Joins are pulled with suction clamps and finished flush, then colour-matched, which is the last thing done rather than the first. The join is the last thing finished. 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. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Plotted, not estimated. 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. A plumber disconnects before we arrive and reconnects after we leave, and that is worth booking early. 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.