Kitchen worktops in Vauxhall

Yes. The riverside towers have compact open-plan kitchens where an appliance wall and a 2.4m peninsula do everything, and upgrades are top-only swaps within the existing carcasses. The older terraces behind the gyratory have small rear kitchens with room for a single run and a fridge alcove. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. The fitting slot is set around it, which is why we ask about it when the date is booked and not before we leave the yard. The day is built around that window.

Riverside high-rise, Victorian terrace, Postwar estate block and 2010s apartment. Edwardian terraces are wider and taller than the Victorian houses next to them, so the kitchen usually takes a full-width rear room rather than a narrow outrigger. The day is planned backwards from the hall. That is the shape of the day.

The one-way system and the bus interchange leave almost nowhere to stop, and every tower requires a booked dock slot with a lift induction. Older estate blocks have entryphone access and stairs with a tight quarter turn. The lift has to be booked and blanketed before anything moves, and that booking needs to cover the old tops coming out as well as the new stone going in. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. That is what the morning is planned around.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. One visit, done properly. Tower kitchens are built to millimetre tolerances against a plasterboard reveal, so template off the finished wall face rather than the carcass line or the top will foul the reveal.

The catch with a galley is that both runs are seen end-on from the doorway, so any difference in overhang between the two reads immediately. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. Alcove pieces get cut oversize on both scribe edges, with the true wall angles carried on the template drawing rather than assumed. 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.

A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Protection goes down first. 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.