Worktop installation in Wapping

Yes. Wapping is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are E1W. It is run from the Essex side, covering Essex & East London. Without a bay the van ends up on a single yellow with a crew member watching it, which takes a pair of hands off the carry. 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. It is why the arrival time is what it is. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

The goods lift is generous and the flat entrance often is not, so the tightest point on the route is inside the flat rather than in the building. These read as easy from outside and rarely are, because the flat entrance is tighter than the goods lift. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted. Exposed brick and reclaimed timber never give you a straight reference line, so the island gets set out to the floor and the perimeter gets scribed to the wall.

The high street is narrow, cobbled in places and lined with tall converted warehouses with no forecourt, and parking is permit-only with very few bays. Many conversions retain a small original hoist-style lift or a tight brick stair core, and buildings often require a river-side or courtyard route agreed with the porter in advance. If a hoist is the only way in then the piece sizes are designed around the opening, and the sash or casement usually has to come out first. The fitting day is planned backwards from that point, before anything comes off the van. That is what the morning is planned around. Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it.

It is one of the three we do most here, behind worktop fabrication. Same template visit, same workshop, same installers either way. A kitchen carved out of a larger room sits under whatever the original plan left behind, so the run frequently ends at a blocked doorway or a boxed-in service. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The prep list is not optional. In a converted house the flat entrance and the internal doorway are usually tighter than the communal stairs, and that is easy to overlook. One visit, with the sink and hob seated and sealed before we leave. The prep list is not optional.

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. On the day that means dry-laying the whole layout first and only then pulling and bonding the joins. Nothing is bonded until the whole run sits flat. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

Exposed structure means the back edge is not a straight line at all, and a scribe of fifteen or twenty millimetres across a run is normal. Rushing that is what leaves a gap you look at every morning for fifteen years. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. Confirm loading bay access and lift booking with the building's management, and clear any furniture from the mezzanine stairs or split-level approach. Access in a tenanted flat depends on the tenant, so the template and fitting dates are agreed with whoever actually holds the keys. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Access for the whole slot, or a different day.