Kitchen worktops in Wimbledon

Yes. Around the Broadway and the streets running up towards the Ridgway you get Victorian and Edwardian houses where the original back addition has been opened into the rear reception, so the kitchen ends up L-shaped with a run down the flank wall and a peninsula where the old wall stood. Newer apartment blocks above the town centre are mostly straight galley runs with a breakfast bar returning off the end. 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. 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. The day is built around that window.

Late Victorian terrace, Edwardian semi, 1930s mansion block and 2000s town-centre apartment. Deep original skirting is often left in behind the units, standing them off the wall, so the back edge of the stone is plotted where the carcasses actually sit. We measure the front door, the hall width and the turn into the kitchen before anything comes off the van, because a 3m piece has to swing through that corner on edge and stone does not bend to help you. Walked, measured, protected, then lifted.

The town centre one-way system and the bus lanes on the Broadway leave almost no legal standing time, and the residential streets either side are permit-only with short single-yellow windows. Anything going into a flat above the shops is a stair-only carry from a shared street door. Weight tells on a staircase more than anywhere else, because there is nowhere to set a piece down mid-flight and no way to change your grip once it is moving. 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. The junction between the original room and the extension is the point to watch, because the two floors rarely sit at the same height. No stone is ever cut from a plan, which is inconvenient exactly when a programme is tight. Units fitted, fixed and level first. The knock-through peninsula is where the money and the risk sit — you are butting new stone against a wall the builder made good after removing a chimney breast, so template after plastering, never before.

Because a peninsula is seen from both sides, the underside of any overhang gets the same edge treatment as the top, which is easy to leave out of a spec. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Height change is checked before we cut. The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. Dry-lay, mark, cut, then bond. 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 templater needs the sink, tap and hob on site, and a Belfast sink installed at its final height. Appliances on site, not on order. 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.