Kitchen worktops in Wood Lane

Yes. Almost entirely modern apartment stock, so kitchens are handleless units against a service wall with an island or peninsula of 1.8-2.6m, and the original tops are usually composite or laminate being upgraded to slab quartz or Dekton. Because these are circular-plan and curved-facade buildings in places, some kitchen runs sit against a gently curved external wall, which needs the back edge templated rather than assumed straight. Underground loading has a height restriction, and a van with an A-frame on it is taller than the driver remembers. It is noted on the job sheet at template so the fitting crew inherit the answer rather than rediscovering it. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

new-build apartment tower, former broadcasting building converted to flats, mixed-use block over retail and student and co-living scheme. A gated development controls when a van gets in, where it can stand and for how long, and none of that gets decided on the morning. If the diagonal is short we either split the run with a planned join or, on lower floors, carry up the stairwell, which needs the half-landing turn checking as well. That is the shape of the day.

Every building is managed, with a loading bay booked through the concierge, a contractor induction and a goods lift that has to be reserved in a time slot. Wood Lane itself carries heavy shopping-centre traffic with bus lanes and restricted stopping, and basement service yards have height barriers that rule out a high-roof van. The barrier, the entry code and the estate rules decide when a van can get near the door, and none of that is negotiable on the day. We walk the route with a tape and protect it end to end before the first piece is lifted. None of it is worked out on the doorstep.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop templating, in that order. 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. 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. Curved facades mean some back edges are genuinely not straight - digital template it rather than trusting the drawings the developer hands you.

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. 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. Where a corner is a couple of degrees off, a mitre cut to a theoretical ninety degrees opens on the wall side and there is no closing it afterwards. The back edge is eased in progressively rather than offered up once and forced. It is the slow part of the day and it should be. 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.

The same building type can arrive as a careful one-off kitchen or as a fast turnaround, and the honest answer is that they are priced differently. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Sound carcasses are the condition. 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.