Kitchen worktops in Woodford Wells

Yes. Big detached houses on the northern edge towards Buckhurst Hill, mostly with substantial rear extensions already in place, so the work is high-spec remodelling: double islands or an island plus a long back run, integrated boiling taps and a matching utility and pantry. Full-height slab splashbacks behind the hob are requested more often here than anywhere else nearby. Gravel and block paving both look like hard standing and neither takes a loaded trolley, so the run from tail lift to door gets boarded. The templating visit needs somewhere to stop for two or three hours, which is a different problem from unloading for twenty minutes. It goes on the job sheet for the fitting crew.

Edwardian villa, 1930s detached, post-war detached and gated modern house. A detached house of this age has a drive, a side path and a back door, so access is rarely the constraint and the design can follow the room. Most of these have a side passage and a back door, so a full-length piece can usually reach the kitchen without being cut down, and the piece sizing is driven by the slab rather than the route. Every join over a gable, clear of every cut-out.

Generous plots with in-and-out drives and turning space, though some entrances are gated with restricted head height and a few of the lanes are narrow enough that a large van has to reverse in. Estate roads are often too tight for a long-wheelbase van to turn, so the carry starts a good deal further from the door than a map suggests. The maximum piece length is fixed at drawing stage and every join is placed over a cabinet gable from there. Once the cut-outs are machined there is no going back on it.

Worktop design & quotation, worktop fabrication 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 template visit is booked once the units are genuinely in, not when they are nearly in. Units fitted, fixed and level first. Book-matched splashbacks and a matching island mean slab selection matters, so we get the customer to the slab yard before cutting rather than after.

If the island is a few hundred millimetres longer than the usable length of a slab, a second slab gets bought to gain that overhang, and the whole slab is paid for rather than the part used. A join that lands in the wrong place cannot be moved once the cut-outs are machined, so it is settled on the drawing. Every join sits over a gable. Window boards and cills stand proud of the plaster, so the back edge of the top has to be plotted to where the units actually sit rather than to the wall. The laser plots it as it is, at the exact height the worktop will sit, and the drawing carries that through. That is why the visit takes two or three hours. 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.

Where someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. The template happens when the units are in, fixed and level, whoever is fitting them. 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.