Reusing a granite worktop and oak units

Charliezoo

We've got lots of work to do on our house on a low budget including relocating and replacing the kitchen. We've been offered a beautiful quality 7 year old kitchen, solid oak doors with granite worktops in excellent condition and will fit our space with minimal alteration needed. We've agreed a price but the current owners need to have it removed from their house by the builders who will be on site this weekend. The owners will not be present but have asked them to be extra careful and the architect has been asked to supervise the removal but I'm still concerned that it'll be difficult to remove the kitchen, especially the granite worktops without sustaining damage.

Has anyone managed to successfully remove and refit a second hand kitchen like this? Luckily the owners have said that we don't have to buy it if there's notable damage but we need to organise pick up and fitting ourselves so want to know if this is likely to go as planned.

suisidevw

Should be OK! The granite essentially is just laid on top of hte units and glued to the back of the wall - if there are upstands, there's clearly a little more work but it should be OK.

LEJC

Just be warned that granite is very heavy...if you are moving it yourself you will probably need to use a small van in order to distribute the weight...
A good bit of padding round the worktop in transit might be useful too...old blankets/duvets are usually good to stop it shifting an chipping the corners.


Make sure you have several people when lifting to support the weight troughout the piece of granite and pay particular care not to snap it especially round sink cutouts etc where it will be weaker than the solid runs.....

Ozzuk

Just one thing you may wish to consider - oak can look very dated. However...for relatively low cost you could get a sprayer and paint the doors/units a more modern colour. I've done this (well to be honest, my ex did the most of the spraying) and the end result (after practice) was brilliant. I haven't seen the units so can't say if this is sacrilege, depends on the shade I guess, oak can be quite dark.

cyclonebri1

Ozzuk wrote: »

Just one thing you may wish to consider - oak can look very dated. However...for relatively low cost you could get a sprayer and paint the doors/units a more modern colour. I've done this (well to be honest, my ex did the most of the spraying) and the end result (after practice) was brilliant. I haven't seen the units so can't say if this is sacrilege, depends on the shade I guess, oak can be quite dark.

Spray solid oak doors, :eek:, sacrilege;)

You will have great difficulty in removing the top safely if they are of any length and have large cut outs. The slightest twist and they are gone I'm afraid.

Also I can't see anyone doing this, other than the original installer at great cost, who will take the risk. It will be done at your risk.

But weigh it up, there is no reason it won't work, infact I think it's admirable of you to salvage what sounds a perfectly useable kitchen:T:T

Avoriaz

Charliezoo wrote: »

..Has anyone managed to successfully remove and refit a second hand kitchen like this? Luckily the owners have said that we don't have to buy it if there's notable damage but we need to organise pick up and fitting ourselves so want to know if this is likely to go as planned.

I've sold a fitted kitchen. The buyers removed it themselves. They did a very careful job causing no damage to the units. I was there and made sure they also did no unnecessary damage to my walls etc. It all went well.

Can you arrange to be there when the builders are doing the work, or even volunteer to do some or all of the work yourself?

There should be no reason why the units can't be removed undamaged, or at least with all damage limited to areas that are not visible when reinstalled.

Remove any built in lighting, doors and shelves first to reduce weight and then remove the carcasses.

If the worktop gets damaged or broken beyond further use then you can presumably renegotiate a sensible price for the units only and buy a new worktop.

God luck.

cyclonebri1

I think we have to be realistic, the price will be for the units, (easy), and the granite (not easy).

If the buyer damages his purchase on removal he has no right to renegotiate, or he wouldn't if I was selling.

Charliezoo

Thank you for all of the helpful replies.

The kitchen has been removed by the seller's builder who knew that the kitchen was being resold so was under strict instruction to be as careful as possible. The granite and oak doors have survived intact but several carcasses haven't unfortunately because the granite was bonded to the carcasses so some of them had trim or pieces of board rip off. Some should be salvagable with a bit of work and some are beyond help unfortunately so we will be negotiating with the seller for a price drop to reflect this and will likely have to order replacements from Ikea.

We just have to transport it all home now so wish us luck!

Thanks again.

Charliezoo

On another note, we're very happy with the oak kitchen, its a modern style that'll suit our home and so no need to consider repainting it or anything.

lstar337

Cool, thanks for coming back and letting us know how you got on. Posters don't always come back and I often wonder how they got on. I guess I'm just nosey!

Good that you got your granite out safely, I assume that was more important to you than the cupboard carcasses.

cyclonebri1

Charliezoo wrote: »

Thank you for all of the helpful replies.

The kitchen has been removed by the seller's builder who knew that the kitchen was being resold so was under strict instruction to be as careful as possible. The granite and oak doors have survived intact but several carcasses haven't unfortunately because the granite was bonded to the carcasses so some of them had trim or pieces of board rip off. Some should be salvagable with a bit of work and some are beyond help unfortunately so we will be negotiating with the seller for a price drop to reflect this and will likely have to order replacements from Ikea.

We just have to transport it all home now so wish us luck!

Thanks again.

I obviously wasn't too helpful to you:o