UN-installing a fitted worktop / desktop

[rjrl101]

I'm hoping to get some advice about how best to go about uninstalling a worktop/desktop that forms a large part of a fitted office/study in our house.

The desktop is veneered chipboard, 38 mm thick and goes around three walls in a big C shape. The sides are about 2.2m, 2.6m and 1.9m long. I've just estimated its weight to be about 90 kg. :shock: Weight and size preclude moving it whole - indeed, it won't move very much at all as it's such a good flush fit with the walls.

The catch is that I put it up for sale before considering how I was going to get the desktop out! I have buyers interested (what offer I should accept for it is another problem!) so would like to get it out with a minimum of damage and a maximum or reassembly potential.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to cut it, and probably with a router rather than a saw to lessen the posibility of chipping the veneer? The location of the cut is limited by both the presence of walls on two of the three sides (meaning I can't cut all the way to the back of the desktop unless I do it by hand with a saw). On the remaining side I can get all the way to the back of the desktop with a powertool as the desk sits on top of the windowsill behind it.

On this remaining side there is a join between two of the pieces that make up the desktop. I would cut down this join but for the fact that edges of the the pieces are not parallel, one comes forward at 45 degrees to add some extra depth to the desk in that corner. Cutting there would mean that the pieces are different widths when they come to be rejoined and the mitre cut edging on the front of the desk (whose pieces do not join at the same angle as the desk pieces) will be (partially?) cut through.

I think it would be best to cut just to the left of this existing join - on the piece that does not come forward at 45 degrees. This would avoid problems with cutting through all the glue of the existing joint and different width pieces on reassembly but would allow the buyer to re-use the existing recesses for the butterfly bolts that hold the existing join in place.

Does this sound sensible, is there a better alternative or should I let the buyer cut where he wants?. I've attached some ascii art to try to make it clearer! Proposed cut line in exclamation marks.

Thanks,
Richard

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   |    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX     ! |                    |
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   |      !proposed cut line! -->> ! |       odd          |
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[WellsWood]

Hi Richard

I would expect any potential buyer to have a usage in mind for it, so it would seem a good idea to let them decide where it is cut. You could even sell it on a "buyer to uninstall" basis I suppose, although I suspect there would be fewer takers.

I believe you can get down-cut blades for jigsaws which will enable you to cut from the top and do minimum damage to the veneer. If not you could put a strip of MDF on top and cut through that at the same time, which should minimise breakout. You would need to make sure of sufficient void underneath along the cutline for blade clearance, of course, but you'd get closer to the wall than with a router and have a much narrower kerf. Then just finish off by hand.

Whatever you do make sure you have a good look underneath the area where you decide to cut; this will almost certainly have been made by joining sections together and there's a very good chance that there's some bolts or other ironmongery holding it together - would be bad news to hit one with a jigsaw, much worse if routing.

Hope this helps
Mark

 

[RogerS]

Richard

I agree with MarkW and add the following...

whether you use router or jigsaw, you're going to end up using some sort of handtool to finish the cut at the wall ends.

How is the worktop surface fitted to the wall? On battens that are screwed to the wall? So now you're going to try cutting through the battens as well as the worktop...and in a straight line...and straight through the screw holding the batten to the wall??

Glued down onto the battens? If so then even after you've made the cut, you're going to damage the underside as you lever up the worktop.

Are your walls perfectly vertical? If they lean in then as you raise the worktop you run the risk of jamming against your wall, scraping the plaster etc.

I hate waste as much as the next man but if it's been made out of Contiboard or similar, is it really worth all that hassle? How much are you getting paid for it? I'd chop it up and scrap it if it were me.

Out of curiosity - whereabouts in Herefordshire are you?

 

[Sailor]

Richard,

You can get downcut jigsaw blades, also ones that are extended forwards to flush cut to the front face of the jigsaw. I was working in a house recently which was having new granite worktops fitted to replace the existing ones and the fitters had these blades and just wizzed straight through the tops right up to the plaster.
Also, have you looked at the underside to see how the original joints were made, as it might be possible to utilise those joint lines, especially if they have stiffeners along them.

Colin

 

[rjrl101]

It's the whole office suite that I'm trying to sell, not just the desktop. Cupboards, bookshelves, filing cabs etc. They've all been moved so that I could investigate how the desktop pieces were joined to each other and to the wall. The worktop forms the top of a number of these cabinets though, hence the need to get it out undamaged.

Each joint in the desktop is glued and also held together on the underside with butterfly bolts (easily removable). There wouldn't be additional metal hidden inside the joint would there?

I've removed all the screws that were fixing the desktop to mdf battens that it was resting on along the walls. I know the location of the screws that are fixing the battens to the walls. It's not glued to them and can be lifted slightly off.

The walls aren't perfectly vertical/flat which is why I favoured a router made cut through the desktop back to the windowsill just next to one of the existing joints in the desktop. First as the desk sits on the windowsill, I can run the router the whole width of the desk without being stopped by a wall (the window itself is far enough away not to interfere), secondly because the router bit is wider than a saw blade, once the cut is made I gain half an inch of wiggle space I can use to pull each half of the divided worktop away from the wonky walls and thirdly the existing butterfly bolt recesses can be reused.

I will probably get a downward cutting jigsaw blade this weekend, just so I can keep my options open. I've got until Monday to make up my mind.

I live near Stoke Lacy btw.

thanks for your advice,
Richard