The kitchen in our IP could do with a bit of a revamp. I am worried about the possibility of cracking any of the splash back tiles during removal. Is it difficult to remove benchtops?
Has anyone relaminated their benchtops? I thought this might be less hassle than replacing the benchtop. We relaminated the vanity in the ensuite with good results.
Has anyone used that Granite Transformations product and is it cost effective?
Thanks
The silence is deafening.
hi boshy, my brother in law recently relaminated his benchtops, inexpensive and they look great.
hope this helps. he has also used the granite transformations product on two of the benchtops, inexpensive but they look a million dollars. tenant was happy.
Hi Brookelea,
Did your brother glue the laminate on himself or get a kitchen place to do it?
I visited a kitchen showroom today and they said they cannot laminate over the top of an existing benchtop as the method they use requires them to be in the workshop. They also said that it is very likely that the tiles will be damaged whilst removing the benchtop. They estimated that a new benchtop would cost $1500 to $2000 which seems a bit exhorbitant. They said a new kitchen would cost $7 – $10K and my budget was definitely less than that.
Thanks for the feedback on the granite transformations product.
Hi Boshy888,
I had my kitchen benchtop relaminated recently. It was an older style blue and white speckled benchtop with the rounder timber looking edge that was popular in the 80's. I removed it myself simply by undoing the screws and sliding it out. I had a cabinet maker take it away, square off the corners with ply and reliminate with a coco colured speckled laminate. They then returned the benchtop and put it back in place for me. This cost me about $800.
In regard to the splashback, I had already removed the tiles as I planned to retile in a deep burgundy tile anyhow so this wasn't considered, although I do think you could remove the benchtop without damaging the splashback too much with a little bit of care. If you cut the bottom silicon joining the benchtop and splashback, I don't see why it wouldn't remove without damaging anything. Worst case scenario, tiles are fairly easily replaced if you happen to break a few. The latest Handyman magazine from Bunnings has an article on doing this.
Hope this helps!
Hi Boshy888,
I had my kitchen benchtop relaminated recently. It was an older style blue and white speckled benchtop with the rounder timber looking edge that was popular in the 80's. I removed it myself simply by undoing the screws and sliding it out. I had a cabinet maker take it away, square off the corners with ply and reliminate with a coco colured speckled laminate. They then returned the benchtop and put it back in place for me. This cost me about $800.
In regard to the splashback, I had already removed the tiles as I planned to retile in a deep burgundy tile anyhow so this wasn't considered, although I do think you could remove the benchtop without damaging the splashback too much with a little bit of care. If you cut the bottom silicon joining the benchtop and splashback, I don't see why it wouldn't remove without damaging anything. Worst case scenario, tiles are fairly easily replaced if you happen to break a few. The latest Handyman magazine from Bunnings has an article on doing this.
Hope this helps!
Three years ago I got Granite Transformations to do the bench tops in a unit of mine. The cost was double that of new laminate and half that of proper granite. It still looks like new and was well worth it. It has been a rental for the last two years and being able to put hot pans on it and cut on it makes it a sensible option. For not much extra they did the kickboards in the same stuff which was a nice touch.
attrill wrote:Three years ago I got Granite Transformations to do the bench tops in a unit of mine. The cost was double that of new laminate and half that of proper granite. It still looks like new and was well worth it. It has been a rental for the last two years and being able to put hot pans on it and cut on it makes it a sensible option. For not much extra they did the kickboards in the same stuff which was a nice touch.Where did you get this done? It sounds great. I am in Melbourne, and presumably Granite Transformations is a company?
merryc,
Granite Transformations are in almost every state now, under that name. I've just booked them in for my PPOR kitchen. They're going to do the benchtops, doors and replacing the drawers for me. I'm going to put in the wall cupboards, rangehood and microwave cabinet.
I will be re-tiling around the benchtop – to that end I have a question: I have old tiles around my kitchen that were painted over with White Knight Tile Paint – it did a great job but I want to remove the tiles to update them. Does anyone know – can I just chip them off with a chisel? The walls are concrete…..
If you are in Melbourne, Allboards on Dorset Rd, Boronia sell bench top offcuts and you can have them cut to size for a small fee.
I spent $40 on 2 pieces of small bench top which made a big difference to the look of the kitchen upgrade
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences.
I'd love to consider offcuts but I think the bench is just too long – it is a U shaped kitchen and the breakfast bar end is a lot wider than the rest of the bench. There are lots of tiles (and no spares) above the bench so having to remove them and replace them won't be a quick job. The stove top is also in the benchtop rather than a stand alone stove.
Stevie – chipping off with a chisel sounds like the way to go. That's what we did when we had to replace a few wall tiles in the shower recess. That was the easy bit. It was impossible to find the same sized tile so we had to cut them to size and that wasn't quite so easy especially if you want a really good result. The original tiler has set the tiles too close to each other so there is was insufficient room to expand without placing stress on the tiles.
Thanks Boshy, I'll give that a whirl.
Hi
When we installed our kitchen we went to a kitchen cabinet making comany. We provided them with our sizes of each cabinet and door + benchtop in the colours we liked (Marble Laminex bench top and wood grain doors, std whiteboard cupboards with wood grain covers) They supplied the kitchen as a flat pack which we put together and installed (my partner is a builder by trade). Including stainless steel appliances the whole kitchen cost about $4000. The benchtop was about $1200 – the benchtop is about 3m all up. We got quoted by a kitchen company $15,000 installed for this kitchen so I would suggest finding a similar company your area if you don't mind doing a bit of work yourself as you can save alot of cash.
Alternatively friends of ours just had their kitchen painted by professional kitchen painters and it looks awesome for a little bit of cash.
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