How easy is it to replace worktops? Does it mess up your kitchen?

[mrsbleasdale]

Another kitchen question.....sorry!

Would love granite in an ideal world but it's going to be thousands. Is this a stupid idea to put in a couple 100 pounds worth of laminate for now, then in a year or two replace with granite? The granite at the minute could make the kitchen makeover out of the question and I'm not sure I want to stretch us financially. (We have building work to be done and kitchen is big - quotes are already coming in at £1000's more than I'd thought so budget and allocation of money needs to be re-thought)

Would replacing the worktop in a year or two mess up a lovely new kitchen??

[Al0uiseG]

You can have existing worktops "covered" with granite. I've seen it done and it looks just like solid granite. The company was called Transform or Transfrmations I think.

There is no reason replacing work surfaces should ruin a kitchen but get a template done for granite when you have the new units installed otherwise you will be two weeks without any worktops while they are made for you.

[7to25]

We had this done last year but the originals had been in longer! Do not tile and do not have the kitchen sink of your dreams and you will be OK. We replaced our sink but I can't think if we HAD to or not.

[KristinaM]

Getting gratite later shounldnt mess up your kitchen

But are you sure of your prices? Laminate for a big kitchen will be several hundreds, even at ikea prices. I was £1800 for my granite, its a long run of nearly 2 m, its extra deep, with upstand, 2sinks, usual tap cut outs etc. Photos on my profile

I know its not cheap btw but i got quotes of 3-4 K

[mrsbleasdale]

Can I ask where you got your granite from?

I've done a few quick quotes online and it's coming in at £2500 as we'll need around 6m in all.

And I have serious, serious kitchen envy - yours is beautiful!!!!!

[mrsbleasdale]

Thanks 7to25 - good to hear from someone who has done this too

[switchtvoffdosomelessboring]

We replaced our worktops with ikea laminate ones a couple of years ago. We got someone to do it but messwise, there was none (well ok some dust and stuff).

Just a warning though, be exact in your measuring, you might not think a cm here and there make much difference but believe me it can. I had to make an emergency dash to ikea and had to have an extra join.

[switchtvoffdosomelessboring]

We never had a new sink either, although i did have new tiles once the worktop was finished.

[KristinaM]

Mrs b, we got ours from diapol. The worktop you can see in the photo is 3.6 m ish long and 700mm deep. So i suspect that £2.5k for 6 m is pretty good. We spent a lot on boring building work , flooring amd worktops. Our units were relatively inexpensive and we economised on appliances amd sinks /taps. But overall it was still an expensive project. But i dont regret it for a momsnt, its the best thing we ever did on the house, we live in the kitchen now . ive forgottne the 3 months without a kitchen and 3small children

[conculainey]

as long as the worktops are the same thickness you should not have a problem. If the granite is thicker then tiling if any down to worktop level will need to be removed or cut to size.

[mrsbleasdale]

We live in our kitchen too, and 3 kids also. We must spend 80% of our time in here as we have morning room and sunroom all open plan connected to it. Last room of the house to do - have been putting it off!! Have been shopping around for appliances to cut some costs.

Not planning on tiling so that should help.

[Mandy21]

Just to reiterate, if you tile above the worktop as a splashback / in between worktops and wall units, it's very difficult to get the worktop out as the tiles overhang the worktop if that makes sense. We replaced the worktop in our kitchen with a cheapish laminate when we moved in until we have an extension. My H was doing the Diy and couldn't get the main worktop out - it was flush to the walls at both ends and there were tiles that 'rested' on it at the back. What was supposed to be a quick job ended up quite a lengthy one with us having to chip off the old tiles and re-tile.