Kitchen renovation question

[Chalatte]

Hi all,

Or house is a circa 1900s one that is in desperate need of work in the kitchen. We only realised the state of the kitchen after moving in. The kitchen counter is wooden and rotting /black around the sink area where water touches it the most. I desperately want to fix just this one counter if nothing else but my husband thinks we should wait because we plan to extend in about a year and it will be redone entirely anyway

My whole thing is it looks so bad and I can't think of how to temporarily fix it that I feel we could just do that one side, and build the extension around the new bit once we get to that point.

So that's how it stands and I feel were at an impasse, so just wanted to put this out there and see what would you do in my place? Any advice or suggestions welcome 🙏

Could you just get a cheap worktop to replace that section to be going on with? Maybe a secondhand one even that you could cut to size.

I’ve just finished a kitchen renovation, it always takes longer to do than you think and there’s no point replacing the worktop with something good because it’ll limit your plans when you do decide to do it.

Is it too far gone to sand it with an electric sander and re-oil it? Just to make it look a little better for the short term.

It's unlikely to be actually rotting unless it's coming away in chunks. If it has black water staining try a combination of bleaching with oxalic acid and sanding then seal with oil such as Osmo Polyx Oil. Do you know what kind of wood - oak, beech, etc?

How about one of those worktops you can get to fit over the existing one? Eg https://www.dreamdoors.co.uk/worktops-sinks/kitchen-worktops/quartz-overlay-worktops

i wouldnt do anything substantial if plans to change in a year
you can sand it and oil it, or cover it up with silicon mats, worktop glass saver etc

Thank you all for the suggestions!

I honestly don't know how we missed it in the one 15-minute viewing we had before putting our offer in lol... I suspect the owners had covered those bits with marble and wooden worktop boards.
It's really that far gone lol.. the other day I saw something green and noticed a tiny sprout from between the cracks! The area by the sink has tiny crevices and all black😂
The area by the sink has tiny crevices and all black. I hope it isn't black mold but I fear it may be.

We are terrible at DIY so don't know how a simple counter replacement will be. I know a guy though so might ask for his help to do something bare basic and use a secondhand bit from another kitchen instead of new etc.

Thank you Glad to hear it could be just water staining. No idea what kind of wood it is our prev owners hadn't touched the kitchen that had been done by our grand-owners lol so I have no idea.