www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

my local howdens did a demo day on granite worktops. i went along. quite a decent hour spent learning about how to go on cutting, polishing and routeing curves and drainage grooves.

any of the regular fellas fitted granite worktops themselves? howdens seem to want to push them at the moment.

seems easy enough to do to be fair like

We always get a firm in,it works out cheaper and the howdens stuff is rubbish and way too dear.

haha ok fair nuff. id only ever done one kitchen that had granite tops. that was 5 years ago or so now. atleast. then we got a company in to do em.

how is it rubbish in comparison? obviously ive only seen the showroom at south shields howdens which has a fair bit of granite in now.

Fitting granite is best left to the pro's,they have all the proper gear and It weighs a ton to lift and if you break or damage a bit trying it yourself it's expensive.
The stuff I've seen in their showrooms is full of imperfections which are filled with stone dust,not great for a fussy customer!!
The last high end kitchen we did took 4 of their guys just to lift the island piece in!!
The company's template everything as well and you don't pay until you are happy.

If been fitting kitchens for nearly 20 years, and granite is something I've never had the pleasure to install, it's something I don't fancy even trying to do. The pros make it look easy.

Howdens give you a dvd to watch and a cheap toolkit,it's easy........

Lol I best get myself down to howdens on Monday morning!!!

it does look fairly straight forward if its a standard kitchen like. to be fair to them. there was nothing that looked mega hard to do. its just about learning the craik i guess.

ive installed loads of kitchens like. theres a lad in my town who does granite tops too. i guess its worth having a bash at atleast.

having said that... i know a lad who is actually quite a capable joiner. but give him a worktop to fit. (im talking standard laminate worktop. mason mitre joint. etc etc) he hoys a wobbler and thinks hes gonna f*ck it up.

ive fitted a canny few and only had bother once with a howdens gloss white mirror chip worktop. the cutter seemed to peel the laminate back if it hit a bit of glass.

this lad would rather do a kitchen and fit those cheap shitty metal jointing strips.

i dont mind trying stuff ive not done. and howdens said if i did one and f*ck it up they would replace the top for free on the first job. i didnt think it was too bad like. plus a brief look at their showroom tops they look alright to me. if the customer is super fussy and super high end are they gonna be getting a howdens kitchen?

having said all thsi like.... cutting the tops your gonna have to sacrifice a track saw rail as its gonna knack the anti splinter strip big time