#4 The Big One - Weird Divider Thing!
Ok so this is the horrible thing that for some reason divides the kitchen from the rest of the room. It's really high, not usable as a work surface and makes the kitchen bit narrow whilst taking up space.
Blech! I want to remove it to make it feel more open, and also make room for a compact freezer in the kitchen space.
The first scary thing is that it feels *solid* - really, really solid. If I shove it it doesn't give an inch. If Phil shoves it it does rock a bit, but it's definitely not just dry wall. I've peeled off the wallpaper and it's revealed a load of those chipboard boards, which have been screwed in to something and then polyfilled over:
To the right of these filled in screws is a long vertical line that's filled in with something Very Hard:
How on earth do I remove this? How is it fixed to the floor? the wall?! Will it ever come off?! Or is this something that's definitely best saved for Christmas....Help Me, Dad!
posted by Unknown @ 05:51
1 Comments
1 Comments:
The first thing to do is to remove Adele & the wine from the top. I would guess that it's a 4x2 timber frame covered with 18 mm chipboard if it feels quite secure. Measure the thin end of the Thing - if it's about 140 mm wide, that's probably what it is. If you tap all over the sides of the thing with a hammer, does it sound different in places?
Hard to tell what the counter top is - is it a solid lump of wood or is it made up of different pieces? I would guess that it's a box made out a top & side rails. If you look underneath it, what do you see?
Looks like that angle bracket on the wall is part of it, you're going to have to remove it somehow, maybe just chip the plaster off around it & you may have dig the plaster out of the screw head with a pointy thing then unscrew it. Often, if a screw is tight, stick the screwdriver in the slot of the screw & tap the screwdriver with a hammer first, that often loosens it. The counter top is probably screwed to the frame as well so you'll have to reveal the screws & undo them. The counter top may be let into the plaster, hard to tell with that filler there. My be worth scraping some of the filler away so you can see better.
You're going to have to get the chipboard off at least one side. If it's a timber frame it will be screwed to wall & floor. Don't try to just push the thing over, you may make big holes in wall & floor. If you can can reveal the screw heads by scraping with a pointy thing you may be able to unscrew them. If not, it's time for brute strength & ignorance. You need a wrecking bar - you hammer one end into a join & lever it off as you go. Let me know when you've tried round 1!
Hey, I'm cooking on gas with these comments now, it says comment as Ian Hancocks so dead easy now! XXX
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