My mind wandered.

[pinnerite]

I don't wish to be disrespectful but I switch off when the Archbishop gets going.

So, I started thinking about a problem I shall have in a week or two.

I plan to buy an oak worktop. Standing on end it will be 3M tall, 635mm wide and 27mm thick. The layout of my home is such that the only way to get it in to the house is to transport it along the front, down the side and around the back before shoving it through a bofold doorway into the bungalow.

I will need to cut it down to 2.82M, which may need to be done first to get it around the angles.

The only way I can see to get it round is to mount it vertically on some kind of dolly and push it round. It will need at least two people. I am in my eighties and although fit, no Charles Atlas.

I have tried to find a hire shop locally but none seem to stock what I need.

The nearest I got was this:

but it only takes 250Kg and the desktop probably runs into tons or even tonnes.

I need a second opinion (or three).

TIA

Back to the funeral.

[Cursitor Doom]

I did precisely the same. A brisk, 40 minute walk did the trick for me. There's just something really irritating about the fellow.

[Andy Burns]

I severely doubt it'll be that heavy, I bought a 3m x 1m x 40mm oak butcher-block breakfast bar, it was delivered into my hall, where I cut it into

2m and 1m lengths (for an L shaped desk) and was able to manoeuvre it around by myself after that 3.0 x 0.63 x 0.027m * 750 kg/m^3 should be under 40kg

[pinnerite]

I made that 51.435 cubit metres. The www suggests dried oak tops out at 70ilb per cubit foot. The math must have gone downhill from there. :(

[John Rumm]

ISTM you have two options - make sure the end of the worktop is well protected (tape some cardboard over it). Then lift it round - taking breaks when required - or wheel it on something like in your picture.

I thought this was a bit of oak, not depleted uranium?

Oak is dense stuff - the weight per cubic meter ranges from around 600kg to 900kg ish

and by the sounds of it you have at most 3 x 0.635 x 0.027 ~= 0.05m^3 of the stuff. That gives you somewhere from 30kg to 46kg.

Decent pair of grippy gloves (pu foam coated, or resin banded et), and it would be doable by one person, and fairly easy with two I would have thought.

The wheels might help - but they might just make it more unstable...

[Paul]

"Do I need special brackets to install the worktops?

Yes. We recommend and supply stretcher plates / slotted brackets in our worktop installation kit. These brackets secure the worktops to the cabinets but also allow the worktop to move by several mm to allow for gradual contraction / expansion of the timber during varying humidity. A full installation guide is provided with all worktops, and you can also click the following link to view this information online - Wood Worktop installation guide."

But they don't give a convincing figure for weight. They should have put a weight for each item, in their table of products. There is only one weight figure, for the entire table of products.

Paul

[Andy Burns]

If you divide it out from their longest/widest/thickest oak item, they seem to use a density of 748 kg/m^3

[alan_m]

+1 I missed most of the religious bit but I did note the rap on the knuckles for Charlie boy - defender of the christain faith, and not faiths.

How many times did the bell (big ben) toll? The commentator suggested 96 times (once for every year of the Queens life) at an interval of 1 minute. It was going when everything kicked off and still going 2+ hours later.

[alan_m]

The difficulty is the size coupled with a moderate weight. Two of us man handled a piece of mahogany of about the same size but our route through the house was only a few doorways.

A piece that size will go around tight angles diagonally in two directions. I would move it horizontally and lift one side high to get it through doorways.

Toolstation dolly 200kg

a couple of bits of scrap wood to the top to prevent the oak slipping

dolly 60kG

you may have to construct something to hold the oak in place

Also consider a plasterboard/plywood sheet lifting handle(s). Example -

've used these to not only shift plasterboard on my own but also very heavy door, by myself, through my house. My blue coloured Silverline branded carriers I have a slot to take material up to 34mm. The advantage with large sheets of material is these handle give you an easy grip.

[Andy Burns]

After I chopped mine in two, I dragged it into the lounge (which was bare at the time) and further chopped it up

+--------------+ | | | | +-------+ | \ | +----+ +----+ | | | | +----+

rounded over edges facing the 'interior' edges and got 15mm dowel holes ready to join the two pieces, a bit of scribing using a cardboard template.

wrapped the edges in those 'L' shaped cardboard packing pieces and slid it up the stairs, making sure it was all the right way around to take it into the bathroom and then across to the study.

It had to be standing up on the top edge to glue together, then the window cill on the right side removed to allow it to pivot down into place for a [slightly too] tight fit against the wall on the bottom edge, swearing and violence was involved.

[pinnerite]

Thanks everyone.

I redid the calculations and came to just under 40kg.

I also made a scale cardboard cutout of the worktop and ran it on my plan of the path it has to travel through the property. there will be plenty of clearance.

Alan

[alan_m]

[wrights...]

No, not really! I suggest you simply protect the corners and get a couple of mates to carry it.

Bill

[Brian Gaff]

Some glass delivery people seem to have something like what you describe in their vans, but its not recommended if its windy!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes he drones on..... Brian

[Andrew]

50Kg is one hundredweight in old money, the weight of a bag of cement, fertiliser or cow cake in the 60's, which is heavy.

Someone in his 80's needs to take care with something weighing

46Kg and also shuffling it through doorways. This is slipped disk territory.

[John Rumm]

Indeed - from H&S point of view 45kg would be a "two man lift".

Having said that, a worktop is a much easier lift than an (old style)

50kg bag of cement since it stays rigid, and can be lifted without needing to bend.

(I remember getting a bit of a surprise when I bought a couple of bags of sand from our local DIY shop - and thought they were a bit more pricey than Wicks. Its only when I looked closely I realised they were

40kg bags, and I was not just feeling knackered on the day!)

[alan_m]

It helps when delivered that the slab of wood is placed on, say, two other pieces of wood so there is a gap on the underside to get your hand or lifting handle(s) around the bottom of the board.

My problem these days is that my grip is not too strong and unless what I'm lifting has got some kind of handle I cannot get a grip on the edge of smooth sided heavy board to lift it high enough off the ground to place something underneath it.

[Andrew]

Wickes bags of ballast and sand used to be 40Kg too !. The moment Travis Perkins bought them shrinkflation set in.

[alan_m]

Elfin Safety - the recommended maximum safe lift weight for men is 25kg and probably not to be exceeded for bags of sand/cement if selling to the general public and self sevice.

B&Q don't seem to put weights on their bags of sand anymore. The last bag of sand I purchased there just said "large".