Cabinets and Countertops: What to Salvage and What to Load

A kitchen gut produces a lot of material quickly, and some of it should not go in the trailer at all.

Salvage before you demolish

Solid wood cabinetry in reasonable condition, appliances that still work, light fixtures and hardware all have value to somebody. Habitat for Humanity ReStores and similar organisations across Tampa Bay accept usable building materials, and taking a cabinet run out carefully rather than smashing it is not much slower.

That reduces the load and it keeps usable material out of a landfill, which is a better outcome on both counts.

Stone countertops

Break it into manageable pieces where you can and load it flat on the floor of the trailer, spread out rather than stacked in one corner.

What loads badly

• Cabinet boxes left assembled — they hold enormous amounts of air
• Long counter runs left full length
• Doors and drawer fronts stacked loosely rather than flat
• Anything with countertop still attached to a base cabinet

Breaking a kitchen down properly before loading routinely halves the volume it takes.

Order of work

1. 1Salvage anything usable first, before demolition damages it.
2. 2Remove counters before base cabinets, because the counter is what makes the base immovable.
3. 3Take doors and drawers off and stack them flat.
4. 4Break boxes down.
5. 5Load the stone low and flat, then build up with the cabinetry.

Old cabinetry in older houses

Anything in a house from before the late 1970s may have flooring, adhesives or coatings that require testing before demolition. Worth establishing before a gut rather than during one.