OP here. I was wondering if a granite counter top could be removed intact (or close to) for repurposing (by a friend who wants to replace her rental house’s island top.) Our island is 4’ x 8’ and our countertops are standard depth.
It is really hard to save an entire slab of granite. The granite is laid down onto a large piece of plywood that was screwed into the top of the cabinets. The granite was laid down onto the plywood and ‘glued’ down to the plywood via caulk. The caulk has turned into glue. There is a bullnose on the ends that prevents anyone from getting a gentle crowbar in there between the plywood and the granite. Very difficult to try to pry that granite off the plywood
When I reconfigured my condo kitchen, the workers removed the granite in large sections. None of them came out fully intact but there were large enough pieces that could be reused for small projects - island, small vanity, etc.
Donated them and the old cabinets to Habitat ReStore.
We were told that depending on how the top was attached to the cabinetry, it can be done but it will probably be not very cost efficient as removal labor would be on par with the price of new lower end granite. It will still need to be milled to fit the new space, so not much in savings there either.
Our Habitat store is very picky, they will not take such random chunks of granite or anything that is over a few years old.
I’ve tried searching on this thread, and haven’t found any discussion of my question, but if I am wrong please bear with me. 
I have a kitchen that I would dearly love to remodel, but I can’t afford to do it. There are a few things that desperately need help that I may be able to do myself; notably, the walls and the floor.
The 100 yr old plaster walls were formerly (hideously) papered. When we moved in, I had the paper removed, after which I painted, glazed, and stencilled the walls. It looked great. Unfortunately, the plaster has deteriorated quite a bit in some areas, and it really needs cleaning, repairing, and repainting. The obvious thing to do from a contractor’s POV would be to simply cover all of it up with the thinnest possible drywall. I don’t want to do that. Since it is difficult to find anyone to do plaster work, I think I am just going to address it myself with some of the new products that are out there.
But my real question is the floor. I loathe the sheet vinyl. Not only is it not to my taste in any way, but it is now over 30 yrs old, and cannot be cleaned properly because the surface is worn. I don’t want to spend significant $$ replacing it, because if I ever get to actually remodel the kitchen the floorplan will change, and $$ spent on it will be completely wasted. So I recently found out that vinyl floors can be PAINTED!!
Has anyone ever actually done this?
Never painted them, but many years ago I covered a vinyl floor (1 layer) with patterned stick on vinyl tiles. They had a very strong adhesive and lasted quite a while.
Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, my mom painted the won out linoleum floors in our kitchen and entryway. They definitely looked much better after that! Make sure the floor is properly prepped so that paint would not peel.
For plaster walls I have used a system called Glid-wall, it is also known as Nu-Wal, and may have other names. It was originally made by Glidden (hence the “Glid” in the name).
It’s a thin fabric made of spun fiberglass. You put a coat of paint on the wall, stick the fabric on the paint, then paint over the surface to saturate the fabric. It drinks paint, but you wind up with a smooth crack-free defect free surface, and it keeps the plaster underneath from deteriorating. I’ve installed probably several thousand square feet of this stuff, it does a great job:
https://www.abatron.com/product/nu-wal-plaster-restoration-system/
As for the floor - I just can’t see having a painted floor in a high traffic area like a kitchen. I would probably go with a low-end vinyl product like TrafficMaster Allure vinyl planks, which has lots of tile and wood patterns to choose from, and runs less than $2/square foot. You can put it right over the old vinyl floor, and it floats so there’s no gluing to the floor and it’s easy to remove. The planks themselves stick to each other to form a watertight floor. It’s an easy DIY project, I’ve installed thousands of square feet of this stuff as well, in both the wood and tile styles:
I did the exact same thing that mominva did in my laundry room/mud room over the 1950’s linoleum that was there. It’s been at least 10 years and the peel & stick tiles are holding up extremely well. It gets a lot of traffic as it’s the room off the garage and also has a door leading to our deck - which I use to let dogs in when it’s raining or snowing. H did all the work and it cost about $150 in tiles.
Stick on vinyl tiles are the flooring of choice in many research labs in my neck of the woods. They seemed to survive a lot of abuse.
I have been considering some kind of stick-on tiles or Allure, but I don’t particularly like any of them, and given the color of the cabinets–a golden oak, yuck–almost nothing looks good with it. Also, the room is pretty big, with a complex floor plan. I did recently find a dark slate look-a-like groutable stick-on tile that might do the trick. More expensive than painting, but not horrendous.
@emilybee @BunsenBurner @greenwitch @tx5athome (I hope I didn’t miss anyone). So far the various contractors and designers have been happy to take a look at my Pinterest saves. I feel like I’m not using Houzz well. Hopefully we’ll make some decision in the week ahead!
For anyone looking for glass tiles and mosaics (even custom mosaics) have you seen this site?
I follow her on Facebook and love the designs and colors.
@Mom22039 That site is amazing, thanks for posting that!
Holy cow, that is a lot of nice tile to drool over! Thanks for the link.
@Mom22039, thanks for posting that link. Backsplash and mosaics are next on my list for our kitchen remodel. I am loving the curved milk glass tile.
it is too nasty to do anything outside today, so we will hit the Home Show happening downtown. That will give us some remodel ideas.
My dear talented sister came to stay with me after my heart attack, and one of her “I have to do this!” projects was replacing the carpet in my family room (20+ years old and the victim of too many doggie political statements) with Allure planks. We put it down over cement, so the floor is a pretty hard surface, but it’s ok with us. I wanted something cheap and dog-tolerant, knowing that if we ever sell, we’d need to upgrade the floors anyway. Five years later, it has held up well, and the biggest plus was that our dear dog no longer liked the surface, so she refused to pee on it! 
Cost for a 13x19 family room was under $700. She moved the furniture, pulled the carpet, re-leveled the floor, laid the Allure and moved furniture back in. In 24 hours. My neighbors all wanted to hire her. <3
What an amazing sister!
That she is! DH and I have seriously considered paying her and her H to come out and do the major work on our MBA. That is, if I could tear her away from her adorable grandbabies!