We received an email from a kitchen designer to see if we were interested in a rush job for a kitchen in Minneapolis. The job was a structural piece that would be a combination of a bar top, decorative feature and the back wall of a kitchen sink. We said sure. We received the drawings via email and the phone number of the client and we were off to the races.  Size, color, weight, texture, thickness and aesthetics were all discussed. 

The piece was to be very much off the sidewalk look with a smooth bar top and edge. It was shaped like a wedge or large angle bracket and stand on an edge that was about 8” thick. Talk about top heavy. The piece was to be braced to the kitchen floor and the cabinetry where the back side would be seen and used in one area as the back of a stainless steel custom made sink. The piece was 8’ long. The top was 3” thick by 24” in depth. The weight came in at 2000lb +. None of this was a challenge for our shop. The installation was another story. The client was building on the 7th floor of a downtown building which was the top floor. The client was supplying the crane to get it up to his balcony and we were going to figure out how to make it happen with a crew the client hired and our ingenuity.

The piece turned out to be massive as requested and looked great. When we arrived at the condo the crane was waiting as well as the crew. We set up traffic control cones and block the sidewalk but we could not shake the folks wanting to walk thru anyway just to see what we were up to. The condo had a 36” door from the balcony to his living space  and there was some floor protection for the carts etc needed to move the piece trough the living area to the kitchen. Thank goodness it was an open floor plan. We provided additional winches and transmission jacks as well as a heavy duty cart to accomplish the task. The client had his crew build a ramp from the edge of his patio railing to the entry of his living room. We all knew that it was a steep ramp and that any premature release would send the piece careening into the living room and make one heck of a dent in his floor or worse. With six guys and 4 on lookers with cameras the process started slowly. Once the piece was through the door it had to be jacked up so it could be slid onto the cart. This took blocking and jacking again and more blocking until mission was accomplished.

The piece came in top side down as the best way to place it, was to flip it right side up at its proposed resting place. We had brought a couple of foam cushions for this process. The foam was of high density and about 18” x 18” x 5’ in length. The counter was slid off the cart as close to the cabinetry wall as possible with out risking knocking it into oblivion or so far away that human power would be needed to put it in place. The crew lined up to push the piece over onto the foam blocks for the first phase of the somersault. Then they checked the proposed landing area again, adjusted the massive object to insure success and then lined up again for the final thrust into position. Wha Lah !!

Once we had it in place then came the bracing and the damage control of all the hefting, shifting and clunking. Two pieces at the corners had broken and were noted to patch. Luckily it was to be distressed concrete. Then it was lunch time for all which meant beers all around. What fun and what a learning experience. The client was ecstatic and we got some great photos to share.