How to delete a Page layout in Master page and layouts library in SharePoint 2010/2013

On activating a feature, a new page layout will be deployed to the Master page and layouts library. On the other way, when I deactivate the feature the solution should delete the deployed page layout and associated content types etc so that I can ensure that no turds are left in the farm.

But to my surprise I was not able to delete the page layouts I created either through code or manually in the document library. It was throwing a very misguiding error "Server error: This item cannot be deleted because it is still referenced by other pages".. After spending a hour or so I figured that there is no page in my site referencing this Page Layout.

Deletion Approach:-

If you have created any custom pages using above created custom page layout. Then before deleting custom publishing page layout. Delete all create pages then it will allow to delete custom page layout.

Alternative Trick…

But how do I delete it then?. There is a trick to do it.
1. Open the Master page gallery in windows explorer mode.
2. Create a subfolder and name it 'Delete' (you can give any name to it).
3. Cut and paste your layout.aspx page to the folder.
4. Delete the folder now.

So we confirmed that manually we were able to delete the page layouts. Lets try it programmatically.

SPWeb web=properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb;
SPSite sitecollection= web.site;

PublishingWeb web=PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);

SPFolderCollection folders=web.Lists["Master Page Gallery"].RootFolder.SubFolders;

SPFolder folder =folder.add("Delete");

PublishingSite psite=new PublishingSite(sitecollection);

SPContentType ctype=psite.ContentTypes["SampleCType"];

PageLayoutCollection pagelayouts=psite.GetPageLayouts(ctype,true);

PageLayout layout=pagelayouts["/_catalogs/masterpage/SampleLayout.aspx"];

layout.ListItem.File.MoveTo(folder.url+"/SampleLayout.aspx");

folder.Delete();