Countertop Removal and Installation

Two Days That Bracket the Template

Removal comes before the template where we can arrange it, and installation comes a week or two after. They are the same crew, the same job, and both of them go smoothly or badly depending on how honest the template was.

Taking the Old Tops Out

Old laminate comes out in pieces and is mostly a matter of not damaging the cabinets underneath. Old stone is heavier and more careful work, because a granite top is usually bonded to the cabinet run with silicone and adhesive and it does not want to come off cleanly. On a long run we cut it into liftable sections rather than trying to lever a full slab free, which is how cabinet faces get torn.

Before we arrive, the sink and faucet need to be disconnected by a plumber and the water shut off at the stops. A cooktop needs to be disconnected too. We are countertop fabricators and we do not touch gas connections or hard wired appliances, and any shop that tells you otherwise is doing something it should not.

With the old tops off, we get the first honest look at the cabinets. That is the moment we find that a run is out of level, that a cabinet was never fastened to the studs, that there is water damage under where the old sink sat, or that the wall behind a backsplash is bowed by more than the new tops will hide. Every one of those is far cheaper to find now than on install day.

Cabinet Prep

Cabinets have to be level and in plane before stone goes on. Not level to the eye, level across the run and level front to back. Stone will not flex to accommodate a low corner, so a top set on an uneven run either rocks, or it sits on high points and takes a load it was not designed for. That is how a top cracks at a sink cutout months later.

Shimming is quick work. We shim, refasten anything loose, and check the whole run again. If a base cabinet has been damaged by a long term leak we will say so and stop, because there is no point setting a new top on a soft cabinet.

Install Day

The stone arrives cut and polished. If the template was accurate and nothing in the room moved, the pieces drop into place with only minor scribing at the wall.

Order of work on a normal kitchen: dry fit every piece and check the reveals, scribe where a wall demands it, set the pieces in adhesive, then pull the seam together. A modern seam on quartz, done with a seam setter and colour matched adhesive, should be something you can feel with a fingernail and struggle to see from standing height. It will never be invisible, and any fabricator promising invisible is setting up a disappointment.

The undermount sink is bonded and clipped from below. On a heavy cast iron or fireclay basin we support it properly rather than relying on adhesive alone. Then the faucet holes, the overhang supports if the run has them, and a final level check on every piece.

Silicone at the wall goes in last. We leave the offcuts and the small pieces with you if you want them, because a spare piece the same batch and the same slab is genuinely useful later.

Curing and the First Week

Do not sit on the overhang, do not load the tops heavily and do not run water at the seam for a day. Adhesive keeps curing after we leave. Natural stone that needs sealing gets a first seal from us and a plain explanation of when to do it again, which for most granite in a Riverside kitchen is once a year and for a lot of quartzite is less often than the internet claims. Engineered quartz does not need sealing at all and anyone selling you a sealing package for it is selling you nothing.

Call (951) 741-0206 to book removal, installation, or both.