Recplace Countertop under Appliance Gara
The kitchen has 2 L shaped counter tops. Both of the about 6ft on each leg. They are now laminate.
One of then has a diagonal corner with an appliance garage. The sides of the upper continue down to the counter top to form the garage. So it is not separately removable.
When I was looking at it the plan was to leave the CT so I did not look at it in great details. But now he wants to replace it. But it was built in 87 and I susepct that the cabinets are nailed in so that I don’t think that the cabinet will come out easy (0r all without some damage). And being a corner unit at least one other cabinet will also have to come out.
It is just a plain CT with separate tile for the backsplash.
What is involved in getting the old out. Can thesetypically be removed with some some prying, cuting into section, and last, but not least LOTS AND LOTS of cussing?
How difficult is it to slip a new one in. I suspect that he wants to go with stone or solid surace, but not don’t realy know at this time.
Replies
Be sure that your bid is about 10 times what you think it might need to be.
Yes, you'll need to remove multiple cabinets in order to get the appliance garage out of the way. Then you need to look inside the base cabinets to find the screws that hold the CT down. Remove them, and the old CT.
Then put the new CT in. If the new CT is EXACTLY the same thickness as the old, you'll be OK.
Now here's the big problem. If the thickness is different, then the appliance garage will either hold that cabinet up too high, or not high enough. You'll have a choice of modifying it, or or removing and re-hanging all of the other wall cabinets.
Since I can't look at the appliance garage, I can't say how easy (or even how possible) it will be to modify it. But it's a safe bet that this is not a sawzall-and-caulk job. Doing it right might involve temporarily mounting the cabinet, so that you can mark the scribe line.
Good luck.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
If the old tops are screwed down from inside the cab. Then pulling the screws & sliding the tops out should be fairly easy. I have run into this situation many times before. Probably the worst case is the tops being glued down, even nailed down under the lam. is pretty easy.
It just requires some time getting underneath & prying lightly and slipping in the sawzall or a hacksaw blade.
If the new top is also lam. the thickness should match, if they go stone or solid surface, shim the tops up from underneath. The resulting gap is usually not noticable,but you could run some scribe trim under the tops if needed.
My experience with jobs like this is to do everything short of removing cabinets as the cab. & trim are usually painted in place and removing them creates bigger problems.
You might as well start the cussing now, just in case. You may not have to remove the cabinets for the new top. Many of the older laminate counters are built up 1/2" on top of the cabinets to allow for the dishwasher. This will mean a gap of 1 1/4" under the garage.
Is the laminate top mitered in that corner? There will be some joint fasteners in the miter underneath. The top will also be screwed, often through a filler and through corner blocks or webbing. You can get the fasteners out, sawzall at the sink and probably pull the tops out. Don't forget the DW is attached too. You may be able to leave the cabinets but you also may have to fill the space under the garage. Maybe just a molding will be needed around the garage, after the new tops are in. Hopefully the previous installer didn't have a tube of construction adhesive.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
I did a job just like that not too long ago. One of the big questions is... did they use screws or finish nails to install? On my job everything was finish nails, and it came out easily. I poked around enough to find the fasteners, determined that they weren't screws, and then used my collection of polite, flat pry bars to ease the the appliance garage cabinet out. Sometimes the older laminate counters are done in place, with the substrate nailed down before the laminate is glued on. In that case you can't see fasteners, but the tops will come out with some careful prying.
In some ways it's even easier if there are screws. Take 'em out and the cabinets come out. Either way, it's a good job to do with no time pressure and plenty of patience.
The main problem will be if they used glue.