How it works
Replacing your countertops and keeping the cabinets.
Plenty of kitchens do not need a remodel. The cabinets are solid, the layout works and the floor is fine. It is the laminate, the tile or the tired granite on top that has to go. That still means things come out, the kitchen goes out of service for a stretch and a few decisions come before anyone measures. Here is what comes out, what can stay, and the order the work runs in.
What has to come out?
The new stone sits directly on the cabinet boxes. Anything between the boxes and the new top has to go.
- The old tops. All of them, whether laminate, tile or stone. Stone does not go over an old counter.
- The sink. A drop-in sink lifts out of its hole. An undermount sink is fastened to the underside of the old top and usually leaves with it. If you hope to reuse a sink, say so before anything comes apart.
- The faucet and the connections under the sink. Supply lines and the drain have to be disconnected before the top can lift.
- A drop-in cooktop. It sits in a hole in the counter, so it comes out with the counter. A freestanding or slide-in range just rolls forward.
- Often, the bottom of the backsplash. More on that below.
What can stay?
The cabinets, floor, walls, lighting and refrigerator are untouched. A range slides out and back. The dishwasher stays in its opening. It is unfastened from the old top and fastened again once the new one is set.
The tile backsplash is the open question. Tile is usually set down onto the counter, so pulling the counter out from under it can crack the bottom row. The new top is also rarely the same thickness as the old one. Thinner leaves a strip of bare wall under the tile. Thicker runs into it. Some backsplashes survive. Many need at least the bottom row redone.
The other option is a splash cut from the same slab, low or full height. There is a full height one in the photo on our West Hartford page. Backsplash height is cut into the stone, so it has to be settled before templating.
Can your cabinets carry stone?
Stone is far less forgiving of the cabinets under it than laminate. Laminate flexes a little over a low spot. A slab does not. It bridges the gap and puts its weight on the high points.
The figure the industry works to comes from the Marble Institute of America, now part of the Natural Stone Institute: cabinet tops within 1/8 inch of flat and level across 10 feet. Older houses settle, so a run that looked fine under laminate can be well outside that. The honest check is a long level or a laser across the whole run once the old tops are off.
Two other things to look at while the boxes are bare:
- The sink base. Years of small leaks soften the cabinet floor and the rails. A box that is swollen or soft has to be repaired before stone goes on it.
- Anything that wobbles. Each box should be screwed to the wall and to its neighbors. Small differences in height get shimmed. Bigger ones are carpentry.
As our process piece puts it, countertops are cut to the cabinets that exist, so the cabinets have to be set and shimmed first.
Does the template happen before or after tear-out?
This decides most of your downtime. A replacement can run in two orders.
Tops off first, then template. The template is taken on bare cabinets. Every problem in the boxes shows up before a saw touches the slab. The cost is that the kitchen has no counters through the whole fabrication stretch.
Template over the old tops, tear-out on install day. The kitchen stays usable until the stone arrives. The risk is that anything wrong underneath is found on install day, with the stone already cut.
Our pages say we template on your cabinets, in your home, because the stone is cut to the boxes that are really there. Which order your kitchen runs in is something to settle when the job is quoted, so nobody is surprised by how long the room is down.
What has to be decided before templating?
Everything that becomes a hole or an edge. Stone is cut once.
- The sink, on site. Not ordered, on site. Cutouts are made to the actual bowl. If you are switching from a drop-in to an undermount sink, the cutout changes entirely.
- The faucet and every extra hole. One hole or three, a soap dispenser, a filtered water tap. A hole drilled in stone is there for good.
- The cooktop, if it drops in. Same rule as the sink. The cutout is made to the model.
- Edge, overhang and backsplash. These are cut into the stone, not adjusted later.
- The slab itself. Chosen in person, at the yard. If you are still deciding on a material, our five question chooser narrows it fast. There are longer pieces on quartzite and granite, marble, quartz and quartzite, soapstone and porcelain.
Who may disconnect the gas, water and power?
Connecticut answers this in its licensing law, chapter 393 of the General Statutes.
- Gas and water count as plumbing. The statute defines plumbing and piping work to include gas, water and associated fixtures and piping. Disconnecting and reconnecting a sink, or the gas to a drop-in cooktop, is work on exactly those fixtures and pipes.
- Hardwired appliances count as electrical work. Electrical work includes any appliance or fixture that uses electrical energy.
- A license is required. Section 20-334 says no person may do that work without one.
- Two exemptions matter in a kitchen. Section 20-340 exempts people working on a single-family home they own and live in, provided the work is inspected and approved by the town building official and meets the State Building Code. It also exempts installing a household appliance at an outlet or connection that a licensed person already put in.
In practice: unplugging a range is not licensed work. Reconnecting the sink drain and supply lines is, unless you own and live in the house and do it yourself under inspection. A gas cooktop sits close to the appliance exemption, so if you are not sure which side of the line yours falls on, ask your plumber or your town's building department. Settle who handles the disconnect and the reconnect when the job is quoted, so that person is booked around install day.
How long is the kitchen down?
Here is the sequence. The kitchen loses its counters at step 3, or at step 7 if the template is taken over the old tops.
- Choose the slab. Kitchen fully working.
- Get the sink, faucet and cooktop on site. Still working.
- Disconnect and tear out. Sink and cooktop disconnected, old tops and any affected backsplash removed.
- Check and fix the cabinets. Level, shim, repair the sink base if it needs it.
- Template. Taken on the cabinets in your kitchen.
- Fabricate. Cut, edged and polished in our own Hartford shop. This is the longest stretch. Our process piece calls the whole gap between choosing the stone and the truck arriving a few weeks.
- Install. Our own installers set, seam and seal the stone. Every natural stone is sealed before installation.
- Reconnect, then finish the wall. Sink, faucet and cooktop go back in. Tile goes up after the stone is set, because it is cut to the gap between the new top and the uppers.
We do not put a day count on this page. The honest number depends on the stone, the shop schedule and which order the template runs in. Ask for your dates when the job is quoted.
While the sink is out, the dishwasher usually is too, since it drains through the sink plumbing.
What should you do before install day?
- Empty the counters and the sink base. Everything off the tops and out of the cabinet under the sink.
- Clear the path. From the door to the kitchen. The pieces are heavy and awkward. Access matters more than people expect.
- Be home for the end of it. Look at seam alignment, overhang and how the cutouts meet the fixtures while the crew is still there.
People also ask about dust. Cutting stone releases crystalline silica. Our cutting, edging and polishing happen in the shop, not in your kitchen. When a cut does have to be made on a job site, OSHA's construction silica standard sets the control for a handheld saw: water fed continuously to the blade.
Start with a sketch and three model numbers
Bring a rough drawing with the longest run measured, a photo of the cabinets and the model numbers of the sink, faucet and cooktop. With those we can show you slabs that fit and where any seam would fall.
We work all over the area, including Middletown, West Hartford and Glastonbury. Come to Airport Road and walk the yard, or tell us about the kitchen and we will get back to you within one business day.