New Countertops

My wife is making me remodel our Kitchen, and since we are doing it, I am pretty much replacing/have replaced everything. One of the last things to do is replace the counter tops. We have them on order and should arrive in about 3 weeks. My question is. How do I get the old countertop off? I am assuming that they are only glued on, but you know what the say when you assume something. Any tips/tricks would be greatly appreciated.

FB, your countertops will be screwed down, obviously from the bottom up. LOL So you’ll probably need to take out your drawers and empty your cabinets. Where your countertop joins each other, there will be 3 bolts that hold them together…IE corners … The only sort of glue you might have will be possibly some silicone where the backsplash meets the wall. Just take a razor blade and cut where they meet, so your not peeling your sheetrock. If you run into any problems and need some help feel free to PM me. Oh yeah disconnect your sink too it comes out much easier

Take the drawers out and look in the corners of the base cabinets. On most cabinets theres eighter wood or steel gussets in the corners. You can then see where they are all located and what kind of head in the screw is used. Leave the gusstes in for the new counter top. If theres a 90 degree corner, two 45’s there will be up too 4 bolts with clips on the bolts in grooves that hold these two 45 degree secions together. You can take out the screws from the gussets that hold the top down to the base cabinets and slide the whole top forward so you can get at the bolts in the 45 degree section easier. When putting the new top back on alighn the pieces square on the cabinet and where the backsplash meets the wall stand a pencil on end and run it along the wall so that the pencil leaves its mark on the top of the backsplash of the countertop. The reason you do this is because if theres any deviation in the wall this line will be there to sand to it so that when you finially do mount the tops it will be a near perfect fit to the wall. Ive seen times when no caulking was needed. If you look on the back of the back splash theres about a 3/8″ lip that used just for this reason of transfering this line and sanding to it. You can use a beltsander or a disc sander to sand to this line, it sands reasonably fast. This is very im portant! remember to use screws that aren’t too long so when your putting them through the gussets and into the counter top they wont come up through the counter top and throught the surface laminate and ruin it. Message me if you have any questions, i’ve installed lots of tops.

you could also shoot a pm to stickboy, i am sure that he could tell you exactly what you need to know and how to do it.

shane

Thanks for the info. That should save me a whole bunch of time, and money. Since I shouldn’t need the big hammer.