Countertop Installation and What to Know
Countertop Installation and What to Know
Installing new countertops can seem daunting, even if you’re not doing the installation yourself. If you’re new to stone countertops, you might have even more questions. Stone is heavy, and the installers can’t cut holes for cooktops until they finish putting in the countertops. What about backsplashes and other areas of your kitchen?
Reasons to Install New Countertops
New stone counters update your home’s look, giving it a modern appearance with a beautiful focal point. Even if you choose a quartz or marble countertop with a subtle pattern, you’ll change the entire character of your kitchen or bathroom.
A bland kitchen becomes a magnificent part of your house with new countertops. If those counters are stone, they’ll add a subtle or noticeable pop to your space, depending on what style you choose. Since stone is far more durable than laminate, the new countertops will increase the value of your home.
Preparation
You can help installers greatly by cleaning out your kitchen. If possible, you can also remove the old counters, put them outside, or toss them.
Wait—isn’t this something the installers would do? Perhaps. They’ll likely charge an extra fee for the removal, but it might be worth doing it yourself, depending on how handy you are.
You can also clear a path from the doorway to your kitchen, so the installers have a safe way to maneuver each countertop through your house. Cover your furniture with tarps to avoid getting dust from cutting the stone all over it.
Don’t forget to remove everything from your cabinets. If your flooring needs protection, cover it up with protective plastic before they arrive.
How Long Does Countertop Installation Take?
It depends on a variety of factors, including the size of your kitchen or bathroom, the sizes of each countertop, and how complicated any cutouts are. Since we do custom stone counters, a full installation can take anywhere from a few hours for a small kitchen to an entire day for a large, more complex kitchen.
Countertops
The first thing your contractors will do is measure your kitchen or bathroom and create a template. No wall is straight, and no corner is exactly 90 degrees, so they use these measurements to tailor the stone to your space before installing it in your space.
After cutting them to precise specifications, the installers will bring the counter pieces into your house and lay them on your cabinets, sealing any visible seams with epoxy. After that, they’ll scrape excess epoxy off and use what are known as “Bondo blocks” to attach the counters to your cabinets.
Cooktop Cutout
Your installers may need to cut your cooktop hole on site because a heavy stone slab with large holes can crack or break during transport.
Installers will usually create notches where the cutout needs to go to get things started. However, they can’t complete the cutout until they’ve installed the countertops in your kitchen.
This is why you should ensure you cover everything you don’t want stone dust to get on. While we work to ensure we do most cuts before delivering your countertops, we sometimes have to make further cuts on site.
Seams and Backsplashes
We touched on seams earlier, but how do installers ensure that any seams in your countertops are invisible?
They’ll use a mixture of clear epoxy and colored epoxy to match the color of your counters, making the seams blend in as smoothly as possible and making each of your countertops look like one solid piece of stone.
They may need to make minor cuts to your backsplashes on site to ensure it fits as tightly as possible before putting them in. They’ll then fill and seal the seams the same way they will for the horizontal flat countertops.
Ultimately, you’ll get counters and backsplashes that look as though they were all cut from a single piece of stone.
What Should You Do Before and During Installation?
If you have questions, ask us before we come to install your counters so you get answers and reassurances before it’s too late to make changes.
Once the installers are there, your best bet is to leave them to do their work. These kinds of installations require heavy concentration, and the more you interrupt them, the longer the installation will take.
Final Thoughts
Replacing old countertops with custom stone improves and updates your kitchen or bathroom’s looks, increases your home’s value, and reduces the amount of maintenance to keep your counters looking great.
Give us a call today to learn more and request a quote!
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