What tear-out of an old countertop involves before new stone goes in

Six feet of laminate held down with caulk and a few screws can come free in under an hour, while the same run in tile on a mortar bed can eat most of a morning. Every teardown temecula countertop installers sky high picture show has logged shows the same thing: the old top decides how long the day runs, and the new countertop cannot be measured honestly until the old one is gone. In Temecula, CA, that often means a kitchen built in the 1990s with a tile or post-formed top.

Plumbing disconnect comes first

Before anything is cut, the water is shut off at the angle stops under the sink and the supply lines are loosened. The faucet comes off, the drain assembly gets unscrewed from the basket, and the disposal is dropped out of the way. A drop-in or undermount sink is usually held by clips or silicone, so a thin knife is run around the rim and the clips are backed off before anyone pries. Rushing the plumbing disconnect is how a supply line gets bent or a drain trap cracks.

Cutting the caulk and the adhesive

A top is rarely held by one thing. There is a bead of caulk along the backsplash, construction adhesive on the cabinet rails, and often screws driven up from the corner blocks. The crew scores the caulk with a utility knife, finds the screws from below, and works a flat bar under the front edge in short pulls. Laminate lifts in one piece if the glue lets go evenly. Tile has to be broken up with a hammer and chisel, and the mortar bed under it can run an inch thick.

Lifting the top in sections

An old granite or solid surface top is heavy and brittle. It gets cut at the seam or scored at the sink cutout so it comes out in two or three pieces instead of one. Two people carry each piece out on edge, because a slab with a cutout cracks at the strip in front of the sink.

What shows up underneath

The surprises sit under the sink. Water from a slow drip over the years leaves swollen particleboard in the sink base, sometimes soft enough to push a screwdriver through. In Riverside County homes close to Murrieta Creek or the Santa Margarita River, where the ground stays damp in wet years, cabinet bottoms can also show old moisture lines. The crew notes any rotted board and marks the repair before stone goes near it.

Getting the cabinets ready for the new slab

With the top out, the cabinet tops get scraped clean of adhesive and old caulk so the new slab can sit flat. Loose face frames are screwed tight and any damaged rail is replaced or sistered. The wall behind is checked for bowing, since the template for the new top follows what is really there, not what the plans showed. A clean, flat, plumb base is what lets the templater take an accurate measurement on the next visit.