Getting an Austin Kitchen Ready for Countertop Installation Day
Installation day is the shortest part of a countertop job and the least forgiving. By the time the crew backs a truck up to a house in Austin, the stone has been templated, laid out, cut, polished and wrapped, and the only things left to go wrong are the things in the kitchen itself. Most delays on site trace back to the room, not the slab. These questions come up before nearly every install, and the answers come from the shop and the carry, not from a brochure.
What has to be removed from the kitchen before the crew arrives?
Everything that sits on the old counters, and everything inside the cabinets directly below the sink and cooktop. Dishes, small appliances, the knife block, the soap, the toaster and the stack of mail all go somewhere else. The crew needs the whole surface bare and the floor in front of the cabinets clear, because a long piece of stone is carried flat across that floor at the last step and there is no room to step around a stool.
Under the sink needs the same treatment. The plumber, or the installer, has to reach the shutoff valves, the drain and the supply lines, and a cabinet full of cleaning products makes that slow. Old garbage disposals, water filters and dispensers tend to be the items that surprise people. Anything attached to the underside of the old top, or hanging from it, is part of the job and gets planned for before the first piece comes in.
Who disconnects the sink, cooktop and dishwasher?
The stone crew sets stone. Disconnecting and reconnecting plumbing, gas and electrical is usually a separate trade, and the line between the two should be settled at the template visit, not on the morning of the install. A drop-in range or cooktop on gas needs a licensed person to cap and restart the line. A dishwasher needs its supply and drain disconnected, and it often has to be pulled out so the new top can sit over the space.
In an older house near Zilker or Hyde Park, the shutoff valves under the sink may not have been turned in years and can seize or drip when they are finally moved. It is worth turning each one a few times the week before, so a stuck valve is found while the water can still stay on for the rest of the house.
Does the old countertop come off the same day?
In most cases the old top comes off the morning of the install, which means the kitchen is without a counter for several hours. Laminate tops are usually screwed up from below through the cabinet frames and glued along the back. Older stone tops can be heavy, bonded with construction adhesive, and sometimes cracked, so the removal is slower and needs two or three people. Tile counters are the messiest, with grout dust and a mortar bed that has to be chipped out before the cabinets are level again.
Taking out the old surface also reveals what the template could not show. A cabinet that was hidden under a thick edge can turn out to be lower than its neighbor. A wall behind a backsplash can be out of plumb. The crew checks level once the old top is gone and adjusts with shims before the new piece goes anywhere near the cabinets.
What condition do the cabinets need to be in?
The cabinets carry the stone, so they have to be square, level and fastened together. Face frames should be screwed to each other, and the base boxes should be screwed to the wall studs. A run that has pulled away from the wall, or a box that sags at one end, will pass the eye but fail under the weight of the new top, and the first sign is usually a seam that sits slightly proud of the surface.
Much of Austin sits on clay that swells in a wet spring and shrinks in a dry August, so a cabinet run can move a little from one season to the next. Houses east of the Balcones Fault, where the clay is deeper, tend to show this more than houses on the limestone to the west. A level that sits flat on a base cabinet in March can show a gap by the end of summer. Shimming handles most of it, and a run that is out by more than the thickness of the slab edge needs the cabinets adjusted first.
How wide does the path into the house have to be?
Wide enough for the longest piece, turned on its edge, with room on each side for the people carrying it. A top for a long wall can run eight or ten feet. It travels on edge, upright, on an A-frame cart or on the shoulders of the crew, and it has to clear door frames, light fixtures, stair rails and the corner of a hallway.
New homes in Mueller and other recent developments usually have wide doors, open plans and level driveways, and a long piece moves in a straight line. Older bungalows are the opposite, with narrow doors and porch steps, and the route is measured at the template visit so the shop can decide whether to cut the top in more pieces. A clear path is worth the effort the day before: move the patio furniture, pull back the entry rug, take the shoes off the stairs, and prop open any door that will be used more than once.
What happens to pets, children and the rest of the household?
They stay out of the way. A saw is not normally running in the kitchen, since cutting is done at the shop, but the crew does use a grinder, a polisher and water on site for small adjustments, and a piece of stone can drop or swing. A dog that wants to follow the crew through a propped door is one of the most common causes of delay. Cats slip out. Children underfoot make a heavy carry dangerous for everybody.
The simplest plan is a closed room or a day somewhere else for the animals, and a house with one door in use. Dust from the cleanup is fine and can be wiped away, but the slurry from wet polishing stains fabric and rugs, so anything soft near the kitchen is better moved away.
How long are the seams and edges worked on site?
A seam takes time because each side has to be leveled, the gap has to be filled with resin tinted to match, and the joint has to be clamped and left to firm up before it is shaved flush. Heat matters. Austin summers run long and hot, with highs of ninety degrees or more on more than one hundred twenty days a year, and resin sets faster in a warm room, which leaves less time to correct a joint. Many installers plan the seam work for early in the day, when the house is still cool.
Edge work is mostly done in the shop, but corners, returns and the seam ends are finished on site, with the same diamond pads used on the table. A waterfall edge on an island is the slowest piece, because the vertical leg has to be set, checked for plumb, and joined to the top at the miter without moving the pattern.
What should be checked before the crew leaves?
Run a hand along every seam and edge and feel for lips. Look across the top at a low angle, with a light held flat, so ripples and high spots show. Check that the sink and cooktop openings have an even reveal around them and that the faucet sits square in its holes. Open every drawer and door under the top to confirm nothing binds, because a thick edge can catch a drawer front that had clearance before.
It is also the right time to ask how the stone should be cleaned and when a sealer, if one is called for, goes on. Granite and quartzite usually take a sealer. Quartz and porcelain do not. Marble and soapstone behave differently from both, and the instructions depend on the stone, not on the shop. Photographs of any chips or flaws, taken before the crew leaves, make a later conversation simpler.
A good install day is a clear route, level cabinets, a bare surface and a plan for the plumbing, and the stone does the rest.