Installing Granite Countertops

Not many years ago we were marveling at marble vanity and granite kitchen countertops in those put-on-the-booties tour houses. Today the availability of quarried, dimensional stone has brought new meaning to hard surfaces in many more homes.  

A small sample of the counter material helps when making decisions about overhangs and transitions.

Although granite is tougher than marble, which is not common in American kitchens, it occurs naturally in a range of hardness. Most can still be scratched by knives and other kitchen utensils. Also, granite is porous and must be sealed to minimize staining and to keep it from becoming a bacteria-growing science experiment.  

Carefully label the location of templates.

The big custom counter fabricators have stockpiles of quarried rock slabs, which they fashion with laser templates and computer-guided milling machines. Obviously you can’t just whip out your woodworking tools and cut a chunk of rock for your next countertop, but there are some options available.  

After hot gluing template pieces together, an additional bead of hot glue applied in a caulking-like bead helps reinforce the connection. 

“You can buy $20,000 in tools to be set up like a caveman,” according to one of my friends in the business. But he doesn’t like to talk about the pre-cut and edged counters available, which is probably what you would install in your home.

Love the look of Corian®, but don’t love the cost?  Well DIY solid surface countertops can be an extremely affordable and elegant option with material from SolidSurface.com.  Using basic woodworking skills and tools, you too can install your own custom solid surface countertop, desktop, bathroom vanity, laundry prep areas, shower walls, or other surface of your choosing. Click here for more information.  

Score some thin plywood with a utlity knife and snap it off.

I received a $6,200 bid for a custom installed countertop in our kitchen using mid-range stone. I can buy enough pre-bullnosed rock here in town for about $2,500, which leaves about $3,700 for tools and labor. However, the finished product depends a lot on kitchen design. Seam locations and limitations on shapes and sizes may dictate whether or not the counters should be custom-fabricated and installed.  

A template method known as “sticks” traces the perimeter of the cabinet with thin plywood strips.

In general, dimensional stone gets quarried to either a 2- or 3-centimeter thickness. Three-centimeter tends to be more expensive but it has better structural strength, and the edge can be shaped without additional help to give it depth.  

A grinder head smoothes and shapes the cut made by a cutting wheel.

The 2-cm stone is the thickness that is more economical and tends to be readily available for the non-professional installer with pre-finished edges. The edges on 2-cm counters receive a build-down treatment to give them the look of added bulk. Sometimes the edge is mitered, which gives it a square look and hides the seam well. More often, however, a strip of granite is cut and glued to the underside of the edge, and then a heavy-duty router cuts it into a bull-nose shape. The edge seam may be visible to the critical eye.  

Specialty tools like this stone router are among the least expensive of the tools found at a stone fabrication shop.

These pre-fab counters also have a single-thickness, polished edge on the back side, which can be cut along the length of the counter and used as a matching backsplash.  

Use a straight razor blade to test that the pieces are on plane. If the end of the blade bumps into the edge of the stone, it is too high.

The 2-cm counters need to be supported with plywood sub-decks for added structural strength. Overhangs are usually supported with corbles or cantilevered steel rods.  

A two-part epoxy with counter-matching colorant can be mixed on a scrap of cardboard.

Wtih the countertop slabs in position, the expoxy is mixed and spread along the adjoing edges.

Cabinets should be very flat, level, well anchored and sturdy. It should be obvious to the most casual observer that big pieces of rock are heavy.  

After the pieces are joined, excess expoxy is removed to the level of the tape.

Regardless of the grade of granite you buy for your project, it’s still pretty expensive material. That’s why many installers make templates of wood strips or heavy paper to eliminate measuring mistakes. Wood templates have the advantage of holding up well in a wet saw environment, but you a can use roofing felt pieced together with duct tape as well.