We are to have granite installed in our 8 year old kitchen. Our
present counter top is formica with wood trim. For the life of me, I
can't see what is holding the counter top to the Merillat solid hickory
cabinets. I am looking under the cabinet at the particle board
substrate and see no fasteners. In pulling up on the top it is obvious
that something is holding the top onto the cabinets very well and
evenly across the length. I would like to remove the top myself since
the cost for the installer to do it is between $600 & $700.

What do you believe is used to attach the top to the cabinets?

maybe construction adhesive

Nails/screws from the top. Maybe some glue too. I like to cut the
countertop into pieces about two feet wide and remove it a small section at
a time. If two feet is hard to remove try 1 foot.

"buffalobill" wrote in message
oups.com...
maybe construction adhesive

More than maybe- on an eight year old house, anything BUT construction
adhesive would be unusual, especially by a chain builder. It is a major PITA
to install all those screws from below. I should know, as the kid on site
back when I worked construction, those were the type of duties I got stuck
with.

As to how to remove- some stanley wonder bars, some blocks, a bigass mallet,
and lotsa luck. Start at a corner, tap a bar in till you can lever it enough
to get a block in, and then move down and repeat. Note that the blocks don't
have to be real big, just enough to put leverage on the next pry point. Odds
are you will destroy the counter (in case you were thinking of reusing it in
the basement or lake cabin), and end up with lumps of adhesive on the
carcass frames to scrape off. Good thing they are real wood cabinets, not
the chipboard crap. I've seen those fall apart if you torque on them too
hard. There will be some scarring on the cabinet top edges, but the new
countertop should hide it okay. If you get any splitouts, wood glue and some
touch-up finish before new top goes on should do the trick.

aem sends...

wrote:
We are to have granite installed in our 8 year old kitchen. Our
present counter top is formica with wood trim. For the life of me, I
can't see what is holding the counter top to the Merillat solid hickory
cabinets. I am looking under the cabinet at the particle board
substrate and see no fasteners. In pulling up on the top it is obvious
that something is holding the top onto the cabinets very well and
evenly across the length. I would like to remove the top myself since
the cost for the installer to do it is between $600 & $700.

What do you believe is used to attach the top to the cabinets?


The outside wood that you see is the edge banding. It can be removed
with a wonder bar and a hammer. The formica is is glue to the particle
board. The particle board is then nailed to the top rails of your
cabinets. Most likely there are some addition 1x2 under the particle
board which are also nail.

"JH" wrote in message
news:hNXzf.140955$WH.19674@dukeread01...
wrote:
We are to have granite installed in our 8 year old kitchen. Our
present counter top is formica with wood trim. For the life of me, I
can't see what is holding the counter top to the Merillat solid hickory
cabinets. I am looking under the cabinet at the particle board
substrate and see no fasteners. In pulling up on the top it is obvious
that something is holding the top onto the cabinets very well and
evenly across the length. I would like to remove the top myself since
the cost for the installer to do it is between $600 & $700.

What do you believe is used to attach the top to the cabinets?


The outside wood that you see is the edge banding. It can be removed
with a wonder bar and a hammer. The formica is is glue to the particle
board. The particle board is then nailed to the top rails of your
cabinets. Most likely there are some addition 1x2 under the particle
board which are also nail.
Uh, no, other than maybe on a site-built countertop for a weird situation.
Formica, substrate, and edging, are almost always premade off-site, in the
biggest segments 2 men can lift and get through the door. Applying laminate
in the field is a major pain. Since top is premade, and screws there may be
are from bottom up.

aem sends....