Possible to remove granite w/o damaging cabinets?

Anonymous
We really want to add an island to our kitchen, but I'm worried about lack of room. Another option is to add a peninsula instead.

But I have no idea where the granite for our kitchen came from to try and match it. And I'd actually be happy with changing it. So I'm wondering if we could remove the granite counter top that is there, without having to replace the cabinets. Then we could add the peninsula and put on new counter tops.

Does anyone know if this is possible?
Anonymous
You'd have to get someone in to take a look. Most countertops are glued down which means when removed they could rip up the cabinets. If you're not concerned about the granite then I'd guess you'd have an easier time. We are in the opposite situation ... want to change cabinets but are ok with the granite. No one will warrant that the granite won't get broken so we're stuck with what we've got!
Anonymous
Granite Countertop Removal.

I predict this will be a million-dollar-business opportunity in the next 3-5 years, when people start realizing their kitchens look like graveyards.
Anonymous
Ha ha too funny

ITA about granite -- yuck
Anonymous
I would think so. What about the backsplash? that would need to be considered. I would post your question on gardenweb.com kitchen forum to get a detailed answer(s). Search first as i'm sure others have considered this.
Anonymous
Ah, getting rid of the backsplash is another perk of this option. It's the one thing I really dislike about our kitchen. I can live with the granite they chose, even if it isn't one I would have picked out myself. But they cheaped out on the backsplash and just did 12x12 tiles of the same granite. Yuck.

Thanks for the tip about gardenweb. I'll check that out.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:You'd have to get someone in to take a look. Most countertops are glued down which means when removed they could rip up the cabinets. If you're not concerned about the granite then I'd guess you'd have an easier time. We are in the opposite situation ... want to change cabinets but are ok with the granite. No one will warrant that the granite won't get broken so we're stuck with what we've got!


You could reface the cabinets.
Anonymous
We had to have granite removed because the fabricator totally F'd it up (Best Granite and Tile in Springfield totally sucks! We won our case against them in Small Claims Court but that's another story). To get it removed, I provided waiver to the company that was providing the new counter top that I would not hold them responsible for any damage to the cabinets. We were lucky that only about 1/2 the countertop was glued so removal was not difficult.
Anonymous
The DIY bloggers, John and Sherry Petersik, just recently did this as they are renovating their kitchen mostly by themselves. Here's a how-to guide on how they removed the old granite countertops (they replaced it with Corian, but had a professional installer install the new counters):

http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/11/were-now-officially-sinkless/

And they're even selling their old granite countertops on CL. How's that?

In any event, you can see how they did it and figure out if it is something that you're willing to do yourself, or contract to have done for you.
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