New Kitchen Counter top Installation: Lessons Learned

When we purchased our cottage overlooking Lake LBJ in the Texas Hill Country, I noticed that the laminate counter top in the kitchen was loose and lifting up a little bit. I pressed it back down in an effort to push the thoughts of a new counter top expense out of my mind.

For the next two years, I wondered if the original counter top material from 1970 was hidden underneath the current laminate counter top. Finally, I could not take the suspense anymore and lifted up the laminate just a bit more to take a peek and a large piece of the counter top cracked off in a terrible way. “Uh oh, my husband is going to kill me,” is all I could think about. When he came home I tried to tell him that someone broke into the house and stole the counter top… but that is another story all together.

One nice surprise was that the original counter top was underneath the laminate. It was a very cool avocado green laminate from 1970; however, it could not be restored because it was covered in a sticky adhesive.

So the process began to fix what my curiosity had destroyed. The new counter tops had to fit in to the overall cottage style of the home but also had to be practical (i.e. no bright white grout) and economical because it is our lake cottage, after all.

What I found out was that most everything other than 4 x 4 standard white tile was expensive. So, we decided that we would do what we could to save money. The first thing we tried was to take off the rest of the original laminate ourselves. This did not work because the laminate was so brittle that it was breaking off in tiny pieces every time we tried to pry it away from the adhesive. We gave up on this task very quickly.

Next, we decided that we would act as general contractor. When we tried to start the process and order our own counter top material, we could not accurately measure the amount of square footage. Plus the whole bullnose/linear footage issue and the area around the sink really got us confused.

Finally, with our tail between our legs, we took the walk of shame into the Home Depot. They presented a seamless transaction where they would have their installers handle everything from measurement to delivery and installation. After going through the whole Home Depot process, we learned that it was not seamless and the process was riddled with frustration. After eight hours of listening to the almost unbearable sound of a wet tile saw, I decided that there was no easy, painless way to have new counter tops installed.

The good news is that the finished product looks great and it changed the whole appearance of the kitchen. It was definitely worth all the effort and I would highly recommend taking the plunge.

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