Need some insight ....

[Troy Burnette]

Guys , look at the cabinets ... the front goes all the way up , in one piece .... They do not want to tear out which I understand . They want to put the granite on top , which is really not a issue with formica .. The tile has a bunch of hills and valleys , and they dont want to run a piece of trim to hide the gap , when we have to jack it up to get it level ...

They might be open to laminating , but just wanted to see if yall have run across these type of cabinets before , and what yall did ....

Thanks for some input

[dustinbraudway]

Simple

Scratch up the tile really well. Find the high spot screed off it. Or just pour some selfleveling cement on it. Custom or Mapei has some decent stuff. You might have to prime it first. It will be dead flat. Set your tops. Run some trim where the top meets the cabinet.

[Eddie Blanco]

i would do as dustin said, but do a mitered edge

[GbD]

what about the wall tile? is it staying and the granite is butted up to it?

looking at the big picture, by the time you scuff, level and scribe to the back wall, you've added more to the cost than ripping the old stuff out.

I generally explain it this way- we can work around the stuff you have and get it installed, or we can remove the existing tops and resplash the back wall so the finished product will look like the house came with granite when it was built.

One thing working to your advantage on removal is the 1x4 trim banding. if you are careful removing it, it could be reinstalled to (1) cover any gaps between granite and cab (2) cover what is most likely unstained cabs behind it. this seems the best option to me.

[kevinp]

Remove the tiles, plane the edge band down and install granite, or build up to edge band with plywood.

[steven nenzel]

don't see any reason why you could not rough up the tile, put down a skim coat and install on top with a laminated edge. It does look like you could be opening a can of worms to take it off as it does not look like a trim piece but part of the cabinets (at least on the back countertops). They must have recessed plywood inside the cab. Very strange way of installing tile.

Nearly all the countertops we demo out here on the west coast is tile. I have never seen it done this way.

[Joe Little]

call Granite Tranformations

I would take out the tile, mark a level line all the way around the edge of cabinets and sand them down level. add filler strips where needed and set the tops. That would at least make it a one day job, maybe a long one day job

[Dan R.]

I would set it over the tile and then put in a trim granite fascia strip to cover in gaps in the horizontal joint.

[Troy Burnette]

Thanks guys ... as always great comments !!!

[Todd Luster]

I'd pull the trim, set the tops over tile with laminated edge, then slice trim down to what is necessary to cover and slide up to stone. Wood is already stained to match, so simple.

[kevinp]

Todd, it's not trim, it's actually part of the cabinet facing.

[Todd Luster]

Okay my bad
Or my a d d

I just glanced at the closeup of the island.
Okay not as simple.
Id prolly shoot for a drop mitre.

[topshop]

I hope the people who live there are tall. There is already 2" above the dishwasher height and another 1.25" will make for some tall tops.

I'd be tempted to hammer out the tile and plane down the edge - but stone on top of it all would be way easier and save your hands from tile shards. I hate removing even mormally installed tile tops because the punks who put them in always screw the plywood from the top.

[DavidL]

I have run across this. I advised them that with the thousands of dollars they are about to invest in us to the do the job right, they should also invest in tearing out the tile as well. Do they want you to do the job right or add a bandage over what they already have? By using that line of reasoning the customer tore out the tile prior to us coming in to template.

Kitchen tearouts are livable when you work with the issue. Need a sink? Easy put a piece of plywood down and throw the old sink back in. Same for the cooktop area. The 2 jobs we templated in the last five years with tops in place were two of the worst jobs we have done. They cost us more time on install due to notching around unforeseen items to make things fit correctly. And the overhangs were never perfect because we were working with old tops inplace during meaurements. When we tearout a laminate kitchen two of us show up, tear it out, template, then place everything back down - we don't bother screwing the tops back in place but they are sitting where they were to being with. We charge for this, and then the customer has a working kitchen while we fab.

[Joshua Hopkins]

What David said. charge accordingly.

[pkomorowski]

I wouldn't try removing the old. You could try thinset to adhere the stone to the old tile, which should even out any minor differences in tile height.