Services
Worktop replacement
Swapping tired laminate for stone without replacing your kitchen. The old tops come out in the morning and the new surface goes down the same day, on the units you already have.
You like the kitchen. You do not like the worktop
The doors are fine, the layout works, the appliances are where you want them. It is the surface that has had ten years of chopping boards and hot pans on it. Replacing just the worktop leaves the units, doors and appliances exactly where they are and changes more about how the room reads than anything else you could do to it.
It is a different job from a new kitchen, though, and the differences matter. The template has to be taken with the old worktop still down, the whole room has to come apart and go back together inside a single day, and the units underneath are an unknown until the old top comes off.
That last point is why we survey properly and tell you at template if we can see something that needs a joiner or a plumber first. Discovering it on the day, with your sink in the garden, helps nobody.
At a glance
- Units
- Kept, not replaced
- Changeover
- Out and in on the same day
- Before we arrive
- Services disconnected by a plumber
- Kitchen out of use
- The day, plus the evening for reconnection
Fitted 3–7 working days from template. Deposit at template, balance before installation.
What is involved
The same-day sequence
Everything below happens on one day, which is why the preparation the week before matters more than usual.
- 01A week or so before
Template with the old worktop still down
We template on and around the existing surface and work off the unit line, allowing for the difference in thickness between laminate and stone. Nothing is removed at this stage. You keep a working kitchen until fitting day.
- 02Your trades, beforehand
You have the services disconnected
Before the morning of the fit, a plumber disconnects the tap, waste and anything plumbed under the top. If the hob sits in the worktop, an electrician isolates and disconnects it. This has to be finished before we arrive.
- 03Morning
The old tops come out
Laminate is usually both screwed and glued to the units from underneath and it often has to come out in pieces. Sealant lines are cut and the bottom row of tiles is freed. This is the messiest hour of the job.
- 04Morning
The units get inspected
The moment the old surface is off is the first honest look at the carcasses. Levels are checked, fixings are checked, and anything soft or unsupported is dealt with before stone goes anywhere near it.
- 05Afternoon
The stone goes down
From here it is a normal installation: scribed to the walls, bedded and levelled, joins pulled and sanded flush, sink and hob seated and sealed.
- 06Evening
Your plumber reconnects
Once the sealant has had time to cure, the tap, waste and appliances go back on. Book them for the end of the day rather than the middle of it.
The honest bit
What older units can throw up
Stone is considerably heavier than laminate, and a carcass that has carried laminate for fifteen years has not been asked the same question.
Units that were level once and are not now
Floors settle, adjustable feet drop and a run that was true when it was fitted can be several millimetres out a decade later. We level and pack on the day, but a run that is badly out will still read badly against a straight stone edge.
Water damage under the sink
A slow leak swells chipboard and MFC carcasses from the inside, and a soft carcass will not carry stone. It has to be repaired or replaced first. This is the single most common thing we find when a laminate top comes off.
Base units that were never fixed to anything
Older kitchens sometimes have base units resting in position rather than screwed to the wall or to each other. Under laminate that is survivable. Under stone it is not, and they have to be fixed properly before we fit.
The bottom row of tiles
Laminate usually runs underneath the tiles, so taking it out damages the lowest course. Expect to re-tile that row, or move to a stone upstand or a full-height splashback cut from the same slab run, which covers the gap and removes the grout line for good. Plenty of people take the second option once it is explained.
An existing Belfast sink
If you are keeping one, the stone is cut around the sink as it sits. If the sink is out of level, a straight stone edge above it will show it. We will tell you at template whether it needs resetting first.
What the old top was hiding
Bodged cut-outs, sagging spans, a section of unit propped up with packers. None of it is dramatic and all of it is fixable, but it is better named at template than discovered at ten in the morning.
Before the day
Your side and our side
Two trades have to happen either side of us. Book them before you book us.
Sorted before we arrive
- Tap, waste and any under-worktop appliance disconnected by a plumber
- Hob isolated and disconnected by an electrician if it sits in the worktop
- Base units emptied completely: we need to work inside them and fix down through them
- A clear route through the house and somewhere to stack the old worktop as it comes out
- Your plumber booked back in for the end of the same day
Not part of our job
- Disconnecting or reconnecting water, waste, gas or electrics
- Replacing, repairing or re-levelling kitchen units, though we will tell you precisely what needs doing
- Guaranteeing tiles survive the removal of a worktop that is glued underneath them
- Making good plaster, tiling or decoration after the changeover
Questions
Worktop replacement: the questions we get asked
If yours is not here, ring and ask. You will get a straight answer rather than a call-back from a salesperson.
Can I keep my existing sink and tap?
Often, if they are in good order. But an inset sink that sat in laminate does not always suit an undermount cut-out in stone, and an old tap is a false economy when the hole is already open and everything is disconnected. We will give you a straight view at template.
Will my existing units take the weight of stone?
Sound carcasses that are properly fixed to the wall will. Chipboard swollen by a leak under the sink will not, and units that were never fixed down need fixing first. We check at template and tell you what has to be put right before fitting day.
How long will I be without a kitchen?
The day. The old tops come out in the morning and the new stone goes down the same day, but the sealant needs to cure before the plumber reconnects, so plan an evening without a working sink rather than a week.
Will I have to re-tile?
Usually the bottom row, because laminate normally runs under the tiles and taking it out damages them. Stone upstands or a full-height splashback cut from your worktop batch cover that line and remove the grout joint entirely, which is why a lot of replacement customers go that way.
Where this happens
Worktop replacement in your part of London
Twelve neighbourhoods whose housing stock throws up this job most often. Each page covers what worktop replacement actually involves in that stock: the access, the era of the building and what that does to the work.
These twelve are a sample, not a coverage boundary. We work in 723 Greater London neighbourhoods and out into Surrey, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Essex.
Next
What usually happens either side of this
Every job runs through more than one of these. Follow the thread rather than guessing which order things go in.
Next step
Send us the kitchen and we will price it properly
Plans, a sketch or photographs with rough run lengths is enough to start, even with the old worktop still down. Nothing is payable until we template.