This week in the ongoing kitchen renovation chronicles: new counters! This spring I wrote a post about what we were thinking for counters, and asked for your feedback. We ultimately decided to go with what I’d had in mind all along, which is white corian counters. Corian is solid surface, which means that stains and scratches can be sanded away if needed. It has a reputation for being very durable and low maintenance, and it’s also quite affordable as far as counters go — we paid $1,033 for 30 square feet, taking advantage of a 10% off sale.
We bought the counter through Home Depot, and then they contracted with a local company to do the fabrication and install. (Update: I should have mentioned that I started by using Home Depot’s countertop estimator tool to get an estimate for the work, and then I went into a Home Depot in person to buy it. They required me to draw a picture of the counter with dimensions in more detail than the online estimator tool ever asked for, so I was glad I came prepared with my own sketch –that’s definitely a tip if you go this route too! Also the estimator said that the cutout for a top mount sink was free while in the store they had a fee associated with that, so I had to argue for them to honor the online information, which eventually they did.)
A month ago I posted about the templating process, which involved taking precise measurements:
The counter was ready for install 12 days later, but they could only install on a weekday so we needed to wait some time before I was able to take a day to work from home.
Before installation, though, we had to prep the room by taking out all the drawers and removing the old counter and sink ourselves (we could have paid for them to do this, but we wanted to save some money). Let me be clear: this was our first foray into plumbing of any kind, and neither of us had any idea what we were doing. First we turned off the water, and then the power to the garbage disposal.
We really didn’t know how to remove the garbage disposal, but we ended up following the process laid out in this video. I disconnected the wires from the disposal switch, and then we worked on the plumbing. It was a little more complicated than we expected because we couldn’t get the coupling off of the pvc drain pipe connected to our garbage disposal, so I ended up having to saw it off with a hand saw…not exactly best practices, but there didn’t seem to be any other way.
Here’s a dramatic reenactment (the expression on Sam’s face when he walked into the room and saw me sawing was horrified enough that I didn’t feel like asking him to take a photo at that moment was a great idea).
And here’s the fruits of my sawing:
The removed disposal, with PVC pipe leftovers
Once the garbage disposal was out, we were able to undo the clips holding the sink to the counter. We were sure to salvage the garbage disposal drain from the sink so we can reuse it in our new sink.
With the sink out, we were able to remove the counter. First we pried the backsplash portion off with a hammer and screwdriver.
It was screwed in from below, so we just took out the screws with a screwdriver and then carried the counter out to our bagster.
Even though I scored the caulk along the edge of the counter with a utility knife, I obviously didn’t do a good enough job since some of the sheetrock ripped as we removed the counter:
We’ll be tiling along here, so it’s a pain but not the end of the world.
We made a really strange discovery in the corner space that’s only accessible with the counter off:
Why someone would throw a little plastic stool in there before sealing up the counters is beyond me.
A few days later, the counters were delivered and installed! It only took about 30 minutes and the guys were great.
They screwed the counter in from below, and dry fit our new sink just to be sure it fit in the opening (the task of installing the sink was all ours).
The new sink we got is the same dimensions as the old sink, but single basin — we never used the second basin in our old sink because we dry our dishes in a dish rack next to the sink, and the garbage disposal was connected to only one basin so that’s the one we relied on for washing dishes. It was impossible to soak large pans because they didn’t fit in either basin, and so the idea of a single large basin seemed like heaven. I picked out an affordable one with faucet included from Home Depot:
It’s not exactly the most beautiful, but this renovation has gone over budget in other areas and we need to choose where to invest. We can always upgrade the faucet or sink down the road if I really want to, but really it’s just fine and for $199 it was hard to beat the price.
Installation was harder than I had hoped, but ultimately successful. First I installed the garbage disposal drain in the sink (rather than the drain kit that the sink came with), which I secured down with some plumber’s putty.
Once I put the drain apparatus on from below (just reverse engineering what I had removed from the old sink), the excess putty squeezed out — it was pretty cool.
I just scraped that away with a flathead screwdriver. After that I just followed the instructions that came with the sink, but the clips to hold the sink down to the counter from below proved to be extremely difficult to use. Cramming yourself inside a sink cabinet and then trying to operate tiny little hardware up in the narrow crevices around the sink just isn’t easy. We got 6 of them in, though, and then called it quits.
It was easy to get the water hooked back up. The garbage disposal was a little tricky because of my drain-cutting decision. First I needed to cap off the part of the drain that had connected to the second sink basin, since our new sink only has one drain. I used the saw to remove the bend in the pipe:
And then used a cap that I’d gotten at Home Depot, secured with some pvc cement.
To connect the second line back to the garbage disposal, first I had to remove the portion still attached to the disposal:
I did that with a complex configuration of wrenches and clamps to apply pressure in opposite directions and get just the coupling ring to turn:
Eventually it loosened, and I was able to remove it. Whew! To prepare the drain pipe for the disposal, I had to make a clean cut with the saw right before the elbow piece, then attach a new elbow piece, a short straight length, and then a new coupling to attach to the garbage disposal. I secured it all with pvc cement.
I really have no idea what I’m doing, but nothing seems to be leaking so hopefully that was an acceptable method.
The last step was to rewire the disposal to its switch, turn back on the power and water, and give it a try! Everything seems to be working well for now, at least!
Unfortunately I don’t have that many great photos to show you, as our kitchen is currently a disaster zone — I moved everything out of the dining room to start installing the floor, and now we are living with this:
The floor installation is a harrowing and depressing story for another day, but in the meantime here are some counter/sink photos to tide you over:
Ignore the torn sheetrock and focus on the luxuriously large sink. K thx.
As you can see, we still have the blue counter on the island — we’ll be doing butcher block there eventually. But the room already looks to much brighter with the new corian counters, and a week into having them I’m still really liking the material (obviously time will tell).
Oh, oh, I have questions! How much did you save doing demo yourselves? Did they offer the option of leveling your cabinets? Is your dishwasher connected to the cabinet or the counter?
I want corian (in white, too) and have noticed our sink cabinet is almost 1/4″ taller than the rest of our cabinets (wha???). Our fugly laminate counters just lump up then down to get over the hump (although I think the counters on the other side drop only 1/8″ instead of 1/4″). I’m just wondering how to get this leveled for installation.
When I got my corian counters (also contracted through Home Depot), the fabricators came and took care of EVERYTHING. I had formica there originally, which I took out myself, and they lasered out their dimensions in what looked like a very high-tech I-don’t know what you’re doing- kind of way. I also had uneven base cabinets, and wall tile already in place that I didn’t want to mess with. The counter they made fit perfectly. It couldn’t be any more custom to the area. I wouldn’t hesitate to have a corian installer come to your house for a consultation and they can assuage your fears.
I’m not sure if this is the right way, but I’d suggest removing and cutting/sanding down your sink cabinet, because otherwise you’re looking at adding shims or removing every other cabinet and raising them. I can’t think of why the sink cabinet would be higher unless they were custom built? It sounds like someone else made a mistake and then decided not to fix it!
Oh yeah, my house is all “made a mistake and decided not to fix it.” For example, they used 4″ dryer duct for the range hood instead of the standard 6″ (or 3×10 rectangular).
Hahaha, glad I’m not alone 🙂
Thanks Mary and Lindsey for your helpful advice! Stacey, I just looked back at Home Depot’s countertop estimator tool (which is what I used to price out the project — I should add that link to the post!) and they charge $13 per square foot to remove and haul away a stone or tile counter and $8 per square foot for other surfaces. So in our case, we saved about $225 doing the removal ourselves.
The counter place told me that the counters needed to be totally level before install, so it’s super helpful to hear Mary’s great experience with them doing the leveling too!
The white counters are gorgeous!
Thanks Bonnie!!
Great looking counters. The kitchen is looking so much brighter . I love the sink – we installed a double ( one large and one small sink ) , and I have never been totally satisfied – now I am thinking that sink would work just fine in my kitchen . However , I will not be doing the plumbing – bravo to you .
Thank you! Let’s see how the plumbing holds up before I accept too many kudos 🙂 But I’m loving the single bowl!
I’m sorry the floor installation continues to be a bear. Glad you were able to figure this all out and make it work. Progress. . .
Thanks — never a dull moment 🙂
Looks like a LOT OF WORK. My 86 year old husband is tearing out our OLD kitchen flooring right now! Got the new stuff picked out yesterday. What a lot of work and mess. Like I always say, “You never own a home, once you get a house, it owns you.
That sounds about right! Good for your husband, I’ll let Sam know he has a lot to look forward to! 🙂
I’m trying to remember how old my friend’s daughter is–she was two when they installed white Corian countertops, and I think she’s forty now, and the Corian still looks good. 🙂
Love to hear that!!
I was surprised to see you swapped in a replacement for that old corner cabinet without commneting on it. How nice that it fits so well! However, I would recommend, as long as you are playing Tetris with your cabinets, to swap it with the one directly to the right of it (with a big single door). Reaching into that corner to deal with two little doors is going to be aggravating in years to come. I had a kitchen with a single-door corner cabinet, and it worked really well.
Also, nice counters!!
Although – the wood of your cabinets looks super nice now that the blue counters and purple painted walls have been replaced with neutral cream/white – would you reconsider not painting them?
Thanks for the tip!!
We will still need to paint the cabinets so that all the new cabinets we’re building elsewhere in the kitchen will match and feel more cohesive. Otherwise how will be hide all the cabinet frankensteining we’re doing? 🙂
Hmm, I had thought all the frankensteining was limited to the fridge wall – just paint that. Like those kitchens where the butler’s pantry cabinets are a different color, or when there’s a “special” wall of cabinets off to one side – which that wall totally is.
I mean, it would save a bunch of work if you are OK with the wood cabinets (naturally I am looking at internet photos, so if they are loathsome in person, I can’t tell). Or at least, you could *start* painting cabinets by doing only the fridge wall ones. Then if the other cabinets look great as-is, you are done. Or if the other cabinets are crying out for paint, you can proceed…
Alas, frankensteining everywhere! 🙂 The island is two cabinets formerly from the buffet so I need to add a plywood backing to it so it looks like one piece, and I need to build a shelf or wine bottle holder on the main set of cabinets to go under the overhang where the new counters extend 10″ longer than the old counters so that the outlet in the post is usable. That’s okay, since we’re using different counter materials I think painting everything is going to lend a much more cohesive feel so it all seems intentional and not like I added on a pantry wall separately.
We bought that exact same sink and it’s not just you- those clips were a complete nightmare! We had the worst time installing it and ended up chipping away at the counters from underneath to toggle it into place. We’ve since talked about replacing our counters but I can’t bear to reinstall the sink. It looks nice and is so useful having a single basin! I never used the baskets that came with, so I finally threw them away two years later!
I’m so glad it wasn’t just me being an idiot with those dang clips! I don’t really know what to do with the baskets, I’ll probably toss them too!
Smart choice on the single basin… you will LOVE it. I don’t know why anyone would do anything else on a remodel.
Thanks Joanna! I have family members who love their double basin, but it just isn’t what we need for how we do dishes!