OT - DIYing Granite Countertops

Has anyone tried DIYing granite countertops. I’m considering replacing my laminate countertops with Granite. It would be a huge cost saving to purchase online and DIY the install while learning something new. Now it seems like the traditional advice was that this is not a DIY thing although this may be a story put out by the granite installers to keep the prices high. Now there are a number of online places selling to DIY customers and also you can buy DVDs on how to work with and fabricate stone based countertops.

One such seller is based locally so the items can be picked up without having to pay for shipping plus they will cut fabricate things like bullnose and polish the counters to your specs.

Has anyone here installed their own granite countertops or even tried fabricating their own countertops. Any pitfall/problems that I should be aware of with this approach.

I service (repair machinery) for several granite shops in n Illinois. Installation is mostly muscle but the details like seams and matching the front edges and backsplashes are what make the difference in installs. Theres nothing real trade specific to putting a top on a set of cabinets. One of the shops i work with started with the two owners who knew nothing of polishing and cutting. The three of us did the first 6 jobs by ourselves- blind leading the blind as it were. They are now the second highest volume in Rockford. Good templates and good clear measurements on everything is the key element of it all. What kind of pricing are yo finding out there? (A) stone here is about $ 55. a square foot. Bullnose and ogee edges are about $35. extra per linear foot. The prefinished 3/4 thick stuff from China is a different story. and stay away from soapstone and marbles for a kitchen. They scratch and stain too easy.

Stop and think. and 18" x 24" x 3" granite surface plate costs about $59. Buy enough to do the counter. Leave them thick, celebrate the joints, and on installation simply shim it flush at the top and front edge.

I don't know what to do about the sink.

Just a lame thought.

Disadvantages:
1. Special tools. Diamond wheels.Polishing wheels.
2. Special expensive edge routing machine with expensive profile wheels if you want anything but a bullnose.
3. Daimond saw blade requires machine capable of wet sawing with flood cooling.
4. Weak. Bump a piece of granite the wrong way and "SNAP". Start over on new piece that you pay for.
5. Gawdawfull heavy. Better have a lot of good freinds.
6. Sink cutout. PITA to drill corners and saw, grind, smooth and polish.
7. Messy.
8. Way more time consuming than other countertops.

Oh, did I mention that it might be a pain in the azz.
I can't think of any do it yourself home project that would be more of a pain than this.
And that includes pouring your own foundation.
There are a lot of granite counter top places around now.
It must be a very competitive business, which means you may be able to shop for a decent price.

...plus they will cut fabricate things like bullnose and polish the counters to your specs.

Click to expand...

If they will do the fabricating for you and you install it, it might save you a very little.
But you will eat any breakage.
Don't do it,
SM

Saw a local professional guy doing a granite countertop one day: he had a large wood router with a diamond bit and a garden hose taped to the router and turned on to provide a trickle of water while cutting out a sink hole in the granite.

Come to think of it, I've seen another guy in a shipyard routing 2" aluminum plate corner prior to welding. He said the router had the power switch lock removed so if it got away from you it would cut out. There was another guy squirting lube from the side.

I don't think I'd do either job but that's just me.

I'm looking at about $28/sq ft for black galaxy and around $26/sq ft for ubatuba - that includes all the fabrication and cutting to spec, bullnosing etc. The only thing it does not include are the cutouts for the sink, soap dispensor etc which they will do for $275 (I believe around that price). I understand that can be done with a grinder equipped with an appropriate blade.

I stopped by to look at the samples they have and it looked good to me - not that I know anything about granite LOL.

I did think that the weight is going to be an issue - will probably have to call a friend to help out.

Density of granite is a little less than aluminum density. Waterjet will cut holes in granite with no problem. Plated diamond wheels to put edging on are expensive and the water flow type router will cost you $200-400. Polishing the edges will cost you some more time and money.

Two ways to cut the sink hole before and after install. Talked to an installer one day who only cut in place. I did see a couple of guys on TV install one with the hole already cut, it looked dicey, all that air holding that heavy stone together.

In one of the homes I did, the granite guy used a black and Decker saw and a Dewalt router with diamond router bit to cut and shape the top. Then the diamond flexible grinding disks to buff the edges. I make plenty of mica counter tops, but do not want the trouble with granite.

Also what kind of sink do you want, if you want the undermount,(most folks do today) you need a finish edge for the sink plus drilled in anchors to hold it.

If it were a plain counter top or an island, I think you would be ok as long as you have a top mount sink.

Around here I think they are very competive in pricing and lower in price, shop around.

Although I have not made any, I have seen some very nice looking concrete countertops. The material is not much but there is some labor. Search on the web.

Was a nice write up on Concrete sinks in Fine wood working. In the last mouth
David/toledo

I had a professional installer for my kitchen---came in made masonite patterns for every piece---brought everything back a week+ later and..explained all the special equipment water cooled etc. that was in his shop and how long the cuts took to make and "finish". The install was the day before he was headed out of town to go on vacation, he came with a helper to muscle the granite which they moved around like it was really fragile. I was interested because I had not seen this done. Several parts were good to go but then we came to one that had to be cut---if he went back to is shop it was going to be a late night---instead he went to his truck grabbed a grinder , laid the stone on two saw horses and in 20 minutes the piece had been recut its full length---dry with an ordinary 4-1/2" angle grinder. It took a lot of the magic and mystery out of it for me so the when we wanted granite in our baths and in a couple of wet bars I decided DIY. So I have done this but relative small pieces---bath counter about 5 feet X 19", two bars 25" X 7 feet. Bath just used one of those vessel bowls that sits on top---all that you need for these style is a diamond hole saw---they are really easy. Each time I bought the stone with main edges that would show already with the bull nose shape. Used an ordinary 4-1/2" angle grinder with a diamond wheel---dry---the wheel has notches not like tile saw which is smooth. Except near the bull nose (they expoxy double thickness) the rest of the slab thickness is only 1" or less. You can polish a cut edge if you need to using a special series of rubber diamond imppregnated polish pads ( E-Bay something like $60 when I bought mine about 3 yrs ago). Did this on one long cut edge that "showed" at back of one of the wet bars. You hold the grinder on edge and cut along a line. I took the guard off so I could see my line (saftey glasses and dust mask) You don't cut all the way though and drag along (like a skil saw) instead you make multiple sort of shallow passes (maybe 1/8 to 1/4 per pass). To make an easy to see line I just used the edge of masking tape placed on the granite. For one of the bars I cut in the opening place for an under mount sink. Again with just the angle grinder working carfully and then using he polish pads to finish the cut out. Laid the sink on top "drew" around it with masking tape----then set another layer of tape neatly inside the original ---this would be the width of the lip--made 4 "plunge cuts at a rough 45 in each corner---then made an "X" from inside corner to inside corner to drop the bulk of the cut out--then started "nibbling" the inside corners until I had a round inside corner that followed the sink profile. On a scale 1-10 project wise granite has been a 4 for me about on par with a tile job but frankly goes quicker--whether I have just been lucky or not it has been pretty easy and fast. We used black and green granite. I found the black is the harder rock (both cut easy enough but the black is slow going if you cut an edge that will show and needs to be polished). I have less experince with seams (I had to cut a long slot to fit around a post in the bar in the basement and then dropped the cut out piece back in the slot from the post to the back edge). Mixed 5 minute epoxy and tinted with grinding dust swept up. Taped both sides. The first batch shrunk as it dried---i had to add another batch which I over filled then trimmed just before it kicked fully hard. let is set some more then polished. Set the heights with dry wall screws run from benath ( the pointed tip can be adjusted just so to raise and support the granite on both sides of seam until a razor blade won't "catch" when drug back and forth---then the seam is ready for the glue "dust" mix. We are thinking about redoing another bath---we will use granite and it will be DIY.

I put in granite in our bathroom. Had a home center get in surplus 8' slabs. 20mm thick by 8' long and they already had a double thickness on the front finished with a bullnose. It went well, didn't have any problems.

Got a dry cut diamond blade of ebay and used a circular saw. Put some ply on top some sawhorses and then a piece of ~1" pink foamboard and then the granite (so you can cut through and still be fully supported). Really doesn't cut hard at all, just clamped on a straightedge, but you could freehand if you had some bow on a wall. Just plunged in with the circ for the sink cutout (we chose a rectangular sink). After all was cut we glued a piece of 3/4" ply on the back with some polyurethane glue.

Any grinding, just use a masonary wheel on a 4 1/2" grinder- we got one of the diamond wheels and it was too aggressive, had trouble with chipping. It's really pretty easy to freehand a roundover, didn't have any problems.

For polishing we got a set of disks of ebay meant for wet polishing and used a random orbit sander (the variable speed porter cable based on a right angle grinder). It doesn't really sling much water up on itself, did get shocked just the slightest bit if I adjusted the variable speed when it was on. Of course everybody says never to do it around electricity, but there's too many lawyers. I'm still here.

Now in my application, I didn't have any seams. I did have to double thickness on cut end of countertop, just used epoxy, it polished fine. Just got it shimmed close and put down a nice bed of silicone on the cabinets. Backsplashes were siliconed to walls and put a thin bead on the bottom to seal against the countertop, but not enough to squirt out the front. Our house is 100+ yrs old so walls aren't real straight, so had some plaster work when done. Could be an issue if you had a real long run.

All in all it was fun and learned a bit of a new trade. Sure looks nice. Dunno on any kind of sealer, anything we've tried that isn't supposed to be horribly shiny has worn off in no time, but it gets some harsh chemicals on it. I know there's some websites out there with diy info, cause that's where I saw how to do it. have a good one.

Good to hear that other people have successfully done this. I have ordered a set of DVDs on working with Granite from an online supplier of tools and materials for working with Stone and Granite. They also have a forum for asking questions on working with granite.

I will also look for other quotes although a local supplier is nice since there is no shipping cost especially given the weight.

It seems like templates are popular in case as mentioned the wall are not square. Not sure if this is something to do with older houses. My house which is 10 years old is not exactly new by San Diego north county standards but still - I measured the angles with a protractor and they are pretty much exactly 90 deg or 135 in the appropriate places.

Two friends who have much newer houses had granite installed as an option. I noticed that in both cases there are seams in the middle of the sink. I guess this makes cutting easier also also you won't have two thin segments bearing the load of the slab.

I guess the main thing is to get accurate measurements to the fabricator.

Granite....
Stock up on glassware, one slip and its broken..no second chance.

The prices sound pretty good. I that 2 cm or 3 cm thick stone? Let them do the sink cutout and make sure they put rebar across the front edge. When we make deliveries here, we clamp 2 pieces of 2- inch angle iron across the counter where a sink is trying to prvent it from breaking. Two schools of thought on seams in the middle of a sink- shorter total seam so its a bit easier to blend it in and it can reduce material scrap. The possibility of breaking in transit goes away too. It is a much weaker front edge of a sink which is the highest use area in a kitchen. None of the shops I work for seam in the sink area. 3 cm countertop is about 17 lb per square foot.
Accurate templates and directions will save everyone lots of hassles. Any changes should be recorded as a change order and written and signed by you and the fabricator. Any outlet cutouts in the backsplash?

The stone is 2cm. And yes there is currently one outlet in the backsplash.

2 cm really needs a laminated edge to make it look substantial. Is that included in the price? Getting the outlet cutouts in just the right spot seems to be the hardest detail my shops run into. Get the orientation and locations well marked. There are lots of countertops coming in sort of pre made from India and China now. They are all 2 cm with built up edges that get cut to fit and handed off to whoever wants to install them Its ok stuff. The corner pieces are usually squares that the long runs but up to making more seams, The pieces arent necessarily cut from the same lot of slabs so color and pattern might not be quite right. Look at that stuff with a sharp critical eye.

No ones mentioned:- make sure the tops of all the base units are straight and level, as a neighbour of mine found out, granite doesn't like any dips or hollows.

Take care. Sami.