The countertop installation process, from the first measure to the last wipe-down

You are not buying stone. You are letting strangers take a saw to the middle of your house. Here is exactly what happens, in order, so nothing on the day is a surprise.

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The countertop installation process in five steps

Step one — the measure. We come to you, measure the existing kitchen, look at the cabinets, the sink, the cooktop and how the stone will get into the house. It is a short visit — Mike measures, asks what you want, and leaves. Nobody sits in your kitchen for three hours and nobody opens a laptop to run a presentation. You get a written itemized bid by email within same day.

Step two — the template. After you approve the bid and your cabinets are in and level, we come back and template with a laser. Not a tape measure and a notepad — a digital template of the actual room, including the wall that is not straight, because no wall is.

Step three — you sign off on the seam layout. We send you a drawing showing where each seam falls, how the veining runs across it, and how far the overhang sticks out. You look at it. You say yes or you say move it. Nothing goes on the saw until you have signed.

Step four — the shop. We cut, shape and polish in our own shop at 18856 72nd Ave S, Kent, WA 98032. Not a subcontractor two states away. Because the saw is ours, your slab is not sitting in someone else's queue behind forty other kitchens — and if something needs to be recut, it gets recut that day instead of next week.

Step five — install. Our own crew, four people, and for a normal kitchen it is a single day. Old counters out, new ones dry fitted, seam pulled tight and filled with color-matched filler, sink and faucet reconnected, everything caulked, floor vacuumed.

You get your install date at the template visit, before a single cut is made. Not a guess on the phone — an actual date, given once we know whether your slab is in stock and what is already booked in the shop.

How many days without a kitchen

For a normal kitchen your counters are gone for a day, not for weeks. Old ones come out in the morning, new ones go on the same afternoon.

The part people actually care about is the sink. You cannot use the kitchen sink from the moment the old top comes off until the plumber reconnects it, and in a normal job that is later the same day. If a job is going to run into a second day — an odd layout, a wall that has to be dealt with, a slab that has to be ordered — we tell you that at the template visit, not on the morning of install.

Plan on eating out the night of install day. That is usually the whole disruption.

Do I have to empty the cabinets?

Yes — the base cabinets under the counters, and anything on the counter itself.

• Empty the base cabinets under every run we are touching. Stone gets set down hard and cabinets flex.
• Clear the counters completely, including the small appliances and whatever lives behind the faucet.
• Take fragile things off the walls in the room and in the hallway we carry through.
• Leave the upper cabinets alone. We do not touch them.
• Park one car out of the driveway so the truck can get close to the door.

We send this list again the week of install so you are not reading it on the night before.

Who shuts off the water

We do. Our crew disconnects the sink, faucet and disposal before tear-out and reconnects them the same day. You do not need to hire a plumber to meet us, and you do not need to be the one crawling under the sink.

If your shutoff valves are old and seized — common in Eastside houses built before the nineties — we tell you at the measure, not on install day, and we price a replacement so you can decide in advance.

What happens if the slab cracks in the shop

It happens. Stone breaks, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not cut much of it.

If a piece cracks on our saw, or comes out wrong, or does not fit when we dry fit it in your kitchen, we remake it at our cost. You do not pay for the new stone, you do not pay for the second trip, and you do not pay for the wait. You get a phone call the day it happens with a new date, not a week of silence.

If the slab you chose is gone from the supplier by then, we bring you the options in person before we order anything different.

What we do to your house, and what we do not

• We cut off-site. No wet saw in your kitchen, no stone dust in your air vents.
• We put down floor protection on the path from the door to the kitchen.
• You are welcome to watch. We will tell you what we are doing as we go. Nobody will ask you to leave the room.
• We vacuum and wipe down before we leave.
• If we damage something in your home — a cabinet face, a floor, a sink — we repair or replace it at our cost. That sentence is in your contract, not just on this page.

Who you talk to

One name and one mobile number for the whole job. Not a call center and not a shared inbox. You get a text update every Friday until the job is done, even in the weeks when there is nothing new to say.

What is covered after we leave

Our installation carries a one-year workmanship warranty from the day we set the stone. It covers what we control — the seam, the fit, the edge, how the sink is held up, whether the run is level. If something in that list goes wrong inside the year, we come back and put it right, and there is no call-out charge for it.

The stone itself is a different thing. Slabs carry the manufacturer's own warranty, which is longer and covers the material rather than the labour. We hand you that document on install day so it goes into the folder with the rest of your house papers.

Questions about the countertop installation process

Next step

You know how it goes. The next thing worth reading is what happens after we drive away.

Care, warranty and what is covered · See finished kitchens · Book a free measure

Call (206) 643-9354. Message us and you get a call back the same business day.