Help with kitchen cabinets please!

[Steve Paxman]

Removing old tile cabinets to install a nice 3cm slab granite. So, looks like the old tile is just adhered straight to a 3/4" ply substrate, which means the tile is coming off so easy. Awesome.

The plywood, however, appears to be glued to the top of the cabinets. Yep, glued, and stapled (though their aim was off a bit on a lot of those staples, as they missed the cabinets on many). Not just screwed.

So how the heck do I get the plywood off without damaging the cabinets? Is that something that even the countertop people will be able to do if I just pay them? I had hoped to do it myself, because I've noticed that sometimes the pros get in a hurry on demolition and won't be as careful with my cabinets as I want to be, but I wasn't expecting the glued down ply.

Ideas?

[James Baker SD]

I'm sure somebody with experience will have a good idea, but here is the no experience suggestion. Set a track saw to cut just a little less than the depth of the glued on ply. Cross cross cuts on the ply to make it a bunch of little pieces. Chisels those off and carefully belt sand to remove the clinging splinters. Might work.

[Rick Potter]

If it is solid, why remove it? The granite guys are just going to put down more.

[Mike Schuch]

I think 2cm granite gets put over plywood. 3cm is usually put right on top of the cabinets. But I would talk to the granite installers and see if you can just leave it.

[Max Neu]

I agree with just leaving in on there,if it's on there as good as you described.I would take a router and flush trim it even with the fronts/sides of the cabinets and apply trim to the raw edge of the plywood,so it looks like part of the cabinets.

[Pat Barry]

If it is good and solid then I would leave it alone. If you have to remove it, then a few well placed smacks with the hammer / mallet from underneath should get the job done.

[Jim Dwight]

If you remove it, you may have to add support to the cabinets. My last house had built in place cabinets with granite tile counters and the plywood underlayment for the tile was also the top structural member of the cabinets. Normally there would be about a 4 inch wide strip at the front and back of the cabinet to fasten to the counters. But when they know tile is coming, they just switch to a full top and use that for structure too.

Easiest is clearly to leave it. Sometimes granite counters have a built up edge. If yours is getting that treatment, you may need to leave it.

[William A Johnston]

You have got a mess if they have glued the plywood to the cabinets. I have personally tore out 100's of counter tops many just laminate and many with tile over plywood. I have never seen one glued and stapled to the cabinets I guess they did not want the plywood to move so it wouldn't crack the tiles. If you leave this in place your best bet is to trim the cabinets to the counter tops with some scribe molding and then paint or stain to match. The other option is to have an applied edge added to your granite which will make it appear to be 6cm thick and would be very expensive. Make sure you cut out the sink area plywood if you are getting an under mount sink.

You might try to get a shim and wedge it between the cabinets and the plywood top and see if it pops up with out to much effort. I doubt it will.

Good luck and you will love having a granite counter top.

Bill

[Robert Engel]

If it is solid, why remove it? The granite guys are just going to put down more.

Hes got tile on top the surface won't be smooth.

[scott vroom]

Hes got tile on top the surface won't be smooth.

A cup grinder will easily remove old thinset from plywood. Or a hand held rubbing brick if the thinset isn't too thick.

The bigger issue is how to cover the exposed plywood edge. Stone fabricators typically offer an optional applied edging that would cover the ply.

At this point I think the OP is best bringing in the stone guy to discuss options.

[Robert Engel]

You sure do have a mess. I've never heard of anybody doing it that way.

My thoughts would be to cut the plywood as flush as you can to the walls with a skil saw so that all thats left are strips on top of the walls.
You'll probably ruin a few blades if there's still cement on the plywood. And as you can imagine you'll have a hell of a mess, so plan on a plastic barrier to seal off the kitchen.

After you've cut the spaces out close as you can to the wall of each cab unit, then see if you can either chisel or saw off what's left flush with the top of the sides.You could screw a guide horizontally to the wall and use a jigsaw maybe.

If the cabs are particle board (and they most likely are) you may tear it up to much doing it this way.

If this is the case, then you may have to jigsaw off the old plywood and screw on some scabs to bring the install surfaces even.
I would think maybe 1x4's on each side screws together through the cab walls.

It doesn't have to be perfect they will use shims where needed when they install the granite.