Tomorrow the installers arrive to template for the new quartz countertop. That mean that I need to remove the old countertop before they arrive.
Several sections of countertop are easily removed. Just unscrew from underneath, cut off some silicone sealant and off comes the tops.
Then there is the more interesting section, the “L” shape that includes the kitchen sink. My initial hope is to leave the sink in the countertop and remove the whole thing together. This turns out to be more difficult than estimated so I end up removing the sink.
Pulling the sink of course means shutting off the water to the tap. Thankfully, somewhere along the line I’ve installed shutoff valves under the sink so that’s easy. Next is remove the garburator, disconnect the drains, disconnect the tap and unfasten the sink. With all the plumbing disconnected and out of the way the sink pops out without too much difficulty.
The dishwasher needs to be pulled out to unfasten the countertop. This requires disconnecting the water to it in the basement and again some smart guy installed a shutoff valve for that as well so while the sink & dishwasher are disconnected the rest of the house still has water.
The “L” shape comes off in one piece. It’s snug but comes out clean and is now out in the garage.
Tomorrow, after the templates is done I’ll be reversing the whole process to get the countertop, sink, and dishwasher operational for the 5-10 business days before the final install of the new quartz countertop.
So, for the next 24 hours it’s minimal countertop and washing dishes in the bathtub or stock piling them up in the dishwasher.