What is holding formica top to kitchen cabinet?

[eganders]

We are to have granite installed in our 8 year old kitchen. Our present counter top is formica with wood trim. For the life of me, I can't see what is holding the counter top to the Merillat solid hickory cabinets. I am looking under the cabinet at the particle board substrate and see no fasteners. In pulling up on the top it is obvious that something is holding the top onto the cabinets very well and evenly across the length. I would like to remove the top myself since the cost for the installer to do it is between $600 & $700.

What do you believe is used to attach the top to the cabinets?

[buffalobill]

maybe construction adhesive

[Pat]

Nails/screws from the top. Maybe some glue too. I like to cut the countertop into pieces about two feet wide and remove it a small section at a time. If two feet is hard to remove try 1 foot.

[ameijers]

More than maybe- on an eight year old house, anything BUT construction adhesive would be unusual, especially by a chain builder. It is a major PITA to install all those screws from below. I should know, as the kid on site back when I worked construction, those were the type of duties I got stuck with.

As to how to remove- some stanley wonder bars, some blocks, a bigass mallet, and lotsa luck. Start at a corner, tap a bar in till you can lever it enough to get a block in, and then move down and repeat. Note that the blocks don't have to be real big, just enough to put leverage on the next pry point. Odds are you will destroy the counter (in case you were thinking of reusing it in the basement or lake cabin), and end up with lumps of adhesive on the carcass frames to scrape off. Good thing they are real wood cabinets, not the chipboard crap. I've seen those fall apart if you torque on them too hard. There will be some scarring on the cabinet top edges, but the new countertop should hide it okay. If you get any splitouts, wood glue and some touch-up finish before new top goes on should do the trick.

aem sends...

[JH]

The outside wood that you see is the edge banding. It can be removed with a wonder bar and a hammer. The formica is is glue to the particle board. The particle board is then nailed to the top rails of your cabinets. Most likely there are some addition 1x2 under the particle board which are also nail.

[ameijers]

Uh, no, other than maybe on a site-built countertop for a weird situation. Formica, substrate, and edging, are almost always premade off-site, in the biggest segments 2 men can lift and get through the door. Applying laminate in the field is a major pain. Since top is premade, and screws there may be are from bottom up.

aem sends....