Austin · West Lake Hills · Rollingwood · Barton Creek · Lakeway
Countertop Installation and Replacement in Austin, TX
Austin Custom Countertops handles countertop installation in Austin, TX, and is Travis County's trusted specialist in the fitting end of this trade, specializing in laser templating that records a wall as it actually runs, countertop removal that leaves your cabinets and tile splash intact, and seam work bedded down with a vacuum setter. We offer shimming and levelling of a cabinet run before anything is set on it, plus coordination with the licensed plumber who reconnects your sink.
- Licensed, insured & bonded
- Free in-home measure
- One firm written price
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Countertop Installation and Replacement in Austin, TX
Our team provides one firm install date written down at the template appointment, delivering a countertop set, seamed and sealed in a single day for homes and predictable trade sequencing for both residential and commercial projects. The same crew that shoots the template sets the stone, and every piece is cut on our own CNC here in Austin, from one replacement top to a whole house of countertops fitted room by room.
From a circular saw set shallow enough to free an old laminate top without ever touching the cabinet face to a kitchen, bar and bath fitted on one visit, our team handles every detail. Serving Austin, West Lake Hills and Rollingwood, we give the silicone its 24 hours and tell you exactly when the sink can be loaded.
How we work
Licensed, insured & bondedDocumented insurance and permits where the job needs them
Our own shop and crewCNC fabrication in Austin, nothing handed to a third-party installer
One firm written priceThe quote is the number at install, cutouts and edges included
Laser templatingDigital templates off your actual cabinets, so seams land where they should
What actually happens at the laser template appointment
Templating is a measurement, not an estimate. A technician sets up a tripod, a laser unit and a laptop in the middle of the run and shoots the real perimeter of your cabinets point by point, including the wall that is out of square and the corner that is off by a quarter inch. Nothing gets averaged or assumed. A standard Austin kitchen takes about thirty to sixty minutes. A long island, a curved bar or a multi level layout can run closer to ninety.
Three things have to be true before that visit is worth making. The cabinets are installed, fastened and level. The sink, the faucet and any drop in cooktop are physically in the house, not ordered and not chosen from a photograph, because the cutout is built around the actual fixture. And the old countertop is out or scheduled for removal on the same trip.
Four decisions get locked at template: edge profile, backsplash height, overhang depth, and how the undermount sink sits relative to the cutout. Changing one of them afterward is not a phone call. The cut program is rebuilt and the slab is laid out again, which pushes the install date. This is the appointment to be present for.
From template to install day, and what the wait is for
The template file comes back to our own shop in Austin. Before anything is cut, we lay the digital template over the actual slab. That step decides where the seam falls, which part of the veining lands on the island, and whether the busy section of the stone ends up behind the faucet or in the middle of the run where you will look at it every morning. On a patterned slab this is the difference between a countertop that looks fabricated and one that looks designed.
Then the CNC cuts it. Inside corners of a sink or cooktop cutout are radiused rather than left square, because a sharp internal corner is a stress point and stress points are where stone cracks later. Edges are profiled and polished, and the pieces are dry fit in the shop before they go on the truck.
Fabrication of this kind typically runs one to three weeks from template to install. Because we cut here rather than sending the job out, a re-cut is a scheduling problem instead of a shipping problem. You will have your install date in writing at the template appointment.
Taking the old countertop out without damaging the cabinets or the backsplash
Most of the damage in a countertop replacement happens in the first hour, during removal, and it is almost always avoidable. An old laminate top is fastened with screws through L brackets inside the cabinet frame and then glued along the perimeter. Both have to be released before anything is lifted. We soften the caulk line, back the screws out, cut the front edge with a circular saw set shallow and marked out from the cabinet face so the blade never touches the cabinet, and pry over a cabinet side or end rather than over an unsupported span, which is how cabinet top rails get snapped.
A stone top is a different job. A granite or quartz slab adhered to the cabinet boxes will bring the boxes with it if you lever the whole thing, so it gets cut into manageable sections and lifted in pieces.
The backsplash is the honest conversation. If a tile backsplash sits on top of the existing countertop, the bottom course is usually bonded into that edge and rarely survives, and the drywall behind it often needs patching. We tell you which of those two outcomes you are looking at during the estimate, not on the morning of the install.
Install day: shimming, seams, and the sink
Austin cabinets move. East of the Balcones Fault the ground is heavy clay and loam, to the west it is shallow gravelly clay loam over limestone, and in a city that averages roughly 34 inches of rain a year across wet springs and long dry summers, both of those soils swell and shrink under the slab. A ten year old kitchen in Travis County is rarely still dead level. That is not a defect, it is the local condition, and it is the reason a countertop crew that does this every week carries shims and a long level.
We shim from the high point, not from the average. Stone is rigid and does not follow a twisted plane, so setting it on one produces a rocking top, a stressed seam, or a cabinet door that suddenly will not close. The shims are bedded in adhesive and hidden behind the countertop edge.
Seams are placed where they carry the least load and read the least, not where they are easiest to make. The adhesive is a two part epoxy or polyester, tinted on site against your actual slab rather than against a color chart, and a vacuum seam setter draws the two pieces flush before it cures. Polyester goes off in minutes. Epoxy cures harder, sands flush, and handles heat and moisture better. The joint is then tooled and polished back.
The tops bed on neutral cure silicone. Once they are set and the undermount sink is attached, a licensed plumber makes the final supply and drain reconnection. In Texas, plumbing work is licensed under Occupations Code Chapter 1301, and a countertop crew is not a plumbing crew. We schedule around the plumber so you are not left with a disconnected kitchen overnight.
What you can and cannot do in the first 24 hours
Seam adhesive is hard within the hour. The silicone is the slow part, and it is the reason for the one real rule on day one: give the sink twenty four hours before you run water through it. That wait protects the seal under the sink rim and under the countertop edge, which is exactly where a leak would go unnoticed for a month.
Everything else is short. Do not sit or stand on an unsupported overhang, and keep weight off an island edge until any support brackets have fully set. Do not cut directly on the surface, whatever the material. Leave the backsplash caulk line alone until it has skinned. Polishing haze wipes off with water and a soft cloth, not with an abrasive cleaner.
If anything looks wrong, say so that first day. A seam or a shim is a five minute adjustment while the crew is still local and the adhesive is fresh.
What drives the price of a countertop installation
We do not publish a square foot figure, because a countertop is not sold by the square foot in any way that survives contact with a real kitchen. Here is what actually moves the number.
Material and thickness come first, along with whether the profile you want needs a laminated edge buildup, which effectively doubles the stone at the perimeter. Then yield: not how many square feet you need, but how your shapes nest on a slab. A long island can force a second slab even when the total footage barely moved, and a rare natural stone with limited lot availability prices differently from a stocked color.
After that it is the work itself. Number of seams. Edge profile complexity. Cutouts, and what kind, since an undermount sink cutout is polished and supported where a drop in is not. Faucet holes, soap dispensers, cooktops. Whether a backsplash is included. Removal and disposal of the old countertops. Cabinet leveling or reinforcement where the boxes have settled. Support steel for an unsupported overhang. Access, which is real in Austin, from a stair carry in a hillside house to a downtown building with a narrow loading window.
Two costs sit beside ours rather than inside them: the licensed plumber for the final reconnection, and any tile work if a backsplash has to be rebuilt. We say so up front. Everything we control comes back to you as one firm written price after the estimate, and it does not move unless you change the scope.
What install day actually involves
Before we arrive
- Empty the base cabinets and clear the worktops. If a plumber is disconnecting the sink, that needs to happen first thing.
Removal
- Old tops come off and go with us. Laminate usually breaks out; stone comes off in pieces and is heavier than people expect.
Setting and seaming
- New tops are dry-fitted, shimmed level, then set and seamed. The seam is colour-matched and polished flush.
Refit
- Sink and cooktop go back in. Final plumbing connection is done by a licensed plumber, which we can schedule for the same afternoon.
What countertop installation & replacement looks like up close
This page is about the work rather than the material: what we check at template, what happens on install day, and what you need to have ready. If you already know which stone you want, the material pages cover the choices.
Before and after
Drag the handle. The cabinets, fixtures and lighting were kept; only the surface changed.
BeforeAfter
BeforeAfterThe finishes we fabricate
How the job runs
Free measure
We laser template off your cabinets and confirm sink, cooktop and overhang details in about an hour.
Slab selection
You choose your actual slab rather than a sample chip, so the movement and veining you approve is the one that gets installed.
Fabrication
Cut, edged and polished in our Austin shop, typically five to ten working days from template.
Installation
Old tops out, new tops set and seamed, sink and cooktop refitted. Most kitchens finish in a day.
Questions we get asked
How long will it take from template to installed countertops?
Work of this kind typically runs one to three weeks from template to install. You get your actual install date in writing at the template appointment, once we know the slab layout and where your job sits in the shop schedule.
What do I need to have ready for the template appointment?
Cabinets installed, fastened and level. Your sink, faucet and any drop in cooktop physically on site. Counters cleared and about three feet of floor around the cabinets clear. Have your edge profile, backsplash height and overhang decided, because those get locked that day.
Do you remove and haul away the old countertops?
Yes, that is part of the job and it is priced in the written quote. We would rather do the removal ourselves than inherit a cabinet box that was pried apart the weekend before.
Will removal damage my cabinets or my backsplash?
Cabinets, no, if it is done properly, and that is a technique question rather than a luck question. Backsplash is the honest one: tile that sits on top of the existing countertop is usually bonded into that edge and often cannot be saved. We tell you which situation you are in at the estimate.
Who reconnects the sink, the faucet and the disposal?
A licensed plumber. Plumbing work in Texas is licensed under Occupations Code Chapter 1301, and our crew does not do it. We set and secure the countertops and the sink, and we schedule the plumbing reconnection around the install so you are not without a kitchen overnight.
Can I use my kitchen the same day?
Mostly yes, with one exception. Wait twenty four hours before running water through the sink so the silicone seal cures. You can put things back on the countertops once the installers leave.
Will I see a seam, and who decides where it goes?
On most kitchens larger than a single slab, yes, there will be a seam. We decide the placement at slab layout and we walk you through it before cutting. It goes where it carries the least load and reads the least, and the adhesive is tinted against your actual slab rather than a chart.
Is the price you quote the price I pay, and do you subcontract any of this?
You get one firm written price. Templating, cutting and installation are all done by us, in our own Austin shop and by our own crew, with nothing subcontracted. The only separate trade is the licensed plumber for the final reconnection, and we say so before you sign rather than after.
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