So, you’re trying to decide if you should DIY your kitchen counter tops or leave it to the professionals? We have gone the DIY route in two kitchens, so we have some insight to help you make your decision.
We’re weighing the pros and cons to DIY kitchen counter tops and the benefits of hiring a professional to do the job!
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We have updated our kitchen counter tops in each house. We did the installation ourselves both times. So, we have a lot of experiences to share and help you decide if you should attempt your kitchen counter tops on your own or leave it to the professionals.
Pros of DIY Kitchen Counter Tops
Obviously, we have chosen to do our own kitchen counter tops twice now. So, there are benefits to taking the DIY route!
Save on Costs
The most obvious benefit to installing your kitchen counter tops yourself is that it can save you quite a bit of money. We ordered our quartz counter tops from the home improvement store and had them delivered to us. It did save a lot of money. This was especially helpful when we were selling our previous home. We didn’t spend as much as a professional installation, so we got more of a return on our investment.
Hands on at every step
If you’re handy – or have very talented people in your life like I do – and like to be in control of your projects, you’ll probably like installing your kitchen counter tops yourself. It is so fun to watch every step from design and measurements to the finished product. So rewarding!
Cons of DIY Kitchen Counter Tops
I have to say, the cons for installing your kitchen counter tops yourself, is a bit longer than the pro list. I mean, we did it twice, so the pros of saving money may be weighed differently. However, installing kitchen counter tops is not easy!
Those counters are heavy!
One of the hardest parts of the whole process of installing your own kitchen counter tops is getting them to the kitchen. It’s not just how extremely heavy they are, but that they need to be handled gently as well. I remember biting my nails every time the piece with the sink cutout was moved. It’s so easy for those smaller pieces around the cutout to snap if not handled correctly. That’s definitely one of the times when we wished we had left it up to the professionals.
Measuring may be more difficult than you think
As I said, I’m very proud of how capable my dad and husband are. My dad is a master craftsman who can make anything out of wood and tackle any project. My husband is amazing with metal and there aren’t many projects he can’t handle himself. My dad often designs plans with exact measurements, and even so we still had difficulty.
There is more to consider than just how long and wide the kitchen counter tops should be… There are specifics such as the overhang you’d like, the angles in certain counter top configurations, the openings for appliances – which can be different than you’d think at first glance, etc… It’s a lot, and it will take some time to figure out. Also, if you do happen to make a mistake and the piece doesn’t work out, there is no one to shoulder the blame but yourself.
Things get lost in translation
By far, the largest hurdle to doing your own kitchen counter tops is that each step goes through a couple sets of hands. First, the homeowner doing the measurements. Second, the associate at the store completing the order. Third, the manufacture. Forth, back to the store for delivery or pickup. Fifth, back to the homeowner for installation. There is definitely more room for error than having it handled by professionals.
We had to return and exchange pieces each time we did our counter tops. Luckily, the problem was not with our measurements, but somewhere down the line between the store and the manufacture. What a pain that is! Getting the heavy pieces back to the store and waiting for replacements makes the project frustrating and long.
Professionals work magic on seams
Luckily, in our first remodel we didn’t have any seams in our kitchen counter tops. We had a galley kitchen and only needed three smaller pieces. In our current house, we have three seams in our counter tops. Near the corner, we have a J-seam that ended up looking amazing, and I must say – professional. However, the two seams at the back of our stove and over the bar were another story. We did the best we could, but it was a very difficult job and our seams aren’t perfect.
Benefits of Having a profession install your kitchen counter tops
I’m all about saving money wherever we can, so I can’t say I wouldn’t try a DIY counter top again. That being said, if money were no object I would never think twice about going with a professional instead.
So, my advice to anyone trying to decide whether to DIY or hire a profession to install their kitchen counter tops, I would say is to consider leaving it to the professionals like Premiere Surfaces Minneapolis. That way, everything from the measurements and design to the installation and finishing is all taken care of by the people who know best. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches!
After all, taking on the responsibility of measurements, communication, and handling the materials can cost you a lot more in the end if things go wrong.
Plus, it’s worth the full impact of that gorgeous reveal when your kitchen counter tops are finished!
What should you do?
Well, you know I can’t answer that! However, having been through the process of installing our own kitchen counter tops twice, I hope this has given you more of an idea of what is involved. There is definitely a lot to consider!
My husband and my dad have tackled a lot of home improvement projects, but I bet if you’d ask them if they’d like to do our kitchen counter tops again they’d probably vote for hiring a professional!
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