Out with the old, in with the new! A few days before our new soapstone countertops arrived, we got ready by taking our old countertops out. Most countertops are attached to the cabinets from below.

As luck would have it, our countertops had been screwed down from above. The Formica was then glued over the top. This made our job a little harder – we had to pry off the Formica to get to the screws!

Once we had the old countertops off, we used a level to identify any high or low spots on the cabinets below.

We picked up our soapstone countertops at a truck dock. The A-frame pallet was held together at the top with a few short slats. We just unscrewed the top slats and pulled the panels out one at a time. Each panel was easily handled by two people.

Once we had all the panels inside, we checked to make sure the front edges were flush and level. We used small hand clamps to hold the smaller pieces in place while we were doing the “dry-fit”.

Next we put in the new gas cooktop to check the fit.

The soapstone was perfect, but the new cooktop took up a little bit more space in the cabinet than I expected so we cut away a small section of cabinet to ease the fit.

Dry-fitting the sink also turned up a few surprises! We attached the sink to the underside of the stone panel with silicone and the mounting clips provided with the sink.

This time the cabinet was big enough for the sink – but I hadn’t figured on extra room for the mounting clips!

Never fear. A few minutes with the roto-zip and our sink fit like a charm.

The dry fit process turned up a few spots that needed to be shimmed. Most of the shimming was easily achieved with a few plastic coated playing cards.

The only joint that required special attention was right above the dishwasher. There was no cabinet for support so we used small hand clamps to hold the panel above the dishwasher up to the level of the adjoining panel.

Before we glued each seam, we used masking tape and a straight edge to make some quick reference points. We made alignment marks and then cut the tape along the seam. These marks were a good quick way to make sure the panels were positioned correctly once we had applied the epoxy.

The seams are joined with a 5-minute epoxy. It is a very strong bonding agent that once mixed, becomes hard in 5 minutes.

For the seams, the key is to “butter” one edge completely so that when the two panels are pressed together, the excess will be squeezed out. We used a putty knife to scrape off the excess epoxy. There were a few times that we went back and applied more epoxy to “low” areas in the seam.

After all the seams were done, we started sanding. For the first sanding, it was definitely easier to use a grinder (or a random orbital sander) than to tackle it all by hand. The epoxy is very hard, so the key was to sand off the excess epoxy without creating depressions in the soapstone on either side of the seam.

The final step to finishing the seam was a light hand sanding. We used fine sandpaper and 4 ought steel wool to finish it off for a smooth, barely visible seam.

A little more detail work – cleaning off the extra silicone around the inside lip of the sink.

It was a long day, but the work paid off. Our new countertops transformed the kitchen!

After much debate, we decided to oil our soapstone countertops. While we loved the light look of the soapstone, we found the marbling really came to life when the stone was wet or oiled.

The new countertops are better than I ever dreamed. They look beautiful, they feel wonderful, they have added to the convenience of both cooking and cleaning, and they have held up beautifully to an active family of four. Thank you Woodstock Soapstone!