where to buy laminate countertops..

[03ozwhip]

I don't know if I want to replace the countertops or just put new laminate over top. Does the old laminate need to be removed, or can it go over top of the old if it's in good shape? And where can I go to pick new laminate?

[Kloubek]

I imagine removing the old might prove to be very, very difficult.

But maybe someone could chime in who actually knows something... :)

[mr2mike]

Guessing you'd just end up ruining the particle board under the laminate, unless yours are really old and they used actual wood. In which, case, just replace it.

Try floform as they can sell you the coutertop, you pick them up and install them yourself. I've used them before without issue.

Although, they've expanded now and moved to where SpeedTech used to be.
http://floform.com/
1605 32 Ave NE, Calgary, AB T2E 7A3
(403) 291-1155

[Anomaly]

I ordered mine from Totem\Rona. I forget the name of the contractor they use but they're pretty reasonable price wise. The laminate counter tops I had were only a few years old just an ugly ass colour. For the price i was quoted it didn't seem anywhere near worthwhile to just replace the laminate covering. You can save quite a bit by removing the old counter tops and installing the sink yourself too.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Anomaly
For the price i was quoted it didn't seem anywhere near worthwhile to just replace the laminate covering. You can save quite a bit by removing the old counter tops and installing the sink yourself too.

Yeah, I looked at the Home Depot and Lowes ones for my sister, they're dirt fricking cheap. I think it was $100 for 6 linear feet.

Definitely not worth the time to scrape off the old laminate off the board and lay new stuff down when you can buy the whole thing for that cheap.

[03ozwhip]

Thanks guys, I'll check into that.

[TL911]

if you've got a angle cut, you may have issues finding someone to cut it...I just went with two straight pieces joined together...easy and done for a rental

[03ozwhip]

Ya this is my house, not a rental, I'd rather go with stone but I'm afraid it's going to be way outside my budget. I wouldn't know since no one I have talked to has gotten back to me about it in 2 weeks.

[spikerS]

get a top coating for it. Looks like granite or quartz, but a fraction of the price.

When I was looking into it, it was going to be about $1300 to do an island and about 25 feet of countertop.

I think the company was Calgary countertops.

[ercchry]

i want to say... ~20ft (30" deep) granite was around the $4k mark installed... maybe $5k it was the thicker stuff that they offered too

[03ozwhip]

Ya I don't want the cheapest stuff either, but I probably have less than 20 linear feet of counter space, including the island. I'm going to check around on friday and see what I come up with.

Thanks for the replies and if anyone knows anyone in the business, feel free to pm me.

[TL911]

Good luck buddy, I did my basement last winter and ran into the same problem of choosing laminate over granite and shopped around and found granite was about 1800 more so I went with it....there's a place north of deerfoot mall, I found they were the cheapest and another guy around the minas brewery.

[Vdubbin]

I went through this in the spring in my place.

You can in theory use dry ice and it will lift the laminate off the wood.
We ended up just ripping the counter top off and putting new K3 down and then I got the top sheet laminate from Windsor plywood. Was about $200 for each sheet of 5x9 if I remember right and we needed 2 sheets to do my kitchen.

There's lots of videos on how to do this but you will need a laminate trimmer. It looks like a little router but just for laminate. My Dad happened to have one and he helped me install everything and it took us a lazy weekend to do all my counter tops.

We ended up painting our cabinets, New tile Back splash and new counter top for just under a grand and it totally makes our kitchen much nicer. But took us a couple of weeks to get done just working weekends and some evenings.

[03ozwhip]

Originally posted by Vdubbin
I went through this in the spring in my place.

You can in theory use dry ice and it will lift the laminate off the wood.
We ended up just ripping the counter top off and putting new K3 down and then I got the top sheet laminate from Windsor plywood. Was about $200 for each sheet of 5x9 if I remember right and we needed 2 sheets to do my kitchen.

There's lots of videos on how to do this but you will need a laminate trimmer. It looks like a little router but just for laminate. My Dad happened to have one and he helped me install everything and it took us a lazy weekend to do all my counter tops.

We ended up painting our cabinets, New tile Back splash and new counter top for just under a grand and it totally makes our kitchen much nicer. But took us a couple of weeks to get done just working weekends and some evenings.

See I was going to do all of it myself, but I'm just not home enough to do it and I don't have the know how on any of that stuff, I've never done a kitchen before.

Plus we have ugly orange oak and apparently it's very hard and time consuming to paint oak.

[Vdubbin]

We used this kit to do our cabinets. Take your time and it comes out nice. But yes it was a time consuming reno. But the wife is very happy with it with makes it worth it.

http://www.rustoleumtransformations.ca/

Finished Product

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/raptor_20/IMG_20140616_225617_zps117b4424.jpg (http://s50.photobucket.com/user/raptor_20/media/IMG_20140616_225617_zps117b4424.jpg.html)

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/raptor_20/IMG_20140616_225627_zps157287fa.jpg (http://s50.photobucket.com/user/raptor_20/media/IMG_20140616_225627_zps157287fa.jpg.html)