I'm interested in this too. Templater is coming to my house Friday.

it costs a lot to make the back edge of the counter meet the wall because the wall is wavy. Every wall is wavy to some extent. It seems many templaters avoid facing this. Deal with it.

2. No one ever complains the overhang in front is too much. But it does happen that people post to complain it isn't as much as they had hoped it would be. It seems many templaters talk only about the distance from the base cabinet and not from the door or drawer front. It's good to know about this before the last minute.

This is the time to talk about sink installation. If you're doing an undermount you'll need to choose a positive or negative reveal or a flushmount. You might need to sent the sink along with them. We did and we wrote our name in big black marker on the box. You'll need to show them your faucet so they'll know where to place the hole(s) for the faucet and possibly the soap dispenser and airswitch. Be sure your turn-on for the faucet doesn't hit the back wall when in use.

As for the templating itself, they'll have a method that doesn't really require your input. Hopefully they'll have one of those nifty computerized systems that maps out the back wall waviness for precision cutting. If they don't, well there are other ways to do it that return good results.

Be sure you're clear on what you need to do, if anything, for installation day. We had to install a support bracket where the counter spanned over the top of the dishwasher and ended at the side of the pantry. We also had to cut into the top of the sink base to make room for the sink and cut a little trench into the drywall along one side so that they could maneuver the granite piece into the corner. It was a wavy wall thing. If you have a GC, this list will likely be for him/her.

The other thing you need to be sure you're clear on, maybe you are already, is the edge shape and how roundy you want any island or end corners. We got this extra little piece that went around the wall at the edge of our peninsula-this was suggested by the fabricator.

Be sure to take pictures and share when installation day comes!

This is a very timely thread and I'm glad to have found it. I hadn't given any thought to what kind of reveal I want, in fact I wasn't even sure what they were called. I looked at some of the other threads and, weighing pros and cons, I'm thinking a positive reveal is my best bet, and my grid would be difficult to remove with a negative reveal.

Suzannesl said "We got this extra little piece that went around the wall at the edge of our peninsula-this was suggested by the fabricator."

Suzanne is talking about the 4" backsplash of the same material as the countertop. Decide whether you want it. If you don't want it, tell the fabricators first thing that you don't want it so that they know they need to be extra careful with the back edge of the granite.

Also consider the radius you would like for the corners of your counters. I didn't know what I wanted when they came out and templated, so they measured for a 1/2" (I wanted a square edge but my husband nixed that with young kids and his hips at stake) and I had to go down to the showroom to see samples to make sure I liked the look. In the end I'm happy with my choice. It still looks square but it's not sharp.

Great post, we have the granite folks coming out on Friday for the template. I was wondering as well what they might be asking me. Can anyone tell me what size a standard counter overhang is? Also what are the choices for the corners? can someone provide pictures of different option? Thanks so much!

Thanks everyone. I was hoping to get replies before our meeting. I know we want an eased edge, and we don't want the 4" backsplash because the glass tile will go to the counter.

Our sink is a Blanco Stellar Single Bowl with a Delta Touch Pilar (3 holes: faucet, soap dispenser and hot/cold). We also have a prep sink with the prep version of the faucet.

I need to do a little quick research about the negative and positive reveal. (help!). We are planning to have a grid, so I'll start with positive.

What do you mean by radius for the counters?

I will have my camera, as always, and will be taking pictures every step of the way!

I think standard overhang is 1.5 "......I had not thought at all about corners..more info on that would be helpful.

Also, I have heard you should go to the shop when they are laying out your template so you can see/approve the plan. We have two slabs for counter and BS that are mirror images BUT in the corner areas on each are 3 big blobs and I have already told fabricator I want to avoid these areas as much as possible..sink cutouts, etc....so I definitely want to be involved in planning the layout.

We used a 3/4" overhang, but we also have inset cabinets. That would leave the same amount of clearance as a 1.5" overhang on standard overlay cabinets.

I tried to take a picture of the corners to clarify what I meant by the corner "radius". Basically how much of a curve you want the corners to have. You can go with 0 radius and it will be a sharp 90 degree angle, and then it starts to round out from there. I was considering 1/4" or 1/2" and went with the 1/2". It's slightly more round then I'd hoped, I am still happy with it and was a fair compromise between what I wanted (0) and what DH wanted (1")

The post below also helped me when I was researching the radius issue

Here is a link that might be useful: Corner Radius Post

ashef - I wasn't meaning the 4" backsplash when I referred to "the extra little piece that went around the wall." It's good that you brought up the 4" backsplash thing though, because I forgot about that. What I meant was this piece of the peninsula that was wrapped around the wall. It's just a nice way of finishing off.

As for radius, look at the two corners of my peninsula visible here:

For the corner facing into the kitchen, notice that it's not 90 degrees, but not too far off. The corner towards the dining room is much rounder. The one that rounds the corner of the wall the peninsula is attached to has the same degree of roundness as one on the dining room side (for a pic of the entire peninsula, see the photo up-thread).

Suzannes1, we knew what you meant, because the picture was obvious. I think that little return is nice.

I'm at the template stage for my bathroom marble (terribly exciting) and know what I want, but getting it's evidently going to be tough.

I ... don't settle. And I'm not going to start again with something so expensive !:)

Keep up with the pics, all! I love it!
Christine

Hmmm..my fabricator was here yesterday to template the kitchen for granite. I didn't ask any questions about the overhang OMG!!! I just trusted that he knew what to do. Now I am worried since I have read some of the posts about there being no overhang at all and how upset owners were. I have to go tomorrow morning to approve the layout so I will be sure and ask about that. Thanks for the good advice!

Oh my goodness -- MORE decisions to make, and some I hadn't thought of because the last time, I "trusted the workers to know what they were doing". Big mistake! Make sure you know where all the seams will be and that they are where you had wanted/expected.

"If you're doing an undermount you'll need to choose a positive or negative reveal or a flushmount"

Excellent post. I understand the edging and the radius corners but I don't understand the positive or negative reveal or flushmount. Could someone please explain this? Thanks for the help, so much to learn, so little time!

Suzanne, sorry about that. I just had "backsplash" on my mind. I was home & vigilant when the fabricators were doing my granite. I walked out of the kitchen briefly after they attached the countertops, thinking they were finished. When I came back 5 minutes later, they were seconds away from gluing a 4" backsplash to my wall. They just assumed I wanted it but I definitely did not.

I don't use the terms "positive or negative reveal or flushmount. " Other terms might help.

I believe the easiest one to understand is "overhang". When your countertop overhangs, it sticks out. For example, it normally overhangs over the front of your base cabinets. There are good reasons why this is done.

For an undermounted sink, an overhang can enlarge your countertop and shrink your sink hole size. The sink is still just as big as before. An overhang helps hide things in the sink. The difference is minor if the overhang is minor.

The complete opposite is to have the hole in the countertop be cut too large; this exposes the sink's rim. The exposed fraction of an inch is a "reveal" in some people's minds. They call it a positive reveal. Then they use negative numbers to talk about an overhang as a negative reveal. To me that sounds like someone discussing heat as "negative cold" and cold as "negative heat". IRL I don't tell people about "negative reveals".

In between the two extremes is an ideal of perfect alignment of the cut edge of the countertop with the sink wall. This is an ideal that can never be achieved, for many reasons related to the geometry of the sink wall-rim junction and the fact that your two eyes are never perfectly aligned above the sink walls (all the sink walls at the same time). Since you view the siliconed junction from an angle (from the side) you will always feel that they did not manage to measure and cut to make it match and be perfectly "flush", or at least not all four walls equally. There may be someone willing to post that their flushmount is an exception to this statement; admittedly my statement that it is an unattainable ideal is an exaggeration, made for the sake of illustration. SOME sinks lend themselves well to a flushmount cut, and even then the installer needs to have the sink on site while cutting and to pay a lot of attention to what he is doing. It is very hard to cut and sand an opening to 1/32nd of an inch accuracy.

Executive Summary: Choose either one: an overhang or an exposed sliver of the sink rim.

Hth

Thank you everyone! My installer was very impressed with how informed I was today!

davidrol, great explanation! thank you for posting, now I get it :)
I'm prepared for tomorrow....

Explain why 5/8" and not 3/4". It will help. You might uncover something useful for yourself. It may be that your GC can leave the 3/4". No matter what they patiently explained, it can be rebutted and it may well end up being that the templaters had a bug in their head and not an openminded approach.

davidro1, thanks for the reminder to tell more. I just assumed this was common knowledge and I was the last to know. At first today when they told me they needed 5/8" instead of 3/4". I thought, surely 3/4" must be better, because it's more.

This will be my first solid surface (quartz) so I'm a total newbie. They explained to me that 5/8" plywood would be hidden by the edge of the slab, but 3/4" would possibly show, esp. if any shims were required. The fabricator assured me that my GC was told of this, which he somehow forgot about. When I called him during the fabricator's visit, he simply went "okay." But it's another week down the drain.

" hidden by the edge of the slab" = only if they are adding an edge, in which case they can add an edge of any dimension, any size. So, either they are dumb-wrong or there is something that is being fudged a little or a lot. Furthermore I wouldn't trust anyone who talks about a shim under any counter. I mean that "shim" and counter installation don't go together well.

Yesterday I had to approve the layout for my new granite for my kitchen. Since I already have a backsplash and it's relatively new I wanted to keep it. When they demo'ed the Corian they did not injure it at all, still there, looks perfect. But yesterday they informed me they will have to raise the granite to meet the bottom of the already in place tile. I did hear the word "shim" mentioned. I am almost thinking I would rather have added a pencil trim piece at the bottom of the tile than to have the granite raised to meet it. She assured me that you would not be able to see the shim unless you got underneath the cabinet and looked up at the bottom of the ogee edge. I don't know if I will be ok with this...sigh... I asked if Corian was thicker than granite and she said no it's just that it was mounted on wood so it was higher. The granite I am getting is the usual 3cm. Maybe they do this all the time and it will be fine??? I'm a little anxious about this. They also have to build a "cradle" to support my heavy cast iron sink because it weighs 126 lbs. But when they went to look for my sink they couldn't find it!!! I delivered it to them weeks ago to have on hand when they got ready to fabricate. Oh well....if it's lost maybe I'll get that lighter weight Silgranite, lol. I would have gotten it to start with but they did not have any configurations that worked for our plumbing and husband was not happy with a major change to that. We had 70/30 and already with a disposal on small side it was just too much to change and deal with so that is why I ended up with the Lakefied Kohler. I like it well enough but would have been fun to do a newer looking design.

davidro1, I'm learning as I go. I passed what you had to say along to my KD to get her take, since her shop works with this fabricator. I don't have enough knowledge of the process to effectively draw a line in the sand. Will let you know what she has to say.

gr8day, I'm glad I'm not the only one hearing the word "shim." As for getting underneath cabinets, very few of my guests get down on all fours in my kitchen. ;-) In fact, I've been in this house for 13 years and only recently discovered that underneath my peninsula overhang is bare-naked plywood. The idea of it is awful, but in reality, it wasn't a factor at all.

(OT: If you post more than once in a thread, is it necessary to change the subject line?)

good luck Linelle and I understand what you mean about the plywood, I had no idea it was under my Corian that was removed. I hope everything works out well for you!!!

OT reply: Yes, you have to change the subject line if you post twice in a row. Have had to do that a couple of times. I don't think it matters if there are other posts in between but if there are two in a row you do. YMMV : )

With my new 5/8" plywood base installed and the corner radius correctly cut, today's templating went smoothly. We discussed where any seam(s) would go and opted for a slightly exposed sink. They told me they don't do flush. "Shim" was never uttered.

we opt for overhang on the sink - that way it's easier to clean. I am really anxious about this project. Fabricator went out to template last saturday we are having it install next tuesday. Will post pix soon after that! Wish me luck.

We have Delta granite sink and today i've decided to get the touch2o Addison! :)

Just wanted to post to say how helpful this thread is! Templating happens tomorrow (!!) and I'm going through this thread, taking notes like a schoolgirl studying for a test! Now, I just need to decide on a corner radius...

Very helpful post :-)
But I'm still confused on reveal...any pictures to show negative, positive, flush?