My wife had three estimates for Granite countertop, in writing. All three written up on-site, IN the kitchen.
We set those aside and tore into the kitchen head first (or I should say demolition hammer 1st).
She removed the cabinet doors, filled all holes, repainted the cabinets and doors, and had our contractors install the new hinges/hardware and then re-hang the doors.
I walked in a few days later and almost fell down due to being dizzy. They had measured them off of the floor, then levelled...I guess? Something was leaning, not right, looked horrible.
After a bit of research, I figured out that the floor had sagged in certain areas, house had settled, and the countertop was just no longer level.
THEY HAD ALREADY LAID THE TILE ALSO!
I re-hung the cabinet doors, cheated everywhere, can't even tell unless you carry a level around with you. Looks good.
BUT.....There is no way my floor will hold the weight of a granite top. Floor would sag more, cabinets would pull away from the wall.
YET, I've got three granite installers that, apparently, is not their job to figure this out.

Can you post a picture? Maybe we can help fix it cuz your granite shop sure sounds grouchy. Your house and cabinets are NEW. Pretty much.

Poor thing. It is never too early for wine. Pour yourself a glass.

Someone here will help you figure this out!

Not too early for wine. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Sorry, that's all I can do to help.

Okay. I've made it home and I'm trying to upload the link to the pictures.

Thank you for the support. I truly needed a GW shoulder today. (smile)

Dando, I did the marble trick to see if it would roll towards the cabinet but it didn't. I can't rule out shifting however nothing else seems to be affected.
BTW, I'm on my second glass of wine.

Here is a link that might be useful: under cabinet

Yikes. That needs to be supported immediately, even before you figure out the ultimate solution. Call somebody handy, pronto.

And don't go under there again.

marcolo, thank you. I've used a couple of 2x4 under the granite to hopefully help. I don't know if it's enough but it was all I had handy.

If the fabricators are not responsive; any thoughts on adding braces of some sort to existing cabinetry?

Is it too early for a Pina Colada or two?

Your house may have been built in 2005 but perhaps it depends on what the cabinet boxes were built from - solid wood vs mdf vs particle board and that may dictate how much weight they can support.

A few years ago we had new laminate put on our cabinets and the fellows who did it rebraced all the cabinets vertically and horizontally so as to give a level surface on which to place the counter.

SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a 3rd glass of wine but please becareful.

I'm trying to remain calm and not panic. I keep telling myself that I'm over-reacting and that there is undoubtedly a simple solution that won't ruin my beautiful granite or require me to buy new cabinetry. However, I keep expecting it to all come crumbling down.

blfenton - I'm not sure what type of cabinetry I have. I'll have to check it out.

Oh dear. I'm sure this is not the first time this has happened. Someone will find a solution. Hopefully soon.

What does it look like on the inside of the cabinet?

And if this was happening in my kitchen, I would not even look to see what time it was, I'd be crackin' that bottle of wine open immediately!!

Keep us posted.

Suzie it looks like to me that there is an plywood panel on the back of your peninsula I believe that your cabinetry is fine and that the plywood was cut a little to big perhaps a 1/4" or at the most 3/8" and the weight of the granite is creating a bow on the outside of the plywood. This can be easily fixed by removing the plywood and cutting it to the right size I don't think it has anything to do with the granite install. start with the removal of the plywood and take a look under by the granite, if it needs to be shimmed up a little at this point, clean out the caulk and grout on the top of the granite and apply a shim under the granite.then cut plywood to size and reinstall plywood panel.

Bee, Thank you, the inside of the cabinet looks fine. No sign of any damage.

ihelpu, I'm not handy enough to remove the outside panel. However, I sighed in relief when I read your post. The fabricators are supposed to contact me this morning. I'm also researching cabinet makers/repairers to see if I can get someone out to take a look. Thanks again for easing my mind.

That's a cabinet problem, not a granite problem. Granite guys are rock guys. Cabinet guys are wood guys. While rock guys can shim wood a little bit to put on a stone top, it's not really their job to be sure that the cabinets are level and well supported. That's the cabinet guy's job.

And while it might just be a skin that was cut a bit long and bowing, I'd have to bet that it's the side of the cabinet that wasn't reinforced for the weight of granite. (Which I mentioned, is not the granite guy's role to do that reinforcing.) THe reason I say that, is the scribe molding is bowing too. Scribe molding is attached to the cabinet side and only covers the skin/cabinet joint. If just the skin were bowing, the I think the molding would hold fast to the side and the bowing would be from front to back as well as top to bottom.

This isn't a good omen for the overall construction quality of your cabinets. Builder's grade cabinetry is often insufficiently constructed to be able to properly support stone tops. And while it may look pretty an "in good shape" on the outside, on the inside in it's guts, it may be pretty flimsy.

You need a skilled finish carpenter to come in a use 3/4" plywood to reinforce the cabinet side from the interior. If he's skilled, he may be able to closely match the interior finish of your cabinet and you will hardly be able to tell that this issue happened. You may need to reinforce all of your cabinets! Take a level and place it on the interior walls of others and see if their sides are still plumb. Be especially vigilant in locations that should have had support like over the dishwasher (should be cleats at the back against the wall) and overhangs (Your overhang should have been supported with brackets and additional cabinet bracing in the interior from the beginning.)

I hope that anyone who reads this and is considering putting granite on top of old cabinets will STOP and get an expert in to assess their construction quality and levelness before proceeding with installing heavy stone. Their family's safety could be at risk if they make an error in judgement on this issue!

GreenDesigns as you can guess my knowledge of cabinetry is pretty limited. The paperwork that came with the house stated that the cabinets are Masterbrand Kitchen Craft semi-custom. I've emptied the corner cabinets and checked the level on the inside of the cabinets. The cabinets appear to be level to me. However when I place the level on the countertop the bubble shifts slightly in the direction of where the cabinet is bowing out.

The granite guys will be here at 1:30 so hopefully they can either assist or suggest a good cabinet guy.

I understand that the granite guy isn't a cabinet guy. I guess I expected that based on their experience adding granite existing cabinetry, they would have noticed any obvious problems.

Suzie -
The back of the cabinet (a peninsula?) is too thin to hold up the granite. It was a facing for decorative purposes, not a structural element, and when you plopped granite on top of what had been laminate, it started bending.

Not a difficult fix ... Can you show the inside of the cabinet at that wall?

You might be able to screw a ledge to the studs and support the granite at the wall (after jacking up the slab to take the weight off the cabinet).

Or you might be able to install some braces inside that cabinet between granite and floor of cabinet to take the weight off the thin wooden panel.

Greendesigns, I understand wood guys are different than
stone guys but that theory works for NEW construction
not in the case of suzie2003.

I blame the installer in this situation.

In our kitchen we kept our cabinets. Our granite intaller
came to inspect, template and measure. He noticed that one
area of our cabinets needed more support. They would not
put in granite until we reinforced that area.

I am not an attorney, I would have to check with my sister
but I truly believe the Granite installer will be responsible for
damage.
They should NEVER have put that stone on the top of
those cabinets.

Good Luck Suzie. Be firm until they fix this.
~boxer

Lazygardens - yes it is a peninsula. I've attached the link to the inside of the cabinet where it meets the granite.

https://picasaweb.google.com/yrbonner/March22012

Here is a link that might be useful: inside cabinet

Boxer, I read your post right before the granite guy came and it kept me sane.

Sure enough he tried to explain to me that although he'd done thousands of installs and was very familiar with the builder of my home (the granite guy installs for my builder on these same cabinets in this same neighborhood) that the problem was the cabinets, especially the corner.

He stated that because my cabinets have the back corner rounded for the super susan, there's no support between the rounded cabinet and the wall. (however, when I knocked on the back of the cabinet you can tell that there's something behind the panel) He suspects that the cabinet needs additional support. I asked if he had noticed any any problems with these cabinets on previous installs and he responded that he hadn't.

He then stated that since I have a 40" then the corner piece instead of having two 30" cabinets that could be the problem. I again reminded him that these were the same cabinets he templated, removed the previous top from and installed this granite on top of.

Anyway, I just let him continue to talk. He offered to have his dad come over and fix the problem for a fee. I declined. Then he said he had to go back to the company and get a decision from the owner, I still said nothing. Then he said he didn't know what else to offer. I still said nothing.

Finally he agreed to return on Monday at 2pm to make the repair. He will remove the back panel and add supports if needed. He will also add some type of corner brace.

BTW he brought another guy with him - not sure what his primary function is - but he showed the granite guy that when you push on the bowed area of the cabinet, it raise the granite up. The granite guy kept going back and forth between there really is no problem to your cabinets are jacked up, to maybe there's a problem with your foundation, to well maybe we should have noticed but it' not really our job to notice. The guy that was with him repeated almost verbatim what ihelpu and lazygardens said about the back panel being higher than the cabinet and the weight caused it to bow out.

Anyway, thank you all so much for the support. We'll see what Monday brings.

You did GREAT!!!! Pat yourself on the back for being
firm, calm, serious, cool, collected and reasonable.
I love that you kept silent and let him talk. Fantastic!
I am one of those who has great difficulty in situations
likes this.

Do you have the old paperwork that you signed?
Read it over and see if there are any loopholes.

My sister said most likely the installer would be liable
but who knows what the contract says. And the fact that the
granite guy is coming back on Monday means he knows
it's his fault. Or at least he wants to make good on this.

Sending good luck wishes that this all goes super for you.
~boxer

Boxer thank you. I have to admit, I got my negotiating skills from this site. I don't remember which thread but there was a concern with a crack in the granite and the advice given was to just look the individual in the eye or down at the floor and let them talk themselves into doing what you want them to do. I am by nature a tad bit more confrontational and my patience tends to be really short. I blame it on all those years in the military. (smile) However, based on what I read here I realized that perhaps I should try another tactic and it worked.

I have the original paperwork. The granite has a 2 year warranty against defective workmanship. What's even better is that it says they specifically will not mount granite on cabinetry identified as being problematic unless the owner signs a waiver, which I did not. I had the paperwork sitting on the counter-top.

I'm hoping to be able to report back on Monday that the problem is solved.

Thanks again. I can't tell you how much I appreciate GW and all the support you provide.

FANTASTIC.

And Bless you for having a firm voice and serving our
country by your military service.

This is wonderful news. I think you can open the Champagne!

susie now that we no what the problem is make sure they don't just shim the top of the corner cabinet, by putting shims on the top of it,it will not support the granite.They need to put a ledger board along the wall and put a piece of
2 x 4 or 2 x 6 cut to the hgt of the cabinet roughly 34 1/2" on the back of the round side of the corner cabinet, there will be two spots where they can put the 2 x 4 one will be close to the wall by the ledger board and the other on the end of the corner cabinet roughly about 36" from the wall, the granite guy should be able to lift the granite on these pieces and if he has to then shim the granite.
after this is done then have tim reinstall the back plywood it probably will not have to be cut to fit with the granite lifted to the level hgt.
Wine is never a solution to our problems 25 yrs sobriety god bless

Well done, Suzie. I learned a lot from your experiment in listening!

The granite guy knew it was wrong from the getgo and he was trying to get you to let him off the hook. Glad to see you didn't fall for it!

We have success. The granite guy showed up and removed the back panel and trim. The granite was resting on the back panel. Also there were no "clips" where the granite met the wall. They placed three 2x4, and added a piece of plywood behind the panel. They also put a piece of 2x4 horizontally where the granite met the wall. The granite guy still seemed a little disgruntle but I'm happy, happy, happy. I took a few pictures of cabinets without the panels. Again, thanks so very much for all your advice, help and support.

Suzie2003,

This is Terrific.

The really cool part of your entire ordeal is that it was
solved. When newcomers visit GW and they have issues with
granite support, installation or damage they can learn
from your experience.

Truly good news in the end.
~boxer

I'm glad your counters are not in danger of collapse anymore, but I have to disagree with what transpired here. 2x4s and plywood might be adequate to support the stone, but it's also butchery of your cabinets by hacks. It's like you got the drywall guys to do plumbing work for you just because they were in the same room. Stone professionals are NOT qualified to modify your cabinets!

The cabinet installation should have been designed from the beginning to take the weight of stone. This is a builder and original KD error. What should have happened is that the stone guys should have refused to install the stone on top of your cabinets until you had a professional reinforce them. Yes, that would have been at additional cost to you to have a cabinet professional come in and do it right, but a cabinet professional would never have just screwed some plywood and 2x to the walls and called it a day. Stone professionals are NOT fine carpenters or cabinet installers. What they did will work, but it's not at all workmanlike and tidy and invisible.

For anyone reading this in the future, it is NOT the stone professional's place to create support within the cabinetry for the counter tops. It is the cabinet professional's place to do that. You wouldn't want your cabinet guy trying to do a seam in your granite and you don't want your stone guy trying to hack a support into your cabinets. Get the right professional for the right job!

Live_wire_oak, I understand your position and I would never hire a granite guy to build or install cabinets. However, I would expect the granite guy to notice whether or not the cabinetry in place is sufficient to hold the granite. I agree that the granite guy should have refused to install the granite if the cabinetry did not meet the required standards. My point is and was that had they told me that the cabinet was problematic, and I did ask if there was any problem installing new granite on existing cabinetry, I would have simply waited and installed new cabinets. I believe that just as a plumber would tell me if the fittings I purchased were incorrect for the job at hand, I expected that the granite guy would tell me if the granite chosen was incompatible with the cabinets.