Personally...I'd rip everything out and start again, but I'm just that way (i've waited so long to get our kitchen right that I won't accept garbage, no matter which contractor put it in).

I can only think of a couple of things...first being perhaps that the granite folks recut a portion of the counter to sliver back in there mounted on a board of some sort. The second, having the tile ripped out and redone and then making the wall straight at the same time.

Are you sure it's the wall and not the cabinets set in crooked a bit?

igloochic, thanks for your thoughts. I'm sure it's the wall - the pictures don't show the situation perfectly. The wall comes across about 1/3 of the way (right to left) behind the range, then dips into a recess that grows as deep as 1/2 inch on the left of the range.

The cabinets (and granite) are in at a right angle but only as to the respective walls they're on. The left side of the cabinets are inset about 1/2 inch it looks like. My guess is that the recess begins with a new piece of sheetrock that got nailed to a new 2x4 that was installed 1/2 inch recessed compared to the other boards in the wall.

I've thought about your suggestions, but it always comes down to more money, more dust, more frustration... AND WE WERE SO CLOSE! So many other things we've been willing to overlook and even get used to. But the range not being flush on one side, while it's up against the wall on another side is too much of a sore thumb right now.

This is Iris 16's DH. Depending on how tight your slide in stove is (is that what you have?) and depending on the amount of overhang you have on the stove top overhanging the granite, you might want to take just a small pie shaped slice from the granite on the left of the stove just enough that you can shift the front of the stove just a bit to close the space in back so it is not as noticeable and also not so much that the eye can notice the front of the stove is cocked a bit. If you tear it all out you are going to have to cut off the back of the granite on the left side since you will have to move out the wall enough to close the space--I can't imagine all that will entail.

I'm sorry you're going through this...Believe me I do understand, being as we've been out of our real house for almost a year! We are sick and tired of camping in the rental and just want it done.

And you're right...it does come down to money. I have had to redo a few things and I always ask myself...how much will it bother me and what is the effect on resale. Unfortunately your issue is a resale issue in my mind.

You know...one other thing occured to me on your range as I was posting in another thread about the range spacers. So here's a thought...

How about pulling the range out and calling in a metal specialist to remake the back piece (that spacer/vent) for you specifically to fit the issue with the wall? If you changed the venting configuration to a less obvious pattern (say long groves instead of the diamond pattern) you could easily "hide" a half inch in the design as long as the design runs straight to the stove (dang that sounds confusing, do you get what I mean?)

I thought of this because I had special metal work done on our hood. It was too small and I had the body taken apart and rebuilt to the specific specs I needed. Total cost (and a much bigger job than this) was only $1,300. A good stainless (metal) shop can really build anything. If you did this, you could hide this error easier than rebuilding the wall. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be something you'd have to look for, verses and obvious error as it is now.

Eek, I bet that was an unwelcome surprize!

We had hoplessly bowed walls, but we knew about them. The walls were notched to get the granite in, and when we had the tile backsplash installed, they floated it with mud etc to make it flat across.

Everyone's comments about it coming down to money and how much you're willing to pay to make it perfect. You can probably fix it by redoing just the backsplash and getting the wall floated so it fills in that gap. Or depending on how much wiggle room you have between the cabinets, you may be able to have the granite trimmed a bit to get it to back there further. Or you could get some kind of gap filler made to cover up that spot. I would go with SS both for blendability and cost reasons.

Either way, this is something the contractor should have caught, and should therefore fix it at NO cost to you. However, should doesn't always mean that they will.

Looks like your GC sux. Srry. Unacceptable. When cabs are separated by a gap for a DW or range or whatever, the cab fronts must be straight-lined to avoid just this situation. But this goes beyond cabinet install; there is some kind of issue in the framing/drywall stage. Depressing.
Casey

What Casey said. Unacceptable.

Not only is the GC on the doo-doo list but so is every trades person who worked on that kitchen and who had to notice the problem but apparently didn't say anything. Framer, drywaller, painter, cabinet installers, floor people, granite installers, tilesetters all had to know.

Oh wow, I really feel for you. I'd be sick, all that work and money. Its hard to find good tradesman these days. In some areas (like mine) almost impossible.
How does it look in the front? Is the stovetop look skewed in the front by the cabinets? And, how much does it already stick out? If you have some room to bring it out? I think I'd do that, making the front look squared up the way it should look and then use the granite or tile if possible or maybe even stainless steel, to make a gap filler as tall as your stainless steel backdraft vent (is that what that is?) unless that has to move up and down.
Lots of ifs there but that might be the least noticeable.

Is it possible to cut a strip of granite to go behind the range that would accommodate the uneven wall on the back side, but be straight on the front side that touches the range? Does that make sense? The range would have to be pulled out some but not much. Otherwise a beautufil kitchen! I love your range!

it doesn't seem like a very big deal to me at all. i'd just forget about it.

A little geometry please... The wall looks like it has an even slope. I wonder what they would do if they tried to put a cabinet in that space. I would place a large carpenter's square against the wall behind where the stove is and compare it to both edges of the countertop to see which edge is out of square from the wall the most. Actually draw a pencil line on the granite. Both sides. It will show you that the granite people need to come out and "shave" a long thin sliver from the front of the left side and another long thin sliver from the back of the right side granite.

This will square up the hole with a minimum of granite removed. You'll have a small even gap on both sides of your range.

If you want the range really tight between the granite top, you'll need to 'square' one side as above, and replace the other end of the counter top with a new piece, OR, they could square both sides and then remove one side and slide it over if the top had enough overhang on it's other edge.

Or, they could square the edges that sit against the range sides, and glue on a piece of granite or pieces of granite to cover the gap. This sounds hokey, but someone did something similar with their range top on an island and it looked great.

If you can't get the contractor to fix it, could you remove the bottom row of tile and place a narrow granite (or SS) shelf to conceal the problem? With that row of tile removed, the right side would slide back a tiny bit more, and hopefully the little ledge would hide the gap on the left. Some pretty items (S&P shakers, etc) might mke it look intentional

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

To clarify a couple of points raised. The wall behind the right third of the range is even and level with everything to the right of the range. I believe it's because it's one piece of sheetrock that comes to the frame behind that part of the range.

The left 2/3 of the range is slightly skewed or recessed. Again, I think it's because there's a new piece of sheetrock and slightly recessed framing behind that part of the range and wall (apparently the framing wasn't touched by the new contractors and it was an unevenness that existed with the house).

In any case, the range can never be flush because there are 2 "different walls" behind it.

I like the thought of covering the gap with SS to make it look like a filler piece that likely won't get noticed and will cover the gap, as well as cost much less. The contractors actually suggested that as well as a possibility.

By the way, our contractors did everything except floors and granite. The granite and floor guys were great - they actually noticed other areas of unevenness but because there was no continuous granite, I think the granite guy didn't notice it and simply squared each piece of granite to each respective piece of wall.

We've discussed the "should" of the contractor having to cover it. We'll see now if they do what they should because they should have caught this earlier.

Depressing, sad, etc... The thing is, the contractors are actually really good, creative, etc. -- they are just CARELESS and HASTY. It's the craftsmanship that seems to be lacking these days.

BUT, we're just about done and will post pictures of the final product soon.

Thanks again.

jac8:

Sorry to hear about your problem. I know how you feel because we had the same issue. Only BIG difference is that we hadn't installed the splash yet, so we were able to float the wall to accomodate. Ours isn't perfect (DIY), and there are a few hiccups with our subway tile, but it works without too much noticeability (is that a word?)

I'll be interested to hear how you solve the problem and looking forward to pic of the finished area.

Good luck to you.

Where you watching when the plumber did his part of the job?
Did he recess the pipe in the wall correctly.

I am dealing with a similar issue. I am replacing a gas wall oven in a pantry with a gas cooktop right next to it. In other words i have one pipe with 2 heads (siamese) attachment which makes for a long protruding pipe from the wall.
My pipe has to be shortened and recessed into the wall.

The new design will be a gas cooktop over an electric oven.
One plumber had the gaul to quote me 2500 dollars for the job.
Everything goes into the same location.
There is no moving of the pipes.

I am still trying to sort out this part of the job.
Nyc is the pits for labor prices
It is unusually high for tempermental workers
who have minor skills. Here everyone wants to make money off of someone else.
Be it brother-in-law, cousin. It is easier to keep the relatives working than lend them money!
It is difficult to get skilled labor here at any price .

gitananoel
I don't know if I understand your question correctly, but we had significant movement of the gas line. It went from one part of the kitchen to an entirely new wall -- it went from outside into a wall, up that wall, over the ceiling (through the floor joists between our 2 floors), then down another wall.

The pipe was bracket-ed/attached to the 2x4 stud that was already there (this is towards the left side of our range). The pipe went to the about 2 inches off the floor, where there's an elbow. There was originally a 3" nipple that led to the gas valve. The valve kept hitting the range as we were installing it, so I changed out the 3" to a 1.5" nipple. That's when I finally noticed that the final 1/2 inch gap between the wall and range was not because of the valve, but because of the unevenness of the wall.

You situation doesn't seem that tough to me, so long as the drywall is already open. It's just getting the pipes to the right spot (probably closer to the floor from where it is behind the pantry now) and then installing the elbow/nipple/valve. After having worked on the nipple and valve myself, I feel like it's something I could do. Of course, with gas, I'd never do it all myself without the proper supervision.

Good luck and feel free to contact me if you feel I can help you in any other way.

Sometimes those pro ranges can be installed as free-standing (with the metal backsplash) or as a slide-in (remove the OPTIONAL metal backsplash). Check your specs and see if it can be removed. Then see if you can have a piece of granite filled in at the back....a "bridge piece". A slide-in type install might not expose the unevenness as much.

Jac8's range looks to be a Bluestar to me, so the range must have that island trim attached, and it can only be freestanding. But that was a great idea, Kompy!

can i ask why this is such a big deal? so what if there's a half-inch gap on one side of the back of the range? am i missing something?