There are many ways to do it. I chose to use one inch angle iron, which stops well short of the outside edge keeping it out of sight. You will find other examples which use flat iron stock. The application will change based on your cabinet structure.

In our case there is a 19 inch overhang in the middle, you can see the outline drawn on the floor.

Thank you for that picture - it helps a lot! What a beautiful kitchen! Could you please explain the difference between the angled and flat iron?

Thanks!!

Sure, looking at the end profile of angle iron would be like an "L" where each side of the "L" is usually equal length. Flat would be a piece of flat metal of a given thickness.

There have been some folks who have posted photos of using flat stock, possibly they will see your posting and share.

Gotcha! The vertical part of the "L" - where does that attach to your cabinets?

Thank you so very much - this is really helpful!!

Here is a picture of what we did...we did an overhang on two sides and the wide side is 21" deep at the overhang. We also had 3 cm slab which was really heavy!!!

{{!gwi}}

We made it out of 1" steel tubing and my father welded it in the garage, DH and DF routed out the back of the cabinets in a 1" x 1" groove and we set it in place and screwed it to the cabinets. Another note, we had plywood boxes which made it that much more sturdy. Also, our slab is marble so we really wanted to reduce as much flex as possible so it wouldn't have a chance to crack on a seam.

Good Luck!

In my case we had to notch out the face of the cabinet, the supports extend into the cabinet and bolt to the sides of the cabinets. We installed larger metal on each side of the cabinet attach points for additional strength. They are the brown areas you see inside the cabinets.

You are going to find there are may ways to provide support depending on the counter material, the amount of extension, and the cabinet structure.

Here is another approach. A plywood subtop with flat steel stock inset into the plywood:

Close-up:

The island top is approximately 8 by 4 feet with a 15" overhang. The 5 steel bars are angled to avoid the cooktop and sink cutouts.

Our granite was 2 cm with a laminated edge that covers the edge of the plywood. If one was doing 3 cm or 2 cm without a laminated edge, the plywood edge could be covered with a bit of molding. Our cabinets are frameless with full overlay doors. This may be overkill.

We love having the overhang supported with nothing hanging down to block the legroom.

Wow - great pictures, thank you guys!

mindimoo- wow, that is a substantial support! Wanna come make one for me, too? I am doing 3cm marble as well. With 24" cabinets and then a 12" overhang I have been told we don't need something THAT elaborate - there is some 2/3 to 1/3 ratio. However, you certainly have peace of mind....

pew1 - hunting down that angle iron right now....:)

cloudswift - we are doing 3cm marble, with no laminated edge. I may need to keep you solution in mind though because I do like the idea of it being completely free space under the counter.

Thank you guys again!

We used the "L" brackets. Here is a picture of before & after.

Thanks, I found these really helpful too!

Cloud Swift,
I love your idea of using steel to reinforce the plywood. This may be a silly question, where do you get the flat steel stock? Also, how thick is the plywood you used?
Thanks

vlallen, The plywood is 3/4" - that makes it just a bit thinner than the 2 cm lamination on the countertop so that the edge on the granite covers the plywood. Our GC supplied the steel so I don't know where it came from. I expect that one could get it cut to length from a metal fabrication shop.

lagrant - this could be used with 3 cm granite. You could cover the edge of the plywood with a simple 3/4" molding stained to match your cabinets.

We used very heavy L brackets that were attached to the inside of our cabinets. The top of the cabinet had to be notched out to accommodate the bracket, so I'm not sure this would work if you have doors all the way to the top of your frame.

This isn't great, but it's the best pic I have before the counter was installed.

Thanks again for your replies! We did have the door panels dropped down to accomodate supports and because they simply looked better aligned with the rest of the full overlay doors. Holligator, do you know where those L brackets can be found? They look great and may work for us!

Thanks, as always, folks!

Holligator, how long is the overhang? How long is each L bracket? How much of the overhang is unsupported?

(I just posted a question regarding the length of the L brackets I should purchase and your picture was quite intersting!).

bump

So sorry I didn't check back on this thread sooner!

We got our brackets from www.shortrunpro.com (complete link below). These are the ones that Florida Joshua recommended, since he was installing my soapstone. These brackets were expensive but they are SO very strong and heavy--nothing like ones you could find at a hardware store.

My island is 7.5' long with ends that extend out to the edge on the seating side. Although this limits seating a little (without the end piece, we might be able to squeeze in a fourth stool), we really like the look and it had the added advantage of providing significant support for the overhang. This means we only needed two brackets; without those ends, we would have needed three.

I was a little worried about knocking knees on the sharp edges of the L brackets, but that hasn't been an issue at all, and I have very long legs. I had planned to have them filed down, but I had kind of forgotten about it until this post. The brackets are pretty much invisible unless you're lying on the floor looking up at the bottom of the overhang. Here's the finished island, with plenty of room for three stools.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heavy duty L brackets

Holligator, What is the width of your island and the depth of your overhang? I like your idea of replacing korbels with L-brackets and would like to mention it to my cabinet guy. Thanks!

I had been agonizing over this very subject for days, reading everything I can, hitting all the web sites, etc.
Short Run Pro was a logical choice in the search for overhang support, though the cost and timing was not too attractive. They have a bracket load calculater that's really cool.
Pew1's post on their angle iron support was the most interesting, since it clearly offered more stability than flat stock or standard angle brackets.
For my granite countertop I have chosen Chemical Concepts Counterbalance Island bracket.
It is an "L" bracket design that I can easily route into the top of the cabinet for up to 18" of support. I'll post pics once the bracket install is done.
http://www.chemical-concepts.com/index.php

Here is a link that might be useful: Specialty Tools CounterBalance

We ended up going with the CounterBalance product. I love that it is very flat and can't be detected unless you crawl under the island and go looking for them. Great solution that worked well for us.

I am going to use counterbalance too (actually a DIY version since I work at a metal fabrication shop). lagrant, how many did you use and how far apart are they spaced? Got pictures?

I also would like to know how many I would need of the counterbalance supports for a 120" long span of about 10" overhang of 3mm granite ..thanks

I'm so sorry for not seeing this question until now! We have a 12" overhang of 3cm marble - the island length is 146" and we used 3 supports. The widest part of the L-shaped island is 74" and we used 2 on that side. I don't have pictures yet...

I would strongly recommend AGAINST buying ANY CounterBalance product... they will completely hose the homeowner / DYI consumer. Just compare the price for the brackets between http://counterbalanceshop.com and http://www.chemical-concepts.com/counterbalance.php The same product will cost you $114 at the first site and $81 at the second. Really??? THEY ARE BOTH THE SAME VENDOR. I tried to place an order based upon the info on the Chemical site (didn't even know about the counterbalance site) and they wouldn't honor the price posted. Don't do business with this vendor who isn't interested in doing business with you. Vendor's words: "I could care less about" selling to consumers. STAY AWAY !!! Find a local machine shop who is interested in doing business at a fair price/profit. The product is a VERY simple job for any machine shop to produce. Chemical concepts doesn't even make the product -- they sell glue.

For the person who wanted to know where they could get metal support bars, here is an option: http://metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/MWSRCH?N=32003649 I don't have any experience with them, so I don't know if their prices/policies are good or bad. I just found them from doing a bit of searching.