Hi lacuisine,

We have our range and vent hood installed in a corner wall. Our contractor built a lip on each side of the range for our slide-in range. I don't know if he'd have done the same thing had our range not been in a corner. Here are some pictures.

The granite for our Electrolux slide in range is flush with the cabinets. There is 30 inches between the granite pieces, but the cooktop area under the lip measures 29. I was just measuring this a few minutes ago because we can't fit our range into place properly. It sticks out from the cabinets a bit and we can see into the open sides of the range (beyond the trim that is supposed to hide that stuff). At first we thought the granite just needed to be notched to fit the cooktop controls, but now we realized that the cabinet installer didn't allow enough space for the extra bump out on the range back for the 2nd oven (almost 3 inches additional depth from the cooktop lip). We are now having a sheet metal shop make stainless steel side panels to mount to the range so that we aren't looking into the guts of the range where it doesn't fit properly! It seemed like a less expensive and painful option than fighting with the cabinet company and making them redo the install and have new granite slabs cut especially because it has taken a month to install the cabinets we have no desire to deal with these people anymore. Can anything go right?

Granite should end where cabinets end. In our case, and in many others, we had a 4" X 30" piece of granite seamed to the counter for the back- our kitchen place did that for us at N/C rather than paying for a longer piece with a cutout. We would have had a seam on the right side anyways- so no brainer for us, seam is totally invisible anyways.

With all due respect, I beg to differ. My kitchen installer and my countertop fabricator and installer both told me the countertop needs to go under the lip of the slide in if it is a true slide-in and not a free standing range. That is WHY the range has a lip on each side and it is what gives the "built-in" look. More than one granite professional told me the same when I asked, because I had really wanted to avoid making that purchase right away, but didn't want to be sorry later if I waited. I went out and purchased a new range just for this reason because everyone was adamant that in order to be installed "correctly" the range had to be purchased in advance so the opening could be custom cut for the model of range so that the lip would fit over the countertop. That is not the case for a free standing unit where you can just slide it into place between 2 cabinets. That is what I had before and was going to replace it with a slide in at a later date to save money. That was not recommended by anyone involved in my kitchen.

That said, if you already have a standard 30" space with no overhang, you CAN probably substitute a slide in there but it might not have the custom fit it would otherwise.

I can get photos if needed.

Sue

I should clarify. My Kitchen installer used the slide in range info to place the cabinets so that the space left was close to the space required for the slide in with a tiny amt of extra. The countertop fabricator and installer then made a tiny lip to take up the difference, I only have maybe 1/8-1/4" overlap on each side by the countertop beyond the sides of the cabinets. I think 1/8 would be more accurate. so it really is not very much at all. You can't see between the range and cabinet and there is a overlap on the top of the range that goes over the countertop. If you are just replacing the countertop and adding a slide in, you would have a larger gap between the stove and side cabinets and more overhang by the countertop so that the lips of the range went over it.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of slide in range installation