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Our new home is nearing completion. The kitchen counter and bath tile is in place but not grouted yet. We have noticed that the kitchen counter/bar is not level. It is 3′ wide in an “L” shape. Two feet of the width of the counter is supported by the cabinet; there is a 12″ overhang that makes the bar. The entire area of the 12″ overhang slopes down more than a half-inch at the edge. It is very noticeable. The tile setter is contracted by the builder and before he got started on the job he told the builder that the plywood was unlevel. It is two layers of 3/4″. The builder told him to go ahead and lay the tile as is.
My question: Is this typical for plywood that is unsupported for 12″? Should something else be used instead of plywood? My most important question–should this unlevel countertop be acceptable? I’m thinking it should be corrected before the tile is grouted, but I don’t want to make unreasonable demands. I hope someone can give me advice on this soon.
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It's your money....you decide what's acceptable. If the slope is 1/2in. in 12inches(actually any counter width)......I wouldn't be happy to either to build it that way, or pay for it. In my book, if the customer isn't being anal/nitpicky....or trying to reduce the final payment....anything they can notice as being a problem....is my problem. Jeff
*1/2" in 12"? Unacceptable.
*Your demands are not unreasonable. No way that counter is right. An unsupported 12" ohang with dbl ply is certainly ok with laminate. With tile, there might be a little too much flex with weight applied (bag of dogfood, leaning etc. You might need to add a decorative to match the cab corbel to the underside. However, if the bottom layer of ply (buildup) runs well back under the supported area and is multi ply glued and screwed together, and the tile guy or you don't feel there's any deflection, then maybe the supports aren't necessary. As it is now, it looks bad and all your apples will roll off. Unacceptable and if the bldr doesn't care about this, wonder what else he doesn't care about.Best of luck.
*I have an eleven foot long countertop with a ten inch overhang, 3/4" plywood with only the edge doubled. It does not sag of it's own weight and I can sit on it (200 lbs point load - 1/4" deflection, measured just for this post.) I seriously doubt a completely doubled, glued and screwed, top will have deflection from normal leaning or a large bag of dog food. Countertops are not for sitting on.And, there is NO REASON but shoddy workmanship that would account for the 1/2" drop in 12". If the drop starts where the overhang starts you might want to check to see if they joined two pieces for the top rather than use one continuous piece and if they really used 3/4 plywood. If the slope is continuous across the 36" you might want to check the cabinets for level/plumb and/or proper seating of the top on the cabinets.Let us know what your builder says about this. I'll bet (hope) he still has some money coming for the job.
*M. Gray,
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*You have a problem that may be greater than just the unacceptable countertop. What else do you suppose might be sub-standard that the contractor decided to "go ahead" with anyway? I've seen and heard of alot of jobs that went sour when the contractor ignored the homeowners concerns. The homeowner gets fed up trying to get something fixed that is clearly wrong, and then starts nit-picking. I hope this doesn't happen to you. But if you have to make threats to get this guy to step up and do the right thing you might have other problems as well. Anything from a shoddy contractor to one with financial problems.good luck, Steve
*Just to join the crowd in saying this it totally unacceptable. This shows a bad attitude on the contractor's part and should make you suspicious about the rest of his work. If it were me I would put a stop work/payment on him until this is cured and you are satisfied with the rest of his already done work.This sounds drastic but when someone is willing to accept substandard work that shows you got to wonder what is there that doesn't show and will come up to bite you in a year or two.
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Our new home is nearing completion. The kitchen counter and bath tile is in place but not grouted yet. We have noticed that the kitchen counter/bar is not level. It is 3' wide in an "L" shape. Two feet of the width of the counter is supported by the cabinet; there is a 12" overhang that makes the bar. The entire area of the 12" overhang slopes down more than a half-inch at the edge. It is very noticeable. The tile setter is contracted by the builder and before he got started on the job he told the builder that the plywood was unlevel. It is two layers of 3/4". The builder told him to go ahead and lay the tile as is.
My question: Is this typical for plywood that is unsupported for 12"? Should something else be used instead of plywood? My most important question--should this unlevel countertop be acceptable? I'm thinking it should be corrected before the tile is grouted, but I don't want to make unreasonable demands. I hope someone can give me advice on this soon.