Labor cost to install counters

16 years ago

We are looking to have our counters replaced. Nothing fancy -just a laminate. We have about 20 linear feet of counter. It's a basic "C" shaped counter (counter/sink/counter/corner/counter/ free standing stove/counter/corner/counter) We had a friend come over a bid on it -His labor came in at $1800 which seems outrageous to us. We are just using a prefab piece of laminate and prefer no back splash b/c we we're going to do tile (ourselves)

For those of you who have had new laminate counters put in -what did your labor run?

Featured Answer

ellabee_2016

16 years ago

Sometimes a ridiculous bid is a contractor's way of saying he prefers not to take the job.

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Comments (8)

cawfeegirl
16 years ago
That seems outrageous to me, too! Im paying less than that to have my granite installed!
joep_2009
16 years ago
That works out to about $45 per square foot. I've only seen prices quoted that included both the countertop and the labor but I believe you can get granite for as little as $40/sq ft.
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granite-girl
16 years ago
That seems outrgeous to me. Espacially from a friend. if it's just basic laminate tear-out & laminate replacement, that shouldn't take much more than 3-4 hours at the most. Can you get a pre-fab lam top w/ no backsplash ? If it's pre-fab will he be making any cuts ? Diagonal cuts, sink cut outs ? Does he then have to glue on laminate ends to the cut edges ? And will there be plumbing hook-up or gas cooktop ? Those all could add to his time. But it surely wouldn't take more than a day, then that's $225/hr. Shew- I'd like to have his rates....
onlygirlsmom
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks so much for the responses! I thought I was losing my mind when I figured out his labor cost. He's getting the laminate from a kitchen shop -so the only cut he'll be doing is the sink cutout (unless he has the shop do that as well) and he would have to unhook the dishwasher, disposal and move the stove and that is soo time consuming..eye roll...
We are doing this mainly for resale -thus the reason for a nice laminate vs a solid surface (and in our area granite would not give us an edge in selling)
I was just thinking that when we put in hardwood floors 2 years ago the labor was just over a grand and THAT was time intensive!
onlygirlsmom
Original Author
16 years ago
ellabee-yep.I agree. although we also need to replace our lazy susan (one of the trays is cracked) and he sent me an email this morning saying he had found one and that if he wanted me to install that is would be around $200 for labor. He lives across the street, so it would have been the closest job ever for him!
bedfordfred
16 years ago
I recently got 3cm granite installed for $42/sf. The installers came out and templated (about 1 hr), and a week later installed (about two hours).

Laminate, installed, should be less than half the cost of granite.
decor8for2
16 years ago
I am paying $10.00 per sq foot to have WilsonArt HD installed.