I also have a 30" free-standing range that I plan to replace some time in the near future. As I recall, it was in place during the templating, i.e., no one found it necessary to move it out of its opening. I don't know where you live, but in my area (No. Calif.) they put a plywood base on top of the cabs. As far as I could tell, they templated to the plywood. In my case, they also made a mistake...the finished quartz extended slightly beyond the plywood on one side of the stove. They had to come back and grind some of it down.

my GC specifically installed my stove before templating to be sure it all came together right.

We just had our template made this week. The GC put the stove in place so the template would be exact. He said they usually cut the stone a little big, and install the stove with the granite. That way the granite can be trimmed on-site to fit exactly with the stove. Apparently, there are some variations from one stove to the next one coming off the assembly line - so they do it this way to get it right.

Thanks for posting this and for the follow-up from others. Our template will be done on Friday and I did not think about this.

I will make sure the electician finalizes our stove outlet this week so we can get that stove into its new place.

Thanks again!

Our range was not installed but was on-site so the fabricator could measure it.

So - I will not have my new range - the floor model had a few small problems so I didn't take it and have to wait for the new one.. I have the dimensions and I have my old range. I may just pop the old one in if the dimensions are the same...I am hoping this is the biggest problems we run into....