Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - removing old wilson art countertop

will be reusing old kitchen cabinets in basement. how do I remove the wilson art countertop? I figured I would just pry it off. Wife (bought house and new counter before we were married) said there is special way to remove them?

Unless it is rellay old, it is probably held with screws from underneath. Remove drawers from cabinets and look underneath at the cabinet corners. You should see screws in all or some corners, remove those and it should be loose.

It is about 10 years old. It is solid surface, not laminate, if that matters? I don't know if wilson art makes laminate but I thought I should let you know that it is solid.

It could still be held down by screws through the corner blocks into the substrate strips, or it could be held by dollops of silicone. If the latter, use a knife stuck in between the top and cabinet to cut the silicone. Once you've cut a few spots of silicone try lifting from the edges by hand. Silicone will let go if you exert constant tension on it. Shims can be driven in to further separate the top from the cabs. Good luck

thanks for the help, but I am not yet at the stage of taking it apart. My wife had told me that it had to be separated a special way so I was doing some planning. Anyway, I took out a drawer and was kinda surprised at what I saw. I am not so sure it is solid surface. At least it is not full thickness solid surface. If you were to flip the countertop up as if the back of it were hinged to the wall so that you are looking at the underside (side that mates to cabinets) what I have is the outer 1" perimeter is full thickness of the decorative surface. The majority of it is cut out about an 1" deep so that the "solid surface" here is probably only about 1/2". Inside of this cutout, there is a 1" wide perimeter of plywood that is 1" thick (the bottom of the plywood is essentially the cabinet mating surface). So is this considered solid surface? sure doesn't look like the silestone that I have looked at.

There was someone that made a 1/4" solid surface bonded to plywood, not sure if it was Wilsonart. They had full solid surface edges and the look of solid surface, but less expensive. It was discontinued after only a few years. But when you said Wilsonart, I assumed high pressure laminate(Formica like material). Yes, solid surface is usually secured with a dab of silicone here/there. It is not supposed to be all the way around, but some people get carried away.

is 1/2" thick. What you are describing is a 1 1/2" built up edge on exposed edges. The fabricator cuts strips to whatever width he wants and glues two layers on the bottom. He then straightens the outside, routs a profile, and sands it smooth. Silestone is a different animal. It is one of a number of engineered stones to hit the market in the last 10 years or so. Engineered stone is comprised of 93% quartz, the rest being resin & pigments. It's very heavy, about 15 lbs/sq ft in 3 cm thickness. It's also hard, third hardest under diamond, so it's a 7 on the Muhs scale where diamond is a 10. Solid surface, on the other hand, is about 38% acrylic or polyester resin, the rest being alumina trihydrate from bauxite ore, plus pigments. It's relatively soft, which is why it scratches easily.