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Your laminate
countertop sounds truly bizarre!
This is obviously a
custom countertop. Normally custom laminate counters use
3/4" thick particle board as a
"substrate" or backing. The horizontal portion
over the cabinets is usually made from two layers, but
the bottom layer is sometimes just a series of narrow
strips around the perimeter.
The vertical part of
custom laminate counters is (from my experience) usually
just a single layer of 3/4" thick particle board.
My question is: What's
behind the laminate on the wall? Does the wall section
of the laminate appear to "stand off" the rest
of the wall by 3/4 inch? That would indicate that the
countertop installer simply fastened 3/4" particle
board to the drywall (after the cabinets had been
installed) and then glued the laminate to the particle
board.
Of course, they could
have glued the laminate directly to the drywall, which
could mean the the drywall will get damaged (ripped
paper facing) when you pry off the laminate.
Which leads me to my
next point: The only way I've dealt with unwanted
laminate counters is to rip them out. With store-bought
counters, you simply undo the screws that hold the
counter to the base cabinets (crawl in there, you might
see them at some of the corners of the base cabinets).
But... I've removed
custom counters that were made by nailing or screwing
the 3/4" particle board TO the base cabinets. That
is, from the top. Meaning that the laminate covers the
screw heads. It really sucks! On one job we had to use
reciprocating saws to cut the custom counter away from
the cabinets. And there was a ton of Liquid Nails
adhesive in there too.
Normally laminate is
glued with contact cement. I don't know what will
dissolve contact cement. Some contact cement uses
trichloroethane (also called Carbo-TriChlor, or
something) as a solvent/cleaner, but I don't know how
well that works after the glue has dried. You could look
for the solvent/cleaner that may be sold alongside
contact cement.
I would want to remove
an end cap of the laminate to see if I could figure out
what is behind the laminate on the wall.
To remove just the thin
layer of laminate I guess I would first try a heat gun
(not a hair dryer... not hot enough) and a putty knife
or chisel. I would HAMMER the chisel or putty knife
behind the edge of the laminate as I heated it up. Once
I got it started, I would switch to a thin flat prybar,
and I would work my way along the end cap. I doubt you'd
have much luck removing the entire sheet this way... it
would probably take forever. I'd just get a corner
started and try to pry slow and carefully, using LOTS of
prybars to spread the force.
But then maybe applying
some heat would help. I've never done it before. Try it.
Let me know what happens.
Don't use both heat AND
solvents... you could blow the place up! Seriously.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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