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AfterHow Much Does Countertop Installation Cost in Los Angeles?
Countertop installation in Los Angeles typically runs $2,360 to $7,670, including tear-out of the old surface, templating, fabrication, and set-in-place. A standard 30-square-foot kitchen in a postwar Sherman Oaks ranch house usually lands near the low-to-middle end of that range, while a large slab in a view home above the Sunset Strip pushes toward the top. The biggest single swing factor isn’t the size of your kitchen, it’s the material you pick and how many cuts, seams, and cutouts the job needs.
We’re Bradford Remodeling. We’ve set thousands of linear feet of counter in Los Angeles County kitchens, and the one thing we hear from homeowners before they hire us is that nobody would give them a straight number. So here’s the straight number, up top, in writing where it belongs. Every project we run starts with a written price before a single tool comes out, backed by The Garrison Standard and our 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Key Takeaways
- Baseline countertop installation in Los Angeles: $2,360 – $7,670 installed.
- Material is the biggest lever. Laminate runs several times cheaper than natural quartzite per square foot.
- An undermount sink cutout, a cooktop cut, and a waterfall edge each add cost, and they add up fast.
- Older LA homes often need substrate work under the cabinet before a slab goes down.
- You get a written price for countertop installation in Los Angeles before any work begins, every time.
Countertop Installation Cost Breakdown (2026)
Here’s how the money splits out on a typical Los Angeles job. These are installed ranges, meaning the material, the fabrication, the tear-out, and the labor to set it are all in the number.
| Line Item | Typical LA Range |
|---|---|
| Laminate countertop, installed (per sq ft) | $25 – $55 |
| Butcher block, installed (per sq ft) | $50 – $95 |
| Quartz (engineered stone), installed (per sq ft) | $65 – $130 |
| Natural granite, installed (per sq ft) | $55 – $115 |
| Marble or quartzite, installed (per sq ft) | $85 – $180 |
| Tear-out and haul-away of old surface | $150 – $500 |
| Templating and fabrication | $300 – $900 |
| Undermount sink cutout and mount | $150 – $400 |
| Cooktop or drop-in range cutout | $100 – $300 |
| Edge profile upgrade (bullnose, ogee, waterfall) | $200 – $1,200 |
| Backsplash to match (per sq ft, installed) | $25 – $75 |
| Plywood substrate or cabinet shimming | $200 – $800 |
| Full kitchen countertop project, installed | $2,360 – $7,670 |
That full-project range is the one to hold onto. A small galley kitchen in an older Burbank bungalow with laminate can come in under $2,500. A 60-square-foot quartz job in a Mid-Wilshire condo with a waterfall island edge and a matching full-height backsplash can push past $7,000 before you’ve added the sink. The per-square-foot numbers above let you sanity-check any bid you get, because they let you do the math yourself.
What Affects Countertop Installation Pricing in Los Angeles
Pricing in LA doesn’t move for the reasons people assume. It’s not mainly about how big your kitchen is. It’s these six things.
- Material choice. A laminate top and a quartzite slab can cover the same square footage and differ by thousands of dollars. Laminate is a sheet product; natural stone is quarried, shipped, slabbed, and often book-matched, and you pay for every one of those steps.
- Slab versus remnant. Full slabs from a stone yard are priced per slab, and if your layout needs more than one, you buy more than one. Remnants left over from bigger jobs can cover a small bathroom vanity for a fraction of a slab, and we hunt them down when a job allows.
- Sink and cutout count. One undermount sink cutout is standard. Add a cooktop cut, a soap dispenser hole, a filtered-water tap, and an outlet pop, and the fabrication shop bills for each one. Los Angeles kitchens in older homes often have outlets that need to move, and that’s a cutout too.
- Substrate condition. Under every countertop is a substrate, usually plywood, that carries the load and keeps the surface flat. In homes built before the 1960s, which is much of Echo Park, Highland Park, and Boyle Heights, cabinet boxes are often out of level and the existing substrate is swollen or rotted. Leveling and re-decking adds $200 – $800 on most of those jobs.
- Seams and edge profiles. Every seam in a slab is a point where water and grime can get in, so we keep them to a minimum and place them where they won’t catch the eye. A waterfall edge, where the surface runs down the side of an island to the floor, takes a mitered joint and careful templating. It looks right and it costs more.
- Stairs, elevators, and parking. This is the Los Angeles factor nobody lists. A slab is heavy and awkward, and carrying one up two flights of exterior stairs in the Hollywood Hills or squeezing it into a Century City high-rise freight elevator takes bodies and time. Jobs with tight access get a labor line added, and you’ll see it in the quote before you sign.
One more thing we tell every homeowner: Los Angeles has strong seismic activity, and a countertop that isn’t fastened and supported correctly can crack at a seam during a moderate shake. The substrate and the set matter as much as the surface you see. That’s why we template and inspect before we cut, not after.
How Much Should You Expect to Pay for Different Materials?
Material choice drives the range harder than anything else, so it’s worth seeing the numbers side by side. These are installed costs for a typical 30-square-foot kitchen counter.
- Laminate: $750 – $1,650 installed. The budget choice, and it’s genuinely durable. It won’t take a hot pan off the stove, so use a trivet.
- Butcher block: $1,500 – $2,850 installed. Warm, repairable, and it needs oiling. Popular in the smaller kitchens we do in Culver City and Mar Vista.
- Quartz (engineered stone): $1,950 – $3,900 installed. Non-porous, no sealing, and the brand roster we install includes Cambria and Caesarstone for traceable specs and manufacturer warranties.
- Granite: $1,650 – $3,450 installed. Natural variation, no two slabs alike, and it wants a sealer every year or two.
- Marble or quartzite: $2,550 – $5,400 installed. The luxury tier. Marble etches with acid (lemon juice, wine), quartzite doesn’t. We walk through both before anyone commits.
When you add tear-out, the sink mount, an edge upgrade, and a matching backsplash on top of any of those, you land inside our stated $2,360 – $7,670 range. That’s the range to budget against.
How to Save on Countertop Installation
You can save real money here without cutting corners if you know where the give is.
- Use a remnant for small surfaces. A powder room vanity, a laundry counter, a bar top. Remnants from larger jobs cost a fraction of a fresh slab, and the surface is identical.
- Keep the existing layout. Moving the sink or adding an island means new plumbing and a bigger fabrication scope. If the plumbing works, leave it.
- Pick a standard edge. A simple eased or bullnose edge is included in most slab pricing. Fancy profiles add $200 – $1,200 for looks, not durability.
- Bundle the backsplash with the counter job. Doing countertops and backsplash in the same mobilization means one templating trip, one tear-out, one set of material deliveries. That saves on labor.
- Fix the substrate at the same time, not later. Re-decking under the counter during installation is far cheaper than unsetting a finished slab after it cracks.
- Get the price in writing first. This is the one that matters most. Free estimates and a written price before work starts mean no number moves at the door, and that protects your budget more than any material swap.
Call Bradford Remodeling at (903) 568-7222 for a free estimate. A live person answers, day or night. You’ll get a written number you can hold us to.
Repair or Replace? A Real Cost Comparison
If an existing counter has a small crack, a burn, or a failing seam, a repair runs $150 – $600 depending on material and whether the color can be matched. But repair only makes sense if the substrate is sound. Once a countertop has cracked because the plywood underneath swelled or the cabinet box shifted, patching the surface is throwing money at a problem that comes back. On jobs in older Los Angeles homes, we open the cabinet, check the deck, and tell you honestly which one you’re dealing with. A repair on a sound substrate is cheap. A replacement on a bad one is the honest call, and we’d rather tell you now than after you’ve paid twice.
What Does a Bradford Countertop Job Actually Involve?
Here’s the sequence, so nothing is a surprise.
- Templating. We measure the actual cabinet, not the old counter. Cabinets are rarely square, especially in pre-war Los Angeles homes, and the template is what the slab gets cut to.
- Material selection. We work from a documented roster of name-brand surfaces, including Cambria, Caesarstone, and Silestone, so every spec is traceable and carries a manufacturer warranty on top of ours.
- Tear-out and substrate prep. Old surface comes out, we inspect the deck, and we level and re-deck where needed.
- Fabrication and set. Cutouts for the sink and cooktop, seams placed to be least visible, edges finished, slab set and fastened.
- Final walk. Clean site, documented scope, and a signed written guarantee in your hand.
Every completed Bradford project carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise. That’s a full year of written coverage: if the work fails inside that window, we come back and correct it at no charge. Free return visit, no argument. And a uniformed, background-checked technician shows up on every job, so you know who is walking through your door before the crew arrives.
FAQs – Countertop Installation Cost in Los Angeles
How much does countertop installation cost in Los Angeles?
Countertop installation in Los Angeles runs $2,360 to $7,670 for a full kitchen project, installed. That includes tear-out, templating, fabrication, sink and cooktop cutouts, and set-in-place. Small jobs using a remnant can come in lower. Call (903) 568-7222 for an exact number on your kitchen, estimates are free.
Is quartz cheaper than granite in Los Angeles?
Not usually. Installed quartz in the LA market runs roughly $65 – $130 per square foot, and granite runs about $55 – $115. So granite is often the cheaper of the two by $10 – $15 per square foot. Quartz makes up for it by being non-porous, so it never needs sealing. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll price both for your kitchen side by side.
How much does a countertop cost per square foot?
Installed per-square-foot pricing in Los Angeles starts around $25 for laminate and goes to $180 for premium marble or quartzite. Quartz, the most common choice we install, sits at $65 – $130 installed. Call (903) 568-7222 for a written per-square-foot price on the material you’re considering.
Can you install a countertop the same day?
Rarely, and you should be wary of anyone who promises it. Stone surfaces have to be templated first, then fabricated, so the realistic turnaround is typically several days from measurement to set, with more time for special edges. What we can promise is a written schedule and a live person who answers when you call (903) 568-7222 to check on it.
How much does it cost to install a countertop over existing cabinets?
Keeping your existing cabinets keeps countertop replacement in the $2,360 – $7,670 range rather than pushing you into a full kitchen remodel. The variable is the substrate: if the old deck is sound, you’re at the low end. If the cabinets are out of level, add $200 – $800 for re-decking. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll tell you which one you’ve got.
Why Homeowners in Los Angeles Call Bradford
We’re Bradford Remodeling, part of the Garrison Partners family since 2004 and independently owned and operated here, held to The Garrison Standard. Our general contracting, kitchen remodeling, and whole-home work runs on a documented roster of premium brands: KraftMaid and Wellborn cabinetry, Cambria and Caesarstone surfaces, Kohler and Moen fixtures, GAF roofing, James Hardie siding, and Therma-Tru doors, among others. Specifications get written down. Prices get written down. The guarantee gets written down. If you’ve been burned by a contractor who no-showed, repriced at the door, or left the site a mess, that’s the reason we do it this way.
We’d rather give you an honest number and lose the job than lowball you and make it up later. That’s the whole discipline behind what we do. Call (903) 568-7222 for a free estimate on your countertop. A written price, a real person on the line, and a full year of coverage when the work is done.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner at Bradford Remodeling, serving Los Angeles since 2004.
Pricing reflects the Los Angeles market as of 2026. Bradford Remodeling offers free estimates – call (903) 568-7222.
What Our Customers Say
"Home remodel with a new floor plan. Handled structural work and permits without drama."
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