Countertop cost dataset
This is the complete dataset behind the countertop calculator, at national rates. It leads with a conversion table rather than a price list, because the commonest question about countertops is not what they cost but which unit the answer is in: you measure a run in linear feet and every quote comes back in square feet. Last reviewed 2026-08-23.
Linear feet to square feet, and what each costs
National figures, quartz, 25.5-inch depth, 4-inch matching splash, undermount sink, cooktop cutout, old top removed. Multiply linear feet by 2.13 to get the counter area before the splash.
| Counter run | Counter area | With splash | Slabs | Cost | Per sq ft | Per linear ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 ft | 17 sq ft | 19.7 sq ft | 1 | $2,899 | $147 | $362 |
| 12 ft | 25.5 sq ft | 29.5 sq ft | 1 | $3,706 | $126 | $309 |
| 16 ft | 34 sq ft | 39.3 sq ft | 1 | $4,509 | $115 | $282 |
| 20 ft | 42.5 sq ft | 49.2 sq ft | 2 | $5,326 | $108 | $266 |
| 25 ft | 53.1 sq ft | 61.5 sq ft | 2 | $6,337 | $103 | $253 |
| 30 ft | 63.8 sq ft | 73.8 sq ft | 2 | $7,349 | $100 | $245 |
| 40 ft | 85 sq ft | 98.3 sq ft | 3 | $9,362 | $95 | $234 |
Two things to read off it. The per-square-foot column falls steeply as the run grows, because templating, delivery and the install visit cost the same whether the job is eight feet or forty — which is why a small countertop is expensive per foot and why a remnant is worth asking about below about twenty square feet. And the slab column steps rather than slides: each step is a seam you will live with, and where it falls is decided over the drawing rather than on delivery day.
The six materials
On the same default 20-foot run — 49.2 square feet of material.
| Material | Slab yield | Hours per sq ft | Total | Per sq ft | What you are choosing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laminate | — | 0.18 | $3,181 | $65 | Sold by the running foot, cut on site, fitted in a day. Much the cheapest and the only one on this list a competent amateur can install. |
| Butcher block | — | 0.22 | $4,351 | $88 | Solid timber, warm and repairable: sand out a scorch mark and it is gone. It needs oiling, it moves with humidity, and it does not belong either side of a sink unless the joint is sealed properly. |
| Solid surface | — | 0.28 | $5,511 | $112 | Cast acrylic sheet with invisible joints and an integral sink if you want one. Repairable, seamless, and it scratches and scorches more easily than stone. |
| Granite | 37.8 sq ft | 0.55 | $5,720 | $116 | Natural stone, every slab different, and the one where you should go and pick the actual slab rather than a sample. Needs sealing, takes heat, and chips at an unsupported edge. |
| Quartz (engineered stone) | 44.1 sq ft | 0.55 | $5,326 | $108 | Ground stone in resin, so it is consistent slab to slab and needs no sealing. ⚠️ It is also up to 95% crystalline silica, which is a serious hazard for whoever cuts it — not for you afterwards. |
| Marble | 34.8 sq ft | 0.6 | $7,300 | $148 | Beautiful, soft and porous. It etches where lemon juice sits and it stains where oil does, and people who love it accept both. Not a surface to choose for a kitchen you want to look untouched. |
The slab yields are our estimate of a usual case and not a published standard: quarries cut to different sizes and fabricators lose different amounts to cuts. They matter here because they turn a slab price into a per-square-foot rate, which is the arithmetic a fabricator does before quoting you.
⚠️ One thing about quartz that belongs next to its price. CDC NIOSH, Silica and countertop work states that some engineered stone products are made of up to 95% crystalline silica, and names countertop work as a primary exposure concern for workers. It is not a hazard to you once the top is in. It is a reason to ask a fabricator whether they cut wet and extract, and a reason to be wary of a quote far below the rest. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
The extras that are charged separately
These are the items that make an invoice arrive above the advertised rate per square foot. On the default job, stripping all of them out takes it from $108 a square foot to $80.
Edge profile
| Profile | Total | Adds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eased or straight | $5,326 | included | The edge every fabricator includes: square, with the arris taken off. It is the strongest profile and the least likely to chip. |
| Bullnose or half-bullnose | $5,656 | +$330 | Rounded over. Kinder to hips and to toddlers, and it costs per linear foot because it is a second pass on the polisher. |
| Ogee or moulded | $5,906 | +$580 | A shaped profile cut with a router bit and polished by hand. It is the dearest per foot and it dates faster than anything else you can choose here. |
| Mitered edge or waterfall | $7,106 | +$1,780 | The stone is cut at 45 degrees and glued to look like a solid block. It uses far more material, it is a shop job with no margin for error, and on an island it runs to the floor. |
Matching splash
| Option | Extra area | Slabs | Adds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None — tile or paint behind | — | 1 | — | The counter stops at the wall and something else goes behind it. Cheapest, and it is what most kitchens with a tiled splashback do. |
| 4-inch matching splash | 6.7 sq ft | 2 | +$548 | A strip of the same material along the back. It hides the wall joint and it is the classic look on laminate and granite alike. |
| Full-height slab splash | 30 sq ft | 2 | +$2,466 | The material carried right up to the wall units. It looks continuous, it has no grout to clean, and it can add half a slab to the order — which is why it costs far more than the extra area suggests. |
Sink cutout
| Option | Total | Adds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undermount sink | $5,326 | +$540 | The cut edge is exposed, so it has to be polished by hand after cutting. That polishing is the whole reason this cutout costs more than a drop-in one. |
| Drop-in sink | $5,106 | +$320 | The sink rim covers the cut, so the edge is never seen and never polished. It is the cheap cutout and the one that collects crumbs at its rim. |
| No sink in this run | $4,786 | — | An island or a bar with no plumbing in it. |
The sink figure includes the plumber’s two visits as well as the cutout, because they only happen if there is a sink. That is also why the kitchen has no working sink between the template and the installation — on stone, usually about a week.
Line items
| Line item | Unit | Material | Equipment / hr | Trade | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take out the old countertop (conditional)3 h + 0.1 h per sq ft where the old top comes out | hour | — | — | Construction Laborers | sourced |
| Haulage and disposal (conditional)1 where the old top comes out | job | $150 – $460 | — | — | estimated±51% |
| Plumber: disconnect and reconnect the sink (conditional)3 plumber hours where there is a sink | hour | — | — | Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters | sourced |
| Laminate countertop material (conditional)total area where the material is laminate | sq ft | $13 – $34 | — | — | estimated±45% |
| Butcher block material (conditional)total area where the material is butcher block | sq ft | $24 – $66 | — | — | estimated±47% |
| Solid surface material (conditional)total area where the material is solid surface | sq ft | $38 – $92 | — | — | estimated±42% |
| Granite, supplied (conditional)total area where the material is granite (slab price / 37.8 sq ft of yield) | sq ft | $25 – $87 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Quartz, supplied (conditional)total area where the material is quartz (slab price / 44.1 sq ft of yield) | sq ft | $26 – $70 | — | — | estimated±46% |
| Marble, supplied (conditional)total area where the material is marble (slab price / 34.8 sq ft of yield) | sq ft | $39 – $132 | — | — | estimated±54% |
| Template, cut, polish and install the stone (conditional)total area × 0.55 hours per sq ft for stone | hour | — | — | Tile and Stone Setters | sourced |
| Cut and fit the sheet material (conditional)total area × hours per sq ft for the chosen sheet material | hour | — | — | Carpenters | sourced |
| Undermount sink cutout, polished (conditional)1 where the sink is undermounted | cutout | $190 – $520 | — | — | estimated±46% |
| Drop-in sink cutout (conditional)1 where the sink drops in | cutout | $70 – $200 | — | — | estimated±48% |
| Cooktop cutout (conditional)1 where there is a cooktop | cutout | $100 – $300 | — | — | estimated±50% |
| Bullnose edge profile (conditional)exposed edge length where the profile is bullnose | linear ft | $9.00 – $24 | — | — | estimated±45% |
| Ogee or moulded edge profile (conditional)exposed edge length where the profile is ogee | linear ft | $16 – $42 | — | — | estimated±45% |
| Mitered edge or waterfall (conditional)exposed edge length where the edge is mitered | linear ft | $48 – $130 | — | — | estimated±46% |
| Steel brackets or corbels for an overhang (conditional)1 where an overhang needs support | job | $140 – $430 | — | — | estimated±51% |
| Sealing, silicone and final polish1 per job | job | $45 – $150 | — | — | estimated±54% |
The reasoning behind each figure
Written out so a fabricator can point at the exact assumption that is wrong.
- Take out the old countertop
- Three hours plus a tenth of an hour per square foot: disconnecting, breaking the seal, lifting it off and getting it out of the house.
- A stone top comes out in pieces because a whole one will not go round a doorway and weighs more than four people want to carry. ⚠️ Breaking it up is silica work under OSHA 1926.1153, so it is done wet or outside.
- Haulage and disposalestimated, ±51%
- Stone is heavy rather than bulky, and it goes out as construction waste. Laminate is light and still does not fit in a household bin.
- Plumber: disconnect and reconnect the sink
- Three hours across two visits: the sink, tap and waste come off before the template is taken, and go back after the new top is in and the silicone has cured.
- It is two visits and not one, and that is worth planning around: the kitchen has no sink in between. On a stone top that gap is typically a week, because the slab is templated, cut in a shop and then delivered.
- Laminate countertop materialestimated, ±45%
- Post-formed or flat-laid laminate over a particleboard core, cut to length. The band covers a stock roll-edge top through a custom colour with a squared edge.
- The core is a composite wood product, so it falls under the emission standards the EPA administers under the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010. Compliant material is labelled; it is worth checking rather than assuming.
- Butcher block materialestimated, ±47%
- Edge-grain or end-grain hardwood, sanded and oiled. End grain is the dearer half of this band and the one that is actually a chopping board.
- It is the only material here that gets better with maintenance and worse without it. Oil it or it dries and splits, and keep standing water off the joint around the sink.
- Solid surface materialestimated, ±42%
- Cast acrylic sheet, thermoformed and joined with an adhesive of the same colour so the seams disappear. An integral sink moulded from the same sheet is inside the upper half of this band.
- It scratches, and that is a feature rather than a fault: scratches sand out. Stone does not scratch and cannot be repaired when it chips.
- Granite, suppliedestimated, ±55%
- Priced per square foot, and the figure is the fabricator's own arithmetic rather than ours: a granite slab runs roughly 950 to 3,300 dollars for about 110 by 65 inches, of which around 37.8 square feet ends up on your kitchen once the cuts are taken out. Divide one by the other and you have this band.
- The three-to-one spread is not durability. Granite is graded by how unusual the stone looks, and a common speckled grey does exactly the same job on a worktop as a rare book-matched slab.
- Go and pick the actual slab rather than a sample. Two slabs of the same named granite can look like different rocks, because they are.
- Quartz, suppliedestimated, ±46%
- Priced per square foot from the same arithmetic: a jumbo quartz slab is roughly 1,150 to 3,100 dollars for about 126 by 63 inches, yielding around 44.1 square feet. The yield is better than granite because the slab is bigger and genuinely rectangular rather than a natural shape.
- The band is narrower than granite's because quartz is manufactured: colour and pattern are consistent slab to slab, and what you pay more for is pattern complexity rather than rarity.
- It needs no sealing, ever. That is one of the few differences between quartz and granite that you will actually notice in daily use.
- ⚠️ CDC NIOSH states that some engineered stone products are made of up to 95% crystalline silica, and names countertop work as a primary exposure concern. That is a hazard for whoever cuts it, not for you afterwards, and it is a real reason to ask a fabricator whether they cut wet and extract. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Marble, suppliedestimated, ±54%
- Priced per square foot from a slab of roughly 1,350 to 4,600 dollars yielding about 34.8 square feet. The yield is the lowest here because marble is soft and breaks readily at a narrow cut, such as the strip beside a sink.
- ⚠️ It etches on contact with anything acidic and it stains from oil, and both are permanent. They start in the first month. Nobody should choose marble without knowing that, and plenty of people who know it choose it anyway.
- Template, cut, polish and install the stone
- About thirty-three minutes a square foot across the whole process: a digital or physical template taken on site, the slab cut and polished in a shop, then delivered and set. Most of those hours happen where you are not.
- This is the largest single labour item and the one that separates a good fabricator from a cheap one. A seam you cannot find and an edge with no chips are both bought here.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data adjusted to your area, but tile and stone setters are published for only 141 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those, this hour comes from the broader construction group for the same area.
- Cut and fit the sheet material
- About eleven minutes a square foot for laminate, thirteen for butcher block and seventeen for solid surface, all cut and fitted on site or in a small shop.
- The difference from stone is not skill, it is where the work happens. A laminate top is measured, cut and installed in one visit; a stone top is templated, made elsewhere and delivered a week later.
- Undermount sink cutout, polishedestimated, ±46%
- The opening is cut and then the exposed edge is ground and polished by hand until it matches the top surface. That hand polishing is the cost; the cutting is minutes.
- It is charged as a separate item by almost every fabricator, and it is one of the two or three things that make a quote arrive higher than the price per square foot suggested.
- Drop-in sink cutoutestimated, ±48%
- A straight cut with no finishing, because the sink rim covers it. A third of the price of an undermount cutout for exactly that reason.
- Cooktop cutoutestimated, ±50%
- Cut to the appliance manufacturer's template, which is why the cooktop has to be bought and its dimensions known before the countertop is fabricated rather than after.
- Ordering the appliance late is one of the commonest ways a kitchen slips a fortnight.
- Bullnose edge profileestimated, ±45%
- A second pass on the profiling machine and then a hand polish along every exposed edge. Priced per linear foot because that is exactly how the work scales.
- Ogee or moulded edge profileestimated, ±45%
- A shaped bit and a long hand polish into the recesses, where a machine cannot reach. The dearest edge available and the one that most clearly belongs to a particular decade.
- Mitered edge or waterfallestimated, ±46%
- Two pieces cut at 45 degrees and glued so the pattern runs round the corner and the top looks like a solid block of stone. It uses noticeably more material and there is no second attempt if the mitre is wrong.
- On an island the same detail run to the floor is a waterfall, and it is the single most expensive thing you can ask a fabricator for per foot.
- Steel brackets or corbels for an overhangestimated, ±51%
- Concealed steel plates let into the cabinet top, or visible corbels. Needed once a breakfast bar overhangs beyond what the stone carries on its own.
- Getting this wrong is not a cosmetic problem: an unsupported stone overhang breaks along the sink or the seam, usually when somebody leans on it. It is cheap now and impossible to add once the top is glued down.
- Sealing, silicone and final polishestimated, ±54%
- Impregnating sealer on granite or marble, colour-matched silicone at every wall and along the splash, and the surface polished before handover.
- Quartz needs no sealing at all, which is one of the few genuinely practical differences between it and granite. The silicone is still needed on both.
Not included in this dataset
- The sink, the tap and the appliances
- This prices the countertop, its fabrication and its cutouts. The sink itself, the tap, the waste disposal and the cooktop are bought separately and vary more than the stone does.
- Cabinets, and whether they can carry it
- A stone top weighs roughly 18 to 22 pounds a square foot, so a normal kitchen carries several hundred pounds of it. Sound cabinets take that without complaint; old or water-damaged ones may need levelling or replacing first, and that is a different job. Our cabinet calculators price it.
- Backsplash tiling
- A matching slab splash is priced here because it comes off the same slab. A tiled splashback is separate work by a different trade and is not included.
- Electrical and plumbing changes
- Moving a sink, adding an outlet in an island or running a gas line to a new cooktop are all separate trades. Only disconnecting and reconnecting an existing sink in the same position is priced here.
- Remnant and offcut pricing
- A small vanity top or a bar can often be cut from somebody else's leftover slab for far less than a whole one, and fabricators keep a remnant yard for exactly that. It is genuinely worth asking about below roughly 20 square feet, and this model does not attempt to price it.
Use the calculator, price the whole room at bathroom remodel cost, or read the full method.