How much does countertop removal cost in Toronto?

It is a project charge rather than a per-square-foot one, and the two companies publishing a figure quote it differently. Josh Kitchen in Toronto quotes CAD 200 to 500 for professional removal including handling the plumbing and electrical connections. Better Marble in the GTA quotes $125 to $250 as a tear-out line inside a replacement. This page publishes both under their own names rather than merging them into a wider band neither company stands behind.

What does it cost to dump an old countertop in Toronto?

The City publishes an exact tariff rather than a range. Garbage and renovation waste at a Drop-Off Depot is $189.86 per tonne, charged as $19 minimum covering the first 100 kg and then a dollar for every 5.27 kg or part thereof, and you must hand over a $40 minimum deposit before anything is weighed. A 40 square foot granite top is roughly 330 to 510 kg, so the tipping fee lands somewhere around $63 to $97 on the City's own formula. That is one of very few exact numbers on this whole site.

How heavy is a granite countertop?

Between 18 and 28 pounds per square foot, so a 40 square foot kitchen top is 720 to 1,120 pounds, or roughly 330 to 510 kilograms. Two published sources disagree on the upper end, so this uses the wider range. Quartz at three centimetres runs 15 to 25 pounds per square foot, marble 14 to 27, and the lighter surfaces are a different world entirely: solid surface is 4 to 8 and laminate 2 to 5. That difference is exactly why laminate comes out in an afternoon and stone does not.

Can I remove a countertop myself?

Physically, often yes, and the arithmetic on this page is there so you can decide with the weight in front of you rather than after the cabinets are already unscrewed. What the saving does not price is a vehicle that carries several hundred kilograms of stone, the people who have to be free on the same morning, and the plumbing disconnect, which is the part that floods a kitchen when it goes wrong. Laminate is a genuinely reasonable DIY job. A three centimetre granite run is not, unless you have done it before.

Is removal included when I buy a new countertop?

Sometimes, and it is the single most common thing to be unclear on a GTA quote. Some fabricators fold tear-out and disposal into the replacement price; others bill it as a separate line; others assume the old top will already be gone when they arrive to template or install. Ask which, get the answer in writing, and confirm specifically who is disconnecting and reconnecting the plumbing, because that is the task most likely to fall between two trades.

What if I live in a condo?

Then this page's arithmetic is the easy part. Elevator bookings, service corridors, a loading dock window measured in hours and a building that will not allow stone through the lobby are all real constraints, and no published figure includes any of them. Countertop Installers will not invent one either: talk to the concierge before you book a trade, because the building's rules decide the schedule and the schedule decides what the job costs.

Stone countertop removal and disposal cost in Toronto

Last updated: August 28, 2026By The Slab Desk

There are two answers to this and most pages give you neither clearly. Hire it out and it is a project charge. Do it yourself and the labour is free, but the cost becomes a weight problem: several hundred kilograms of stone out of a kitchen, and then a municipal tariff charged by the kilogram to be rid of it. Both are below, with the weight in front of you.

What is coming out?

Area of the old countertop (square feet)

What it is made of

18 to 28 lb per sq ft.

40 sq ft of granite, which weighs

720 to 1,120 lb(327 to 508 kg)

At a conservative 80 lb a person that is a 14-person lift at the heavy end, in pieces, down a hallway, and stone does not bend.

Hire it out

$125 to $250

$141 to $283 with 13% HST. A project charge, not a per-square-foot one, as published by Better Marble (Toronto/GTA, 2025 itemized breakdown). It normally covers the plumbing disconnect and taking the old top away, which is the part that matters.

Do it yourself

$62 to $97

The City of Toronto tipping fee on that weight, plus a $40 deposit you have to hand over before they will weigh anything. Labour is your Saturday and the van is your problem.

How that tipping fee is worked out

City of Toronto charges $19 as a minimum, which covers the first 100 kg, and then a dollar for every 5.27 kg or part thereof. So your 508 kg is $19 plus (508 − 100) divided by 5.27, which comes to $97. That is a published municipal tariff rather than an advertised range, which makes it the one exact number on this page.

The saving is real and it is smaller than it looks

Doing it yourself is cheaper on paper by a few hundred dollars. What it does not price is a vehicle that takes 508 kg of stone, 14 people who are free on the same morning, and the plumbing disconnect, which is the bit that floods a kitchen if it goes wrong. It also does not price the damage: a slab that slips takes the cabinet, the floor or a finger with it. Most GTA shops fold removal into a replacement quote at the low end of that hired range, which is usually the sensible answer.

A condo changes this completely. Elevator bookings, service corridors, a loading dock window and a building that will not let stone through the lobby are all real constraints, and none of them is in any published figure. Ask the concierge before you book anybody.

The one exact number on this site

Almost every figure Countertop Installers publishes is a range a company advertises on its own page, and the honest way to read those is as an asking price rather than as a market rate. The City of Toronto tipping fee is different. It is a tariff approved by City Council, published with its own worked examples, and it is exact:

Garbage and renovation waste: $189.86 per tonne
  $19 minimum, covering the first 100 kg
  then $1 per 5.27 kg, or part thereof

The City's own examples:
  205 kg  =  19 + [(205 - 100) / 5.27]  =  $38.92
  800 kg  =  19 + [(800 - 100) / 5.27]  =  $151.88

This tool implements that literally, "or part thereof" included, rather than approximating it back to a per-tonne rate. Both of the City's worked examples are in the test file as assertions, so if the tariff changes and the figure here does not, the check fails rather than the page quietly going stale.

The weights are the other half. Two sources disagree on how heavy stone is, so every band here is widened rather than averaged: granite 18 to 28 pounds per square foot, quartz 15 to 25 at three centimetres, marble 14 to 27. The pound-to-kilogram conversion is exact by definition rather than sourced from a countertop page. Collected August 2026.

Sources

Every researched row behind this page

Money rows and physical specifications, each with the body that published it.

Removal and disposal figures with the company or authority that published each one
Item	Figure	Published by
Professional removal of an old countertop, including handling the plumbing and electrical disconnect	$200–$500per project (CAD)	Josh Kitchen (Toronto), countertop replacement guide
Tear-out and disposal of the existing countertop, quoted as part of a replacement	$125–$250per project (CAD)	Better Marble (Toronto/GTA, 2025 itemized breakdown)
Targeted interior removal, residential, charged by area (a fallback where a shop prices demolition by the foot rather than by the job)	$8–$22per sq ft (CAD)	Almar Demolition (Toronto and GTA, 2026)
Managing demolition debris and waste on a Toronto job, as a separate line from the removal labour	$400–$1,200per project (CAD)	Almar Demolition (Toronto and GTA, 2026)
Full kitchen gut including cabinets, countertops, flooring and plumbing disconnects (the scope a countertop tear-out sits inside when the whole kitchen goes)	$3,500–$8,500per project (CAD)	Almar Demolition (Toronto and GTA, 2026)
City of Toronto Drop-Off Depot, garbage and renovation waste, per tonne	$189.86per tonne (CAD), 2026 fees approved by City Council	City of Toronto, Fees for Drop-Off Depots
City of Toronto Drop-Off Depot, minimum fee covering the first 100 kg of renovation waste	$19per load (CAD)	City of Toronto, Fees for Drop-Off Depots
City of Toronto Drop-Off Depot, minimum deposit payable before any load is tipped	$40per load (CAD)	City of Toronto, Fees for Drop-Off Depots
City of Toronto renovation waste, kilograms covered by each dollar past the first 100 kg	5.27kg per dollar	City of Toronto, Fees for Drop-Off Depots ($1 per 5.27 kg or part thereof)
City of Toronto renovation waste, kilograms covered by the minimum fee	100kg	City of Toronto, Fees for Drop-Off Depots (minimum fee covers the first 100 kg)
Granite countertop weight, low end (sources disagree; Dynamic Stone Tools says 18 to 20 for 3 cm and Zen Living 18 to 28, so the range is widened)	18lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian) and Dynamic Stone Tools, ranges widened
Granite countertop weight, high end	28lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Quartz countertop weight at 3 cm, low end (Dynamic Stone Tools says 15 to 20 and Zen Living 20 to 25, so the range is widened)	15lb per sq ft	Dynamic Stone Tools and Zen Living (Canadian), ranges widened
Quartz countertop weight at 3 cm, high end	25lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), 3 cm quartz at 20 to 25 lbs per sq ft
Marble countertop weight, low end (Dynamic Stone Tools says 14 to 18 and Zen Living 16 to 27, so the range is widened)	14lb per sq ft	Dynamic Stone Tools and Zen Living (Canadian), ranges widened
Marble countertop weight, high end	27lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Laminate countertop weight, low end	2lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Laminate countertop weight, high end	5lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Butcher block countertop weight, low end	6lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Butcher block countertop weight, high end	12lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Solid surface countertop weight, low end	4lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Solid surface countertop weight, high end	8lb per sq ft	Zen Living (Canadian), material weight comparison chart
Kilograms in one pound, for converting a countertop's weight into a Toronto tipping fee	0.4535924kg per lb	NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.9 (pound avoirdupois to kilogram, 4.535 924 E-01)

Frequently asked questions

How much does countertop removal cost in Toronto?: It is a project charge rather than a per-square-foot one, and the two companies publishing a figure quote it differently. Josh Kitchen in Toronto quotes CAD 200 to 500 for professional removal including handling the plumbing and electrical connections. Better Marble in the GTA quotes $125 to $250 as a tear-out line inside a replacement. This page publishes both under their own names rather than merging them into a wider band neither company stands behind.
What does it cost to dump an old countertop in Toronto?: The City publishes an exact tariff rather than a range. Garbage and renovation waste at a Drop-Off Depot is $189.86 per tonne, charged as $19 minimum covering the first 100 kg and then a dollar for every 5.27 kg or part thereof, and you must hand over a $40 minimum deposit before anything is weighed. A 40 square foot granite top is roughly 330 to 510 kg, so the tipping fee lands somewhere around $63 to $97 on the City's own formula. That is one of very few exact numbers on this whole site.
How heavy is a granite countertop?: Between 18 and 28 pounds per square foot, so a 40 square foot kitchen top is 720 to 1,120 pounds, or roughly 330 to 510 kilograms. Two published sources disagree on the upper end, so this uses the wider range. Quartz at three centimetres runs 15 to 25 pounds per square foot, marble 14 to 27, and the lighter surfaces are a different world entirely: solid surface is 4 to 8 and laminate 2 to 5. That difference is exactly why laminate comes out in an afternoon and stone does not.
Can I remove a countertop myself?: Physically, often yes, and the arithmetic on this page is there so you can decide with the weight in front of you rather than after the cabinets are already unscrewed. What the saving does not price is a vehicle that carries several hundred kilograms of stone, the people who have to be free on the same morning, and the plumbing disconnect, which is the part that floods a kitchen when it goes wrong. Laminate is a genuinely reasonable DIY job. A three centimetre granite run is not, unless you have done it before.
Is removal included when I buy a new countertop?: Sometimes, and it is the single most common thing to be unclear on a GTA quote. Some fabricators fold tear-out and disposal into the replacement price; others bill it as a separate line; others assume the old top will already be gone when they arrive to template or install. Ask which, get the answer in writing, and confirm specifically who is disconnecting and reconnecting the plumbing, because that is the task most likely to fall between two trades.
What if I live in a condo?: Then this page's arithmetic is the easy part. Elevator bookings, service corridors, a loading dock window measured in hours and a building that will not allow stone through the lobby are all real constraints, and no published figure includes any of them. Countertop Installers will not invent one either: talk to the concierge before you book a trade, because the building's rules decide the schedule and the schedule decides what the job costs.