Removing caesarstone benches - help??

[snakebornella]

We have recently bought a new house and it came with a brand new kitchen - the problem is that the kicthen is too small and we brought a 90cm freestanding stove with us - our dilema is that we need to make way for the 90cm stove which requires the benchtops to come off to make way for cutdown cabinets and to allow it to be cut and polished before being reinstalled

the benches are fixed to the cabinets with some sort of epoxy glue and joined in 2 places (the main one in an L shaped piece around the sink and the other at the wall near the breakfast bar) - the current stove cut-out is half way along the narrow section of the L shaped peice of stone

oh, and by the way there is a glass splashback sitting on top of the benchtop so my guess is that if we want to try to save that we need to cut the caesarstone at the midpoint of the existing cut-out, remove the silicone around the bottom edge of the glass splashback, pull out the smaller straight section then use the freed up space to pull out the L shaped section

Qs
- how do we neatly cut the filler in the join between the 2 pieces of stone at the sink???
- how do we cut the epoxy between the bench and the cabinets???
- is this the right approach or do we have to take the kitchen contractors advice and sacrifice the glass splashback and maybe even sacrifice the L shaped piece of stone???

whilst I am at it can anyone recommend someone in Sydney who can help with cutting/polishing/supplying caesarstone

[journeyman Mick]

snakebornella,
If you've got a bit of time and a lot of patience you could have a go at doing this but I wouldn't fancy your chances.
Forget about trying to get the epoxy to part company with the benchtop or cabinet carcass. Best bet would be to work inside the cabinet and try to cut most of the way through the rails that the glue is on. Once you've got everything else loose you should be ably to lift the top up and break the top rails out.
If it's just coloured silicone between the sections of top you may be able to work a knife blade in. If they've used epoxy or similar then a diamond blade in an angle grinder would be the go but you'll lose about 5mm off one side or the other.
You may be able to get all the silicone out between the splashback and the top and pull the top forward but you'd be veeeery lucky. I reckon you've got more chance of winning the lotto than getting this all apart wothout breaking lots of it.

My reccomendation: sell your stove and use what's there (or replace with somthing nicer)

Mick