Finishing Kitchen Worktop Edges

[accie17]

I recently finished installing a new kitchen in my house. To finish off the worktops I used the strip of laminate provided with the kitchen and ironed it on. It stuck on fine and I then trimmed the excess with a stanley. A few months later the edge is breaking off in small pieces, still looks ok at the moment but will look terrible if it keeps happening.

I have more laminate left so I can replace it, just wondering if I stuck it on properly as I don't want to replace it only for the same thing to happen again.

Anyone any better ideas on how to attach this edging strip that is better than above??

 

[Steve]

when you iron this stuff on, remember its quite thick stuff, so give the glue time to melt. try leaving a bit sticking out top and bottom. then get a plane, with very little blade sticking out, and plane the excess off at a 45 degree angle, until it feels smooth right round the corner. This ensures that things dragging off the edge of the worktop wont catch the edge. Worked a treat on ours.

 

[trey]

Try the aluminium edging strips you can buy, they come in different colours and are fixed by screws in a couple of minutes and IMO are a much better job than the iron on strips

I bought mine from Wilkinsons for £1.99 each but have seen them in B&Q .

 

[PowerTool]

You can also use a file to angle the edges off if you are not confident with a plane - hold it in both hands and run it backwards and forwards in the same direction as the long edge (i.e front to back,not side to side)
And if you choose to go for the aluminium strip,make sure you seal the edge beforehand (paint/silicon/pva) to avoid any water that may get in (by capillary action) causing the worktop to swell and blow the laminate off.