It appears that water has found its way into the join on my laminated kitchen worktop. When I fitted it about 6 months ago the joint was flush, now there is a slightly raised portion about 2" long and the raised part has faint bumps along its length where I can only imagine it has swollen unevenly. What I intend doing is this. I am going to make sure that all moisture has dried from under the area. I am then going to put a ring of putty/blu-tac etc on the surface around the raised area. I will then fill this with a thinned pool of PVA glue. I will leave this for a few hours in the hope that it will be drawn into the swollen chipboard. After this I will clean the surface and clamp the edges flush for a few days. Hopefully the swollen chipboard will be recompressed and held by the glue. Anyone any comments on this and is it likely to work?
worktop damp problem
- Thread starter davecooper
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Deluks is absolutely right. Once a composite worktop is blown then it cannot be repaired.
Either replace the tops or seal it with some silicone and replace later
Scrit
It simply won't work! Chipboard is made using presses capable of compressing a 10ft high "bale" of timber fibre and resin down to 40mm - with the best will in the world there isn't a hand clamp out there which can emulate that feat, especially with a 12in reach from the edge (to the middle of the joint). Also what type of PVA are you going to use? Even the exterior (cross-linked) grades aren't completely waterproof so there is always the possibility that the joint will open up again in time - that's why kitchen fitters use either silicone or jointing compound to seal the jointsdavecooper said:
Either replace the tops or seal it with some silicone and replace later
Scrit
You do have a chance of repairing this, but only if it is possible to separate your joint without further damage.Others on here will tell you your chance of doing this, I have no idea.
The one I repaired was my mothers, which was an end cut, with an aluminium end trim.
What I did, was drill out the majority of the damaged chip board, being very careful not to chip or break through the laminate.
At this point I clamped a piece of 2" x 3" to the worktop to pull the laminate down level, this was left in position until I had finished.
Next using a sharp 1/4" chisel and scalpel removed the remaining damage from the underside of the laminate.
I then dried the area with a hair dryer, and left it for 1 day to dry.
I then used plastic padding car filler, to fill the cavity. ( This is the stuff you use to repair car panels ) Once this was dry i sanded it back smooth, smeared silicon on the joint, and reattached the trim.
This lasted 18 months odd, until she had the whole kitchen replaced.
I must stress that this bubble that appeared was only 50 m/m long, and raised up by3 to 4 m/m, I only tried this repair to stop it getting worse.
But as I said at the beginning, what are your chances of separating your joint.............
The one I repaired was my mothers, which was an end cut, with an aluminium end trim.
What I did, was drill out the majority of the damaged chip board, being very careful not to chip or break through the laminate.
At this point I clamped a piece of 2" x 3" to the worktop to pull the laminate down level, this was left in position until I had finished.
Next using a sharp 1/4" chisel and scalpel removed the remaining damage from the underside of the laminate.
I then dried the area with a hair dryer, and left it for 1 day to dry.
I then used plastic padding car filler, to fill the cavity. ( This is the stuff you use to repair car panels ) Once this was dry i sanded it back smooth, smeared silicon on the joint, and reattached the trim.
This lasted 18 months odd, until she had the whole kitchen replaced.
I must stress that this bubble that appeared was only 50 m/m long, and raised up by3 to 4 m/m, I only tried this repair to stop it getting worse.
But as I said at the beginning, what are your chances of separating your joint.............
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Just thought I would post this as a tip for anyone who has this problem with a laminated plastic worktop that is flush joined with no metal strip between.
Typically what happens is that when the worktop is joined at a corner, no sealant is used, or perhaps the wrong sealant or not enough sealant is used.
Then in the course of time, water seeps into the joint and suddenly you have a nice big raised bubble at the joint line which gets worse and worse because it lets in more and more water. I searched for a solution online but everyone said the same thing - only solution is to replace the entire worktop.
I decided to try my own remedy and I'm very happy with the results.
First you need some epoxy. I had some West systems epoxy left over from a boat project, but a few tubes of araldite precision (slow setting) would do the job as well. Then you need some way of colour matching the epoxy. In my case my worktop was black, so I got some artists black chalk pastels and ground em up into powder (inside a freezer bag) and mixed it with the epoxy.
Next you need a router with a straight cutting bit. Clamp some kind of straight edge to the worktop and cut out a rectangle with rounded corners to remove the offending area until you are sure you have cut back to "flat" worktop.
Set the router bit depth to about 6mm or so.
Then get a bit of old matching worktop (lets hope you kept some offcuts somewhere), hold it in a vice and with a handsaw, cut sideways into it so that you have cut a 5mm slice of worktop. If you like you can easily make a paper template by putting the paper over the hole and gently rubbing the edges to create a slight crease in the paper. Then just masking tape it to your new piece and cut it to shape. I used a scrollsaw, but you could use a handsaw if you're careful and you put masking tape on the laminate to prevent chipping. Then the fit can be fine tuned with some sandpaper and a sanding block.
Then when you are sure that it fits perfectly, mix up your epoxy and add some of your artists chalk to colour it. Then butter the sides and bottom of the hole with the epoxy, as well as the sides and bottom of the new piece. Push it into place and push it down to make sure it is perfectly flush with the worktop. You may have to put more or less epoxy under there to get it at the right height.
Then clean up any epoxy "squeeze-out" with methanol and a clean cloth. You can get methanol in paint shops, its usually purple in colour and must be used as thinners for something....it says "contains methanol" on the label. Wear gloves as you're doing all this...black epoxy is messy.
Anyhow, it worked for me and the repair is almost invisible.
Typically what happens is that when the worktop is joined at a corner, no sealant is used, or perhaps the wrong sealant or not enough sealant is used.
Then in the course of time, water seeps into the joint and suddenly you have a nice big raised bubble at the joint line which gets worse and worse because it lets in more and more water. I searched for a solution online but everyone said the same thing - only solution is to replace the entire worktop.
I decided to try my own remedy and I'm very happy with the results.
First you need some epoxy. I had some West systems epoxy left over from a boat project, but a few tubes of araldite precision (slow setting) would do the job as well. Then you need some way of colour matching the epoxy. In my case my worktop was black, so I got some artists black chalk pastels and ground em up into powder (inside a freezer bag) and mixed it with the epoxy.
Next you need a router with a straight cutting bit. Clamp some kind of straight edge to the worktop and cut out a rectangle with rounded corners to remove the offending area until you are sure you have cut back to "flat" worktop.
Set the router bit depth to about 6mm or so.
Then get a bit of old matching worktop (lets hope you kept some offcuts somewhere), hold it in a vice and with a handsaw, cut sideways into it so that you have cut a 5mm slice of worktop. If you like you can easily make a paper template by putting the paper over the hole and gently rubbing the edges to create a slight crease in the paper. Then just masking tape it to your new piece and cut it to shape. I used a scrollsaw, but you could use a handsaw if you're careful and you put masking tape on the laminate to prevent chipping. Then the fit can be fine tuned with some sandpaper and a sanding block.
Then when you are sure that it fits perfectly, mix up your epoxy and add some of your artists chalk to colour it. Then butter the sides and bottom of the hole with the epoxy, as well as the sides and bottom of the new piece. Push it into place and push it down to make sure it is perfectly flush with the worktop. You may have to put more or less epoxy under there to get it at the right height.
Then clean up any epoxy "squeeze-out" with methanol and a clean cloth. You can get methanol in paint shops, its usually purple in colour and must be used as thinners for something....it says "contains methanol" on the label. Wear gloves as you're doing all this...black epoxy is messy.
Anyhow, it worked for me and the repair is almost invisible.
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