Laminate benchtop, mitered join on waterfall is chipping - Any advice? Hi all,
I have recently had a kitchen installed and am running into some issues.
The bench top provider told us they could do a mitered join on our waterfall edges (using laminate)
When we got them the first time it was chipped already so we sent it back & they must have shaved it a little to clear it up.
When we get it back the second time it wasn't chipped but I could tell it might get chipped as it was such a sharp edge. I asked them if we should be doing anything with them to avoid issues (such as chipping) but they said it should be fine.
I've got 2 questions.
1. Is there anything I can do to fix the chips that have appeared after a few months of use? Its so brittle it's been damaged.
2. Is there anything I can do to avoid further chips? I am hesitant to sand it or do anything as I have no experience with laminate benchtops and have no offcuts to test on
Here's some photos
Any advice would be fantastic as I am not getting much help from the supplier
For reference this is Polytech Laminate
Last edited by phild01; 5th Feb 2023 at 03:30 PM. Reason: imgur image
With our build here, the only square set edges (like the edge in your picture) out of laminate in the bathrooms and laundry. I find the laundry given its a "work" area has chipped over time and we are generally careful/particular with what we do around the benches.
If I were to do another bench out of laminate, I'd do rolled edges. Our last place had these, were in it for 10years, 3 kids so lots of wear and tear but all the bench edges (kitchen, laundry, bathrooms) held up fine with zero damage.
Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions to help your current situation as its always going to be an issue with square set laminate edges and on an area that has high traffic.
Your bench supplier should not have given you that assurance. If the mitres don't perfectly match up then chipping is inevitable. Getting a perfect fit with the characteristics of chipboard is doubtful. Might have to live with it.
Just a thought though, consider getting a professional to rout the sharp edge back, you will end up with a dark bevel line, but it will be resilient to further chipping and could look reasonable.
They can achieve very tight rollover edges on laminate these days. Maybe that would have been a better option, although somewhat of a compromise.
When it comes to rectifying minor issues with mitres, a solid material, either stone or man-made 'stone', is going to be more forgiving
Perhaps with the laminate, further to phil's routing idea, a square routing of say 5mm could be infilled with a steel, copper, brass etc bead to set it off and add some 'interest'. Perhaps
My view on this is that any competent installer should have known that a laminate mitre in such an exposed situation would be too prone to chipping. Even if it wasn’t chip-prone, it would be a very sharp, unfriendly edge to live with.
It’s not the supplier’s issue (ie Polytec) because there is nothing wrong with the product - it’s just been used in a very inappropriate way. I would deal first with the installer, and if no luck there then consider action in the small claims tribunal (or whatever it is called in your state).
Of course if you insisted on this configuration despite clear advice to the contrary by the installer then you may not be successful.
Laminated top should never be used in this type of situation.
The laminate top is very thin and very brittle, this i why any laminate top since day dot, has always had a 1.5mm routed edge to stop this exact thing happening.
It doesn't matter who manufactures the laminate top, in this situation the product has been used past it's limitations, as a mitred edge comes to a very fine point, it's this point you are seeing the chipping in.
It will continue to chip until it's completely chipped along the edge, with a high chance of some bigger chips happening if it catches something bigger.
The only thing you can do is run a trimmer along it and take that sharp edge off, which will expose the underside of the laminate and leave a dark line across.
This is how any 90 deg edges are traditionally done with laminate.
Call them back and say you're not happy, don't do anything yourself or they will blame you for touching it.
This should not have been an option IMO, I cannot see this lasting more than a few weeks before experiencing problems s you are seeing.
Is this from a "new" benchtop company that doesn't understand the limitations of the product, appears like a rookie mistake to me.
Even stone waterfalls, have a rounded edge to avoid this issue, the edge is completely filled with glue to take out any catching points, then polished up to ensure a smooth transition form top to side.
Laminate is even more delicate than stone with sharper edges.
They should have run a square edge on the benchtop, then butt joined the waterfall piece to the top piece in line with the top's edge from underneath.
this won't give you the full waterfall look, but it will last the test of time.
Call them back and have them rectify it, to change the join to a butt join, this will need a new benchtop manufactured, because they wont have enough material left on the top to create a butt join after it's been cut to a mitre.
Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir
To illustrate, here are stone mitres on our waterfall island. Note each edge is beveled back about 1.5mm, then bought as close together as possible, filled with colour-compatible epoxy, then rounded over and repolished. Even if you could make them sharper, you wouldn’t want it as this gives you a beautifully tactile edge that is easy to live with.
And another thing, with the way your laminate joins are done, and even if somehow the chips were not occurring, I doubt there is any effective waterproofing of the joint so this will expose another problem further down the track - moisture egress will make the cut edges swell.
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