Countertops
Water leaking in from a
busted rooftop drain-waste-vent, and the kitchen window hinge had buckled the
kitchen countertop, and rusted the three burner cooktop.
But I ended up being more than happy to make a new
countertop when it was determined that if the countertop had not diverted the
water out to the foam backed carpet, the water would have rotted out the floor,
and a new countertop is a significantly easier task than an Airstream floor
repair! The refrigerator/oven countertop
was similarly damaged from water leaking in through a cracked refrigerator
vent.
In my case, new, wood
laminate substrates were required for both efforts. But I have read cases where people simply
wanted new laminate, and proceeded to strip the laminate off of the old wood
substrate in order to either save money or avoid the task of duplicating the
dimensions of the old one. I personally
see that effort as a frustrating task if the original laminate was properly
glued on. Even with a conscientious laminate
removal effort, some of the substrate is going to splinter, and those areas
must be wiped with leveling compound & smoothed before gluing the new
laminate on.
Another way of re-laminating
a countertop is to simply glue new laminate over the old. This method can work successfully, but one
runs a chance of the new laminate creeping, or shifting ever so slightly over
time since the old laminate top is not as rough as a wood substrate. Additionally, one must take more care that
the contact cement used to bond the parts has dried appropriately before assembly. Contact cement is full of volatiles which
evaporate out as the glue dries. With a
wood substrate, the volatiles can permeate the wood to allow the cement to dry. Between two sheets of laminate, there is no
where for the volatiles to go.
Laminating is a task I have done many times, and I
feel quite comfortable doing it. All one
needs is the new laminate, a substrate, contact cement, J-roller, wood dowels, and
a small router with a laminate edging bit.
Although I learned how to laminate from a book, I imagine a Google
search will turn up several resources on the procedure. Feel free to email me if you have a
question. The only aspect I can’t
comment on is the use of the new, non-flammable (low odor) contact cement as I
have never tried it.
The only things I noticed
different about Airstream’s countertops as compared to home countertops seemed
to deal with weight. Travel trailer components
are typically designed to be light in weight to keep the towed load weight in
check. For starters, the substrate was
5/8 inch (regular ole AC) plywood & probably the same stuff they used on
the floors. Since the total surface
area, after cutting out the sink & cooktop holes, is so small, a many-ply,
furniture-grade plywood was not a requirement.
5/8 inch plywood is not a
standard item around here. 5/8 inch
Oriented Strand Board is, and I thought about using it, but could not find
anyone out on the Internet who could definitively declare that it was
suitable. There were lots of nay-sayers,
but none of them had reasons to back up their votes. Not wanting to be the first Airstreamer to
experience why OSB should not be
used, I ended up going with my usual choice of ¾ inch birch plywood.
Laminating is really just an extension of woodworking
in that there are always many ways to accomplish an end goal. I needed the laminate from the sink &
cooktop cutouts for use on the sink covers.
I could have cut the laminate before gluing, but, from past experience,
have found it risky to cut unsupported laminate with a jigsaw. My solution was to leave the laminate uncut,
and only apply the contact cement to where the laminate was going to
remain. I did, however, intrude on the
cutout’s space an inch or so with the cement to make sure that when the jigsaw
was used, it was cutting through glued-on laminate.
I ordered my laminate from
the local home improvement store. For
shipping purposes, the laminate is rolled up to fit in a roughly two foot
square by four foot box. This does not
hurt the laminate, but you do need to unroll it, and let is sit flat for a
couple of days to get the curvature out.
The edge banding was cut
from the sheet of laminate purchased for the credenza effort covered on another
page. I thought about using real wood
edging, but ultimately decided that Formica would weather the environment
better.
So far, everything still
looks great!