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!