Wood kitchens counters that fold down the side of units

kitchencrazy

We are having a wood worktop installed in our kitchen and are wanting to have the counter fold down the side of the units. There is an example on the Howdens website under the Greenwich cream range picture.

http://www.howdens.com/product-range/kitchen-collection/contemporary/greenwich-cream/

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? We have seen this in a few showrooms and seen it being done with both a butt joint and a 45 degree mitre like in the picture on the Howdens website. Our fitter is happy to do it but has advised against cutting the joint at a 45 degree angle as it is likely to come apart as the wood changes shap over time. Wandering if people have found this to happen?

To me the mitre looks a lot better finish, but obviously don't want to do something that will look rubbish in a couple years as the wood has maybe shrunk a little bit.

CKdesigner

Hi Kitchencrazy

Your fitter is right, an on-site mitre joint is not a good idea. The only way to do this joint properly with a solid wood worktop is to get the worktops from a manufacturer called Spekva, they do a variety of joints, also as they fully treat the wood before it leaves the factory there is no issue of the wood changing shape.

https://www.spekva.com

CK

kitchencrazy

Thanks for the swift response CK. Not quite what I wanted to hear though since we already have the worktops:(

leveller2911

Pop into a couple of local Joineries as they may be able to help you.I think it is possible to machine a mitre and biscuit joint it and provided the worktop was fully sealed both sides I can't see a problem.I'm pretty confident it would work but it would need to be machined off site in the workshop.

The worktops would need to be dead flat before they are machined which is much easier to do when making the worktops as many "bought in" worktops are not flat to start with ,they tend to "cup" warp soon after manufacture if stored incorrectly or take on moisture.