Wrapping kitchen worktop

B0bbyEwing

Just wondered if anyone here has done this & can comment on it?

I absolutely cannot stand the worktop we inherited when we bought the house 9 years ago. It hides everything due to its pattern. I know some people would love this but I hate it. 
I don't really want to be seeing dust, I see enough of that elsewhere in the house no matter how much dusting gets done.
But I'd like to see any bits of food, crumbs etc on there so I can clean it. Even when I give it a wipe down now, I'll miss bits that I can't see & thought I'd got.

Just wondering how costly is it, how difficult is it to do, how practical is it (does it rip/split easy once down) etc.

Sure the best way to sort it would be to take time off work, have someone rip it all out, pay a good chunk of money, hope someone does a good job but I just wondered whether wrapping might work.

travis-powers

We did this when we had to sell mil house just to smarten it up, to do it properly you need to remove sink, hob etc and you really need to take your time fitting it to avoid air bubbles, my stepson fitted it to his kitchen it looks nice for a while but wears very quickly, so in opinion it’s dead money and you would be better off replacing worktops.

FreeBear

Fablon or a more heavy duty vinyl wrap could be used, but it is easily damaged. A couple of alternatives...

• https://www.rawlinspaints.com/home/aerosols/refurbishing-kits/1768-rust-oleum-worktop-transformation-kit.html
• Microcement

The former is not particularly cheap, and you are limited on choice of colours. Microcement kits can be darned expensive and are labour intensive. A third alternative would be a two pack industrial epoxy paint, but you do need some experience in using the stuff in order to get a decent finish.

I'd suggest having a look at the huge range of off the shelf worktops and see just how much one would cost.

TELLIT01

I can't imagine that wrap on a surface which gets a lot of use would last very long without some level of damage.

liberty_lily

I'm another who can't imagine a wrapped work surface would wear well/last long in a kitchen so imagine it would be fine in a scenario such as travis-powers mentioned above, but longer term I'd see it as a waste of money and effort.

We have experience of microcement - DH applied it here to the large kitchen island he constructed. It is labour intensive as FreeBear suggests - but we were advised by the retailer to purchase the sample kits which (although we obviously needed several) worked out considerably cheaper than buying the huge quantities sold for larger areas such as floors 😉

If you don't want to go down that route, I'd just be looking at replacing the worktops with something you love...after all, they've given you nine years of service!

twopenny

I've just seen my neighbours and he's tiled it  and used a wooden edge to finish. It looks really good and has lasted for 15yrs.
It's not a new idea, I saw exactly the same in a kitchen showroom only this week.

I've always wondered about crumbs etc in the grouting dips but it's been around for a long time so must work ok.
There's photos online of all sorts of designs

FluffityBunny

Leave it as it is and wipe down every day, only takes minutes.  If you miss a bit then it gets wiped down the following day.  

GDB2222

I've replaced worktops in two kitchens, and it's surprisingly easy. 

grumbler

GDB2222 said:

I've replaced worktops in two kitchens, and it's surprisingly easy. 

...if it's fitted correctly that's pretty often not the case.

FreeBear

grumbler said:

GDB2222 said:

I've replaced worktops in two kitchens, and it's surprisingly easy. 

...if it's fitted correctly that's pretty often not the case.

When I fitted my worktops, there was up to 10mm variation along the back edge on one. Templating the worktop and scribing it to fit was not a simple job. The other side of the kitchen has a ~120mm step half way along the wall. That required quite a bit more work !

Maneuvering 3.6m lengths of worktop on your own is far from easy.

Kiran

I've fitted quite a few kitchens and worktops are pretty straightforward provided you are physically able and take your time. Things you need to consider, how complex is the kitchen, number of joints or changes of angle, number of cut outs for sinks and hobs etc, do you have tiles down to the worktop and if so is the bottom grout line against the worktop as you have to be careful removing the old top and finally do you have the right equipment, jointing strips aren't the best and look nowhere near as good as a butt and scribe joint.