Counter top laminate

[deniseO30]

Going for pure white, it's in the van..

Best way to expedite the job?

Heat gun and scrape the old off?

Sand rough the old and glue the new to the old? (something that is done often)

I'll be making new fiddle edging out of ash to compliment the table top.

As you can see, it's not a large counter top.

[JimsCAL]

If the old is well bonded, I'd be tempted to glue the new to the old. If not, remove the old stuff. Heat gun should work.

[Gladrags1]

You can also put coatings on solidly attached laminent to make it look like corian or granite or paint it with a coating made by rustoleum. The coatings by Rustoleum come in a variety of colors. We did the rustoleum method on Mandolin. It came out great. You can find that coating in Home Depot. The first stuff I mentioned can be found at Lowes. We applied that on a countertop at home and are pleased with the results.

Tod

[mbsl98]

At home, I glued it to the old on a large counter plus an island used for eating, projects , whatever, by an active cook and a growing family with 3 boys. Even glued over the vertical edge piece that covered the wood edge of counter. It stayed good for over 20 years until we went to stone. Jusy be sure to give old a good sanding, then spread marine grade contact cement on both top and new laminate after carefully shaping it for a perfect fit. Spread the cement, let dry, then cover that completely with brown paper like grocery bag paper, then lay new piece on top. You can move the new around until it is laying perfectly positioned, then hold is there while you pull the paper out. The glue doesn't stick to paper but once the new laminate touches the glue on the counter it locks right where it is so procede carefully.

[Siamese]

I would most definitely glue over the old countertop. That seems like the easiest thing to do and is still a proper job. The fiddles around the white countertop should look great.

[GraemeInCanada]

Definitely glue over it. Far less work and no problem with that process. Rough up with coarse sandpaper first though and clean off the dust thoroughly. Should be golden from there

[deniseO30]

Thanks everyone! I like to use dowels and slide them out after the piece is in place.

[Faster]

One of the challenges of this job is the close tolerance to bulkheads, companionways, etc when it comes to trimming the pieces - esp cutouts for the sink and icebox. These tight areas often preclude using a router and a laminate bit (which absolutely does the best job and makes precutting less critical). These areas can be done with a file, but it's time consuming and there's always a risk of chipping the edge of your 'new' top.

I found that using a laminate bit in a rotary cutter (the kind drywallers use to cut out electrical outlet holes) gets you much closer to the edges so there's less hand finishing. It's not an expensive tool and can come in handy elsewhere. It's a high speed tool, though, with lots of torque so working against a guide is recommended or it will decide to take it's own path!.

Fiddles and a drop-in sink edge will hide a lot of "oopses", but ice box lids and other liftouts have to be done cleanly; as does an under-hung sink cutout (underhung sinks makes clean up much easier; no debris gets caught on any lip)

[GraemeInCanada]

You may find wax paper much easier. For example, with my project I had to router the counter top before I put it in because it wasn't possible to router it in place in the boat as Faster has commented there.

In such a case you have to have it EXACTLY in place before letting it go. With dowels that becomes a bit more difficult but with wax paper you can weight down the rest of the counter top while you pull out one of the pieces of wax paper (use lots of narrow pieces). This way you get it in place as close as humanly possible and then just pull out the pieces from the middle and firm it down.

Just an idea and works really well for me, not trying to claim to be a know it all or anything.