Refinishing Formica ?

[cabo]

Today I was in Lowes with my wife to pick up some sandpaper for a boat project. And then she saw IT. A display that showed refinishing formica (or any laminate) counter top. She was excited beyond belief. We have never had a house or boat that came with the right "laminate". I took a quick look at it and looked like something that might work well. Problem--PRICE $248.00. That is not a typo. It might be worth looking into.
Good Luck to both you and me on this matter.

[Jetexas]

Rustoleum makes a tintable countertop paint available at Home Depot and Ace. I think it's about $30 per can. You take it over to the paint department to have them mix and tint it. That's probably the route I'll go when I start refurbishing the cabin this summer, but I haven't tried it yet. However, I can say that their epoxy spray paint works great and is exceptionally tough, so I'm guessing their counter stuff is pretty good.

[bstreep]

Here's a product from a company we've used. We used their sink spray on one of our sinks, and it's lasted 2 years. Needs re-doing now, but it lasted pretty well - and it was a spray. This is a roll on product for laminate:

Bathtub Refinishing Referral Network - Countertop Refinishing Paint Laminates, Corian, Ceramic Tile, Cultured Marble

We're also looking at replacing our laminate with corian or a corian ripoff:

SolidSurface.com - Everything Solid Surface

[tallyhorob]

pulling up the old is not to bad, if not just sand the old down. Clean and apply the glue on both surfaces, buy dowl rods and put under the new sheet and on the dried contact glue, move the sheet around and get it in place and then starting on one side remove a rod at a time and using a "j" roller seal teh pieces together. I hi speed lamimate router, it spins at 10 -12,000 rpm works best and it smaller. but you can use a normal one just go slower, using a flush cut bit WITH a bearing, it makes it eaiser if you do not have a fine touch trim up the sheet. you will have to hand file in any corners or near the rear of the sheet ou can not get the router to. NOTE: the contact glue has a lot of fumes.

[David_Old_Jersey]

For some reason I had never even considered paint

Didn't realise that their are products out their for recolouring / refinishing formica. As most of my formica is stuck to bulkheads and worktop facia a coating that may be a bit less resilient than the original is not a great concern - given I won't ever be using the walls to chop food on ..........more than traded off by non-removal and no fitting new formica

Cheers folks

[Janali]

Funny. I just did this job myself after asking for advice on another site. Turns out it was really easy for me using an iron (no steam) to apply the heat and a chisel or similar to lift the old laminate off. Use it as a template etc as suggested by tallyhorob.
I just used a box cutting knife to score the underside of the new laminate, then filed and sanded to fit using a standard contact adhesive, finished off with an iron on laminate edging. The whole job looks really good now and HEAPS cheaper than what I was quoted from someone to do it for me.

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by Janali

Funny. I just did this job myself after asking for advice on another site.

Thanks for that input ... it is on our growing work-off list.



-Sven

[JusDreaming]

as a formica person in another life I offer my advice. If you put lacquer thinner in a spray bottle. Then spray the lacquer thinner under the formica while putting a bit of upward pressure on the plastic. It will release slowly but surely. And if you are careful it will come up in one piece. Then cut your new piece of plastic, apply contact cement and let dry until it is COMPLETELY dry and not tacky. Then place news paper on the counter and place the new piece on top of it, and position it. Then one by one pull the paper out from between the counter/wood and the new plastic. Once you pull the first piece of paper out, press down on the plastic, and it will stay in place when you pull out the rest
Oh yeah and you can cut it with skil saw as long as you cut it from the back. The rest of the project has been detailed above to a T. As far as router with panel bit for cutting sink hole. I was taught to cut the edges really CLOSE, then file the rest of the way to polish the edge if not using edge molding

[SabreKai]

I'll give the laquer thinner spray a try. I made the mistake of trying to remove my old formica. Bad idea. First off its about twice as thick as the new stuff. Second, it was held down with god knows what and actually delaminated before the glue gave. In other spots it held toghether and the glue ripped up chunks of the underlaying plywood. I've tried heat, disk grinder and chisel to no avail. I was planning on screeding epoxy fill over it and resanding it so the new formica would site level but perhaps this will work. I think the old stuff was held down with casein resin. That would have been common around the time she was built. 1958-59.

Sabre

[JusDreaming]

If the Lacquer thinner doesn't work try tolulene, a little more expensive, and EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE while in a mist so no open flames or smoking . And oh yeah good ventilation, or you WILL end up with a buzz. It is made from bananas, remember smoking banana peels, same effect. But it truly works

[Danibug]

I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or reply to an older and somewhat related thread to ask my question. We have 1974 blue Formica counters in our boat. We want to get rid of this color and don't want to jump into replacing the Formica. I know alot of people recommend that but it seems that every "easy" deconstruction project on this old boat ends up turning into many many other side projects as a result. We have alot going on right now and would prefer to take a different approach. This is the table in the salon:


On the topic of Painting Formica counters (our are VERY porous from use/age) These are the instructions I received from Sherwin Williams after I tried the Giani Granite Paint in a solid color with a terrible result found here.

1. Sand Formica with 80 grit sand paper
2. Clean with TSP and wash throughly
3. Apply SW Zero VOC Multi Purpose Latex Primer 1 or 2 coats with 1 hour dry times each
4. Paint any color SW All Surface Enamel Latex Paint in Satin sheen 1-3 coats letting dry 6 hours in between each coat then 2 weeks to cure before top coat
5. Sand painted surface with 220 grit and wipe down with 100% Mineral Spirits
6. After stirring for 3 minutes apply SW Spar Urethane Water based in Satin sheen with lambs wool pad moving in same direction across the wood. 3 coats total sanding with 220 grit paper then wiping with 100% Mineral Spirits after a dry time of 6 hours. Do Not Sand 3rd and final topcoat.

Has anyone else here tried Painting Formica counters? If so what method did you use and are you happy with the result?

Currently the table top is painted with 4 thin coats of 100% acrylic latex enamel Sherwin Williams "All Surface Enamel" as recommended above. We plan to let this cure for 3 weeks then apply the waterbased Spar Urethane.

Does anyone see any issues in the recommend approach above? We want the counters to be whitish, durable and non yellowing. We plan to live aboard.

As always, Thanks so much for sharing your opinions

[sarafina]

Himself and I have gone round and round on this one.

Our old white formica is in good condition structurally, but stained and porous.

We decided on thin glass mosaic tile set on mesh. We are replacing the self rimming sink with a much deeper model and will be redoing all the plumbing, sink and counter surface at once.

The thiness of the tile means it won't rise up to high and make the fiddles inneffective, which was what bothered me about most tile I considered.

Our old formica is installed so that the fiddles lap over the material and would have top be removed to replace with similar product. I just did not want to mess with that, and didn't feel that I would get a tight enough fit if I just templated it and tried to glue in a piee on top.

Besides, the tile will look smashing and doesn't weight a ton like ceramic tile does!

[Gadagirl]

A friend of mine used this product and was very pleased with the results. I'm planning to try the same in my home. He said it was an easier application than he first thought and recommends it.

About: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations® - A Revolutionary Kitchen Transformation System

[Danibug]

Originally Posted by sarafina

We decided on thin glass mosaic tile set on mesh. We are replacing the self rimming sink with a much deeper model and will be redoing all the plumbing, sink and counter surface at once.

The thiness of the tile means it won't rise up to high and make the fiddles inneffective, which was what bothered me about most tile I considered.

Our old formica is installed so that the fiddles lap over the material and would have top be removed to replace with similar product. I just did not want to mess with that, and didn't feel that I would get a tight enough fit if I just templated it and tried to glue in a piee on top.

What a neat idea!! Our boat also has fiddles all over the place, and I swear everytime I end up trying to remove screws I find some that are corroded, break off and end up making more work!

I suppose I'd be concerned with the tiles breaking under force? This is really a neat Idea though, the galley was redone with little white tiles, way before the mesh backed stuff was available and we love it! Why didn't you opt for paint? Have you seen bad examples of this?

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by Danibug

What a neat idea!! Our boat also has fiddles all over the place, and I swear everytime I end up trying to remove screws I find some that are corroded, break off and end up making more work!

I suppose I'd be concerned with the tiles breaking under force? This is really a neat Idea though, the galley was redone with little white tiles, way before the mesh backed stuff was available and we love it! Why didn't you opt for paint? Have you seen bad examples of this?

Regular paint and formica are not a happy combination.

The refinishing formica kit is expensive, has material for a much much larger area that we need to do, and only comes in colours I personally found to be fugly.

TIle can crack, thin tile in particular, but these tiles are under an inch, which means they will give a tiny bit in the grout under impact and be easily replacable. Just pop out a cracked tile and drop in a replacement with a bit of glue and grout.

The small tile also adapt to the less than perfectly flat areas often found on boats, which will also reduce the chance of cracking.

I got enough tile to do our 46" x 22" counter for $111.00, including shipping and grout. Much less than the formica refinishing kit!