Day 367: The Great Peninsula

This weekend's little task was to complete the worktop on the peninsula. If you've read my previous posts on worktops, you'll know that we have a bit of a love-hate relationship going on... mostly hate.

What I don't like about them:

• They are heavy
• They are unforgiving
• Cutting is messy

But a kitchen without a worktop wouldn't get me any Brownie points. And I'd probably lose my DIY license around the house. So off I go.

The countertop was rough cut to size and scribed previously but not fastened down. I still needed a sliver of counter to go on the other side of the range. The fancy jig shown below was to keep everything straight whilst the glue was setting. In the end, it wasn't at all necessary. But still a cool setup.

Next came the edging. As the countertop had to be cut to size, there was one rough edge. This was lightly sanded down to prepare for the edging strip. The capital pine worktop has a rounded ABS edge that is impact resistant and can be sanded down to get a nice rounded edge. It is quite thick and sold in rolls, making it somewhat difficult to fix in place. 

I held it down with a straight piece of wood and clamps and applied contact adhesive to both the edging strip and the cut edge of the worktop. I should mention now that the adhesive was all green, tree hugger, save the dolphin friendly. I could probably drink the stuff. And did it work ... NO! So lesson learned, drive a Prius if you want to save the whales but make sure to use solvents if you want your countertop edging to stick.

With the edging on (finally) the countertop was ready to go back into place and fastened down.

 

And the fit was of course perfect.

Amazon to the rescue. My super solvent, hazardous, ozone and small animal killing extreme mega grip contact adhesive showed up not a minute too soon. And did it work ... YES!!!!!

Countertop's on and fastened down, edging tightly glued, drawers installed .. welcome to the Great Peninsula

Day 250: A top counter

Now that the countertop finally arrived, it was time to get started mounting it. Luckily the counter was 665mm deep and not the standard 600mm - good thing as my dishwasher-pipe issues forced me to move all the cabinets out an extra 30mm. The other concern was the length - 3m. This causes 2 issues - it's both very long and yet not long enough. 3m is a right PITA to move around .. the fact that it's 45kg also doesn't help. But importantly, it's just long enough to use for other side of the corner unit .. and I mean just - we're talking mm's to spare.

 

So first, I needed to build a frame to support the countertop. As there is only a 500mm base unit - it doesn't provide much support. I built a frame into the wall on both sides of the space. The pipes were a bit tricky to work around and it took a few pieces of 25x50 softwood to get it right. The wood was drilled into the brick, so it's plenty secure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, I enlisted the help of Carolyn "Pipes" Braendli to help me lift the countertop onto the saw horses. She did most of the lifting, I did most of the moaning. In order to get a reasonable cut (no second chances here), I used a new 60 tooth fine blade in my circular saw and used some extra 25x50 wood as a guide to get a straight cut. First cutting the end off and then paring the down the back of the counter to give a nice 40mm overhang from the front of the carcass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And with a little more huffing and puffing, "Pipes" and I fit the counter into place. And it fit! and it was level! I would normally say "of course it did" but given the wall has more twists and turns than British politics, I was a bit happily surprised. I'll chalk it down to careful measurements and plenty of luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the counter in place, I was able to mark out the sink location and the high points to ensure a snug fit. More huffing and puffing and the counter was back on the saw horses for a little skilled cutting - this time using a jigsaw and a special laminate downward cutting blade.

 

A helpful hint that I learned on YouTube was to not fully cut out the sink hole (just realised the double meaning) as the counter could snap on it's way back in. No thanks! I cut out the difficult bits and left the rest for cutting out in-situ. And back the countertop went for hopefully the last time. Frankly, "Pipes" was starting to show off by this point, doing the whole thing in sandals and carrying the countertop with one hand.

With the counter back in place, I needed to cut back the carcass to allow me to fasten the retaining clips and ensure enough clearance. Finally, it was time to mount the sink. A little silicon on the underside and clips fastened in place and it was ready to go.

























The last photo shows the finished product (well finished for today) with the new taps mounted. Plumbing, we'll that still needs to be hooked up. But Rome (or its kitchens) was not built in a day (or on a single blog post) so plumbing will need to wait.