So here's the thing , how do i seal a kitchen work surface?

[robgil]

i was looking at kitchen work surfaces today and really cant find anything i like. I then looked at my rafters and hey presto i had an idea. A quick call to finbows and i found that i can buy untreated pine rafters 50mm x 200mm for very little money. Bingo.
so , three lengths dowelled and glued together , planed then sanded would give me a beautiful solid wood work surface that would look sweet in a cottage kitchen, no , really. However , i thought then about sealing it. I would like an antique finish , kind of uneven and worn but watertight. Any ideas guys?

 

[Nigel Watts]

Do you have to seal it? Unsealed, regularly scrubbed down will give you a nice weathered, bleached finish over time. Main thing you have to be wary of is putting wet iron objects on it (eg weighing scale weights, Le Cruset-style pans etc) as these will create rust stains which will have to be scraped off. I have a beech chopping counter surface which I have never sealed and it looks fine.

 

[Feltwell]

When I used to sell beech & oak worktops we used teak oil to treat them with - but there are other types of oil available, and I do seem to remember an old thread where some posters much preferred other types. Just don't use raw linseed, unless you want sticky worktops! As for how well oils would work for a softwood worktop - I don't see any great reason why not but I can imagine your worktop being easy to mark. If cheap softwood worktops were practical then I think the DIY sheds would have been selling them a long time ago.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I have used Libron finishing oil with great success.

 

[MdB]

Cheap fast grown pine would be too soft for my liking I think.

 

[biffvernon]

Just don't use raw linseed, unless you want sticky worktops!

Of course not all linseed oils are equal but the stuff I use (Alback, supplied by Holkham Paints) does not go sticky. At this time of year a coat is dry to touch in 24 hours. Any of the drying oils will do but linseed is probably the cheapest.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've used 18mm exterior ply as a temporary worktop so I could fit a sink unit prior to deciding on the eventual worktop. I've been surprised how quickly it has become stained and marked even though it's only in a 'utility' area. Like MdB, I suspect fast-grown softwood would fare no better.

John Ruskin made some interesting observations about cost-cutting:
"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better."

 

[skier-hughes]

I have a temporary ply worktop in our kitchen. I coated it with linseed and it's fine. No stains, no marks and we haven't been careful as such, just used it as normal.

 

[robgil]

this is for our 'life boat' kitchen in mr diy mans crap extension to see us through until we sort the main kitchen so its not long term. i will see how i get on with just scrubbing it first and if it gets too manky i can always run the planer over it then think about sealing it.
thanks guys an gals.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Structural softwood will never work well as a worksurface, as others have noted. This is why you won't find one in a kitchen showroom or DIY shop. Plywood, even cheap sheathing ply, would give you a quicker, easier and more durable temporary worktop. If it's really temporary then I'd just whack on a coat of cheap varnish or similar to seal the surface so it can be wiped down. If it's temporary like our temporary kitchen (12 years and counting...) then it might be worth splashing out on something a bit better. I think Ikea do cheap solid wood worktops, or see what the DIY sheds have to offer.

 

[piper]

I can endorse Andrew's remark - Ikea do Beech worktops cheaply, as do (did?) Habitat (ultimately the same company I believe - cue Biff telling us how evil they are). The Habitat ones seemed better quality at the time, when I did our kitchen about eight years ago (still not completely finished of course). We bought two Habitat worktops, one very long, and I expended huge time and effort cutting them to fit the bizarrely shaped places they had to go. The offcuts were nearly all used covering extra bits of surface. In retrospect, I would not have used it next to the sink, as it's now getting a bit black-stained round the edge where the water constantly splashes on it, but otherwise they look very good.
I also got some granite (sorry again, Biff) for another surface, cut to shape from the monumental mason's. Far cheaper than the posh kitchen suppliers.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Almost unamimous advice that unteated pine is unsuitable. I wonder how many Victorian kitchen tables this would have condemned?

 

[Flyfisher]

this is for our 'life boat' kitchen in mr diy mans crap extension to see us through until we sort the main kitchen so its not long term.

Ditto - in which case, I'd go with 18mm ply (in fact I did) but with the addition of Skier's advice on sealing.

 

[Flyfisher]

Almost unamimous advice that unteated pine is unsuitable. I wonder how many Victorian kitchen tables this would have condemned?

Fair point, but there's pine and there's pine. Some of the so-called 'structural' timber I buy seems to have half-inch growth rings (OK, slight exaggeration) whereas some of the old partitioned walls here have been built with such slow-grown pine that it's almost hardwood by comparison.

 

[Feltwell]

To echo FF's point - I bought some Portugese maritime pine floorboards recently, to make into cupboard doors. It's beautiful stuff - so much harder and heavier than the cheap "whitewood" PTG flooring that you'd get in your local merchants.

Fast grown modern softwood seems to be a different animal altogether to the "pine" the Victorians were using (which I realise was probably another type of softwood).

 

[robgil]

yeah ive noticed that quite a lot in furniture , victorian pine is a very different beast to the pine used in todays furniture.
if todays pine is too soft then does anybody have any victorian rafters going spare? i could use seasoned oak for this i suppose , its not a huge area so not a huge expense. in all fairness though my new rafters dont really seem all that soft.
to fix them together i was going to use biscuit joints or a kind of tennon and mortice biscuit joint with 2 small pegs in each side planed flush with some glue just to be sure to be sure.
would oak need sealing?

 

[Flyfisher]

to fix them together i was going to use biscuit joints or a kind of tennon and mortice biscuit joint with 2 small pegs in each side planed flush with some glue just to be sure to be sure.

Or use a few lengths of threaded rod?

 

[Nigel Watts]

If you have planed the edges accurately you shouldn't need anything other than glue and plenty of clamps to hold the pieces togther while the glue is setting. If you are using a slow setting glue like PVA a couple of small dowels can be helpful to stop the surfaces slipping when you clamp them. Personally I like to use the old-fashioned hot skin glue as this gives a quick initial set as it cools, unlike PVA. If the surfaces are going to get wet however you are probably better off with a modern water resistant glue.

 

[Penners]

I presume we're talking about worktops that may get wet?

If so, then I would recommend using a polyurethane glue, such as Gorilla Glue (http://tinyurl.com/3x54g7y). It has the great advantage of being waterproof - indeed, you're recommended to damp the mating surfaces to improve its adhesion and curing.

A few words of warning, though: you must cramp the pieces together firmly while the glue is curing. It has a slight tendency to foam, which - if they're not cramped together - can push the mating surfaces apart. So you'll need a few sash cramps.

I also recommend using either dowels or biscuits to ensure proper alignment and to strengthen the lamination.

Once you've laminated up your worktops, make sure that you screw cleats (battens) across the grain underneath, to prevent any tendency to warp. I would finish them with tung oil or Danish oil - re-apply this at intervals.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Another tip: align the pieces so that the heart side of the wood alternates. Wood shrinks along the growth rings with the result that the edges of a plank will curl up on the side opposite the heart (the centre of the tree). Arrange all your planks with the heart on the same side and the curling will be reinforced; alternate them and you will get a surface which may go a bit wavy but will stay much flatter.

The best tool for planing the edge is a nice long jointer, but they don't come cheap, especially this brand:

I have a slightly shorter Bailey, which I have owned for over 30 years. I dont use it often but when I need to it is indispensable.