Fitting worktop upstand to an untrue wall

[Lobster]

Bit of a head-scratcher for the panel:

I'm currently fitting out our en-suite, with a vanity unit thingy: see

(or )

Worktop and upstand is standard gloss laminated chipboard, about 1.7m long (neither are fixed in position yet). Problem is that the wall on the right is quite badly dished, which means there's a large gap behind the upstand: see

(or

The gap is 10mm at the widest point; the total length of the 'dished' section is about 800mm. So what to do?

Ideally the wall level needs building up of course, but my plastering skills aren't up to it and the work was done a long time ago so I have no recourse to the guy who did it. (Anyway, it actually looks fine until you put a straight edge to it!)

What I'd like to do is fix the upstand in position with the gap behind reduced to 5mm - with the right filler, that will look OK, doesn't cause the other end to bow outwards, and doesn't require *too* much bending force. I don't want visible screw heads through the upstand, which I suppose means it's No More Nails' time... but will that cope with the tensile force? Is there a preferred type to use? Or could I pre-bend the upstand I wonder...

Any thoughts on any of this would be most welcome.

Thanks David

[The Medway Handyman]

Could you not fix the upstand by screwing from underneath through the worktop?

[Roger Mills]

I wouldn't recommend trying to bend the upstand. Are you tiling above it? If so, you can lose the gap with a generous quantity of tile cement - or build it up with bonding plaster or filler first - the surface under the tiles doesn't have to be wonderful!

[The Natural Philosopher]

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Actually the easiest way to flatten out a small section of wall is MDF sheet.Fixed by any means - battens, bonding plaster etc etc..then tile over. Or paint it.

If you can mange the edge where it finishes it works well. However dont plaster up to it and expect the join not to crack. need skimming OVER nd scrim tape at the join..i.e. plaster up to it, tape, then skim.

[Cicero]

========================================= Careful use of a few of these might be the answer, possibly with a couple of screws out of sight:

[stuart noble]

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Can't you just chop out the wall where the upstand is going? If the wall above it protrudes, so what?

[Kevin]

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depends if your happy with a bodged by a cowboy look

[soup]

Would it not be best to scribe then cut/sand the edge of the worktop to the wall rather than try to fill a gap? Place the work top up against the wall and then take a piece of timber about 1 inch wide and 1 or 2 inches long -depending on how uneven the wall is- and fix a pencil to the end by drilling a small hole and inserting the pencil into it, making sure that it is a tight fit.

Using the wall as the template you then place the end of the piece of timber without the pencil against wall and slowly drag it along the wall making sure that the pencil point on the other end is in contact with the surface of the work top, as you scribe along the pencil will mark the outline of the uneven surface on the worktop. Then cut/sand to this line and the worktop should fit perfectly to the wall. Or have I totally misunderstood the problem?

[Kevin]

its not the worktop thats the problem its the splash back/upstand

[soup]

Ah right! Would kerf cuts (not right through the top obviously) not reduce bending stresses, apart from that I am out of ideas? Unless screws were used, with cups etc screws can be decorative, but the OP has stated he? doesn't want to use screws.

[stuart noble]

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One thing's for sure, the upstand has to be straight. Trying to make it follow the wall in some way would be a bodge, and almost certainly wouldn't work either..

[The Medway Handyman]

At risk of repeating myself, you could use them from underneath.

[Lobster]

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Thanks a lot for all the tips - really helpful.

I'm convinced that bending it slightly is the way forward, not for bodging reasons but because having tried it out 'dry' - I can 'absorb' most of the gap behind it without being able to notice the bend at all. Any other method would I'm sure be very obvious. It's quite shallow, so any attempt at profiling the rear face would look crap I think. No tiles above; just a few inches of painted plaster below a full-length mirror.

Screwing from beneath sounds possible; depends on whether I can get long enough screws in there to prevent the top of the upstand tipping forward under the strain from the bend. But in conjunction with the kerfing idea... ;-)

Failing that the Screwfix brackets look a distinct possibility - never seen those before. The wall is a stud partition, so I could hack back the plasterboard and mount a couple of those on studs out of sight.

I won't get back on to this till next week, but will report back with the outcome!

Thanks David

[Roger Mills]

I hope you're not planning to bend the mirror to fit the non-flat wall?!

You can get some concealed fixing which are smaller than that. I used them to fix a headboard to the wall. I have one in my hand at the momemt. It is a metal plate about 42x15x3 with rounded ends. There is a countersunk screw-hole either end, and a large keyhole-shaped hole in the middle. You recess the plates into the back of the item to be fixed, and put screws in the wall with their heads protruding. You then offer the itm up to the wall so that the large part of the keyhole goes over the screw, and then push it firmly downwards. I'm sure there's a proper name for them, but I don't know what it is!

Alternatively, since it's a stud partition, can you temporarily remove some plasterboard on the other side, and screw into the *back* of the upstand? [You'd need some wood or something on the back of the plasterboard to reinforce it].