The cheap laminate on the counters in our trailer is falling off again. Any advice for what adhesive to use to hold this stuff down? It is mainly the edge, not the tops. Thanks.
Mike D.
- posted
16 years ago
Adhesive Recommendation
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- posted
16 years ago
Contact cement
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- posted
16 years ago
Contact cement is used to hold down laminate. In this case, use an epoxy adhesive. Hold the laminate in place for 24 hours using weights, clamps, or duct tape.
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- posted
16 years ago
Not pushing back, just curious...I might learn something.
If contact cement is used to hold down laminate, why do you say "In this case, use an epoxy adhesive"?
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- posted
16 years ago
If it's coming off in full pieces, most likely the substrate is at fault so the adhesive doesn't have a good surface to bond to.
As has been said, contact cement is the proper adhesive but to get good adhesion over a previous installation will have to clean and prep both surfaces to be rid of old cement and be dirt and particularly grease-free. If the counter edge is not smooth (like a flaky particle board, perhaps), fill it w/ a hard filler and resurface (a flat wood file is good for this rather than sanding as it will keep the surface flat rather than rounding it over as sanding tends to do) it.
Follow instructions about application on the container of contact cement carefully -- in particular, on the counter surface it will undoubtedly take at least a second coating as the first will be absorbed into the material (again assuming it's particle board or similar).
My preference is still to use the original solvent-based contact cements despite the odor and flammability issue--to me they seem to work better than the water-based.
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- posted
16 years ago
To repair the edges, I would use an iron and strip off the old edges and replace with new edging that matches the tops.
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- posted
16 years ago
Contact cement is what is used for most original installations. Is the edge (under the laminate) smoothe?
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- posted
16 years ago
Original installations are usually hot glued down, not contact cement. As far as the countertop base, as usual it is particle board and not smooth.