Covering worktop with Fablon

[Tim+]

11 years ago I bet Rachel would have been interested in your reply.

Always worth checking the date of any message you're replying to on groups Google.

Tim

[polygonum]

Almost long enough for the answer to include Contact self-adhesive vinyl from Woolworths... :-)

[meow2222]

Surely lino is rapidly damaged by hot pans

NT

[newshound]

Melamine (e.g. Formica) is quite heat resistant (unlike genuine lino or the modern vinyl replacement). I havn't seen Formica for ages but it is (or used to be) a good fix for shelves, worktops, or work benches which see heavy duty. No good on modern style radiussed worktops though.

[Chris French]

Formica is still around.

apparently is was 100 years old in 2013

And I know the original post is ancient, but I'd probably just replace the worktops rather than bother covering them with formica

[fred]

Melamine is NOT Formica

[charles]

Formica is a trade name for a form of Melamine.

[michael adams]

While Formica is still in business what probably did for it was the fact that they manufactured their decorative laminate sheets in so many different patterns and colours. Which may have been economical at some point but was hit by the rise of the modular kitchen manufacturers who made their own. So that their prices nowadays are a lot higher relative to other materials than was formerly the case as they mainly serve a niche market who are willing to pay high prices so as to be different from everybody else. They even do a range Younique allowing buyers to design their own.

It's been used for the surface veneer though, since 1938.

When it was invented Formica used bakelite resin as a bonding agent and surface veneer using layers of fabric as a filler. From 1938 onwards it used melanine resin as a bonding agent and surface veneer, using kraft paper as a filler. Which presumably accounts for the brown colour. Melamine was chosen because of its heat, abrasion and moisture resistance and the same would apply to any material coated with melamine.

michael adams

...

[fred]

My beef was that melamine veneers as generally applied to chipboard or mdf are literally paper thin as opposed to formica which is relatively thick The pattern on malamine will eventually wear away whereas Formica is pretty indestructible in normal use.

High Pressure Laminate appears to be the new poster boy in this area

[michael adams]

Indeed its galling to see perfectly serviceable*Formica laminate on tables etc being sent to landfill. All for the lack of a solvent to get it off cleanly and the problem of being stuck with the tables

*Serviceable for workshop purposes at least.

Nowadays most kitchens will probably go out of style before the laminate shows any signs of wear. Similarly I can't see that many granite worktops, being handed down from mother to daughter, down the generations.

michael adams

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[Syd Rumpo]

And it was originally intended to be a substitute for mica.

NALOPKT

Cheers

[michael adams]

So it's not made of crushed ants (Formicidae) then ?

michael adams

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[meow2222]

So what. Keep it long enough & it'll come back in fashion.

NT

[michael adams]

25 years of constant earache, just so as to be proved right, all along ?

michael adams

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[meow2222]

25? The last kitchen was over a century old. Fashion is meaningless. The exact same item is fashionable, then not, then fashionable, etc. Just a way to get people to throw out what they bought and buy again. Why choose to follow it.

NT

[Tim Lamb]

In message , michael adams writes

20 years and counting:-(

The expectation appears to be that a sufficient application of money will neatly house all the kit that cannot be fitted into the existing space.....

[Mike Clarke]

... and free up enough space to acquire yet more kit.

[michael adams]

I totally agree with you, certainly where kitchens are concerned. And I'd imagine around 48% of the population (making allowances for kitchen designers, salesman, and fitters ) agrees with us.

Unfortunately a large proportion of the other 50% don't.

Because that's how a vibrant modern economy works. Persuading people to buy things they don't really need, everything from new cars to new jumpers* to new kitchens, to power tools, provides more work for everyone. Rather than having them sitting around with too much time on their hands, and boring one another to death by contemplating the essential meaningless of life.

We'd all like to vote green, throw away our cars and visit our allotments on bicycles and generally be nice to one another, but history tells us that simply isn't going to happen. All communes and similar have always eventually broken up as a result of the participants arguing among themselves. Because that's what human beings mainly do. Argue.

Whatever kitchen refuseniks such as yourself might like to think.

michael adams

...

• One reason stores like Marks and Spencer reported lower profits this autumn and winter was because the mild weather meant people bought fewer jumpers and coats. Any they'd bought previously presumably, having ended up in charity shops where they both get in the way of the books, and maybe subsidise their low prices. The push chair rule. The more push chairs you have to navigate past to reach the books in any shop, the lower are likely to be the prices.

[spuorgelgoog]

If you use that argument to get some new workshop cabinets you can hardly complain if the lady of the house says the same about a kitchen.

Owain

[meow2222]

I'd say closer to 90% follow fashion

No, its how a wasteful economy works, spending lots of resources on crap instead of useful things like more construction, more medical research etc etc.

really??

I have a kitchen, I'm more a fashion refusenik

NT