Wooden worktops

Anyone able to offer tips on buying / fitting wooden worktops for my kitchen. I've got two straight runs one of 3.4m one of 2.1m - the 3.4m run will have an undermounted sink + hob cutout, also some of those cutout slots for a draining board (I guess they need routing somehow). I like Iroko or Oak - Cheapest blanks I've found so far are £510 for

650mm wide 40mm thick tops from thehardwoodfloorstore.co.uk - these use 40mm wooden stave construction.

I've not fitted worktops before so any advice appreciated.

Reply to
Jon Brooke
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Avoid oak. You're pretty much guaranteed to get "iron stain" problems from something. Maple or a tropical (teak or iroko, which is cheaper) would be better, IMHO.

-- Smert' spamionam

Reply to
Andy Dingley

A *decent* jigsaw will do the cut outs, but you may get a bit of smoking on the blade. I found Ikea beech very sticky. Also, be very careful with the layout. With separate taps and sink you can end up with very little room for error.

Reply to
stuart noble

What I used was a jigsaw, a straight edge and a deep router bit. Jig roughly to size, then use a single pass of the router at full depth to plane the edges square.

I used a belling router bit with a ball race to get curved edges.

A good sand and several coast of Danish Oil has provided a more resliient surface than I expected - on oak.

I used a LOT of clear silicone on top of the belfast to seal that as well. Didn't bother with routed drain slots. Just wipe it into the sink. Its fine. SWMBO is muutering about inset slate drainers, but she can sodding well wait for that :-)

Did two right angle joins - in the end, just butt jointed - before routing the bevelled edges. Looks tidy. Bevel the underside front edge before fittong, but the top last of all.

Butt joints were done with glue, and plates screwed underneath,

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Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

sounds expensive, unless that is for the whole lot and not lengths ...... also check here;

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Iroko 40mm 4.2m x 650mm £295.00 Oak 40mm 4.2m x 650mm £330.00

iroko dust is an irritant to both skin and respiration, so wear a dustmask or better still a respirator when routing. a jig for sink drainer is relatively simple; you use a ball groover and a guide bush ....... and you construct a jig out of ply or MDF strips that has the right size gap for the bush a support strip screwed at right angles at the bottom of both ends, the bottom strip thickness is what decides the fall of your drainer, one end rests inside your sink cut out, the other end sits on the worktop and that gives you the fall, clamp in place, set your depth on the router and rout away. Spacing of the strips gives you the spacing of the drainer channels

Reply to
Simon

Not sure if this helps but IKEA should be getting delivery of its OAK worktops in 3 weeks time. 186mm costs about £80 and 246 about £120. From memory it's 606mm x 38mm.

-- Chris Spyrou numero communications limited

Reply to
Chris Spyrou

Cheapest blanks I've found so far are £510 for

£510 was for two pieces, so a bit cheaper than your suggestion, but thanks for taking the trouble to respond. I just want to make sure I'm not missing some bargain supplier that everyone except me knows about. Anyone else got a favourite supplier. I'm near High Wycombe if anyone knows one in this neck of the woods.

Cheers

Jon

Reply to
Jon Brooke

Where did you get your wood, and how much did you pay?

Reply to
Jon Brooke

I got my worktops via arena kitchens - its not actually FROM them - they are sort of online brokers - can't remember the price but try

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from memory.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

My rubberwood worktops were *far* less than that. About 120 to 150 pounds for 3 metres by 600mm.

Yes, here you go:-

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do other woods as well, delivered to my house etc. etc.

Reply to
usenet

try howdens, MFI trade

Reply to
kitchenman

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