Worktop with upstand, are they made?

Not been in that market for a while. Boss insisted, and paid for! a Corion worktop from J Lewis. Magical installer, no visible joints including the lap over the window cill.

I think Corion may be out of my budget range and I'm not at all sure I'd get an installer who'd be willing to work on my (quite small) boat! :-)

I don't recall ever seeing a laminate work surface post formed seamlessly into an upstand. I saw some where you had a rear edge you could cut off and reposition but a long time ago. I have never seen laminate surfaces with a core of anything other than chipboard which is barely suitable for a domestic kitchen and you wouldn't waste your time with it on a boat.

I don't know if you can do it yourself but laminate, plywood, corian (and equivalents) colour matched filling adhesive, plastic nosing etc will all be available somewhere. Otherwise there are people (firms) who prepare surfaces in corian, laminate, stainless steel, wood, glass etc. and will take your order and your money happily if you are able to specify what you want by drawing or template.

Laminate is not hard to work on flat surfaces. Glue it onto plywood with contact adhesive and trim with a router. Corian type materials are cut and routered with tungsten tipped tools, glued with the matching adhesive. Quite a lot of work in abrasive smoothing and polishing. Plenty of small workshops do stainless fabrication for commercial kitchens and the like. It's often backed with ply. Wood if you can do woodwork - iroko or mahog or something.

TW

Well the existing chipboard and laminate one has lasted for at least

Yes, I'm sure one can make a good job of adding an upstand, I was just hoping that an 'all in one piece' one might be possible. I got a quote for a Corian one, it's in the £2500 to £3000 sort of ball park which seems a bit silly for a 2.4 metre straight worktop in a boat that only cost 19k euros to start with! :-)

ISTM there isn't a whole lot of difference in having a wood profile glued into a wooden top, which is already made of glued strips of wood to get the width. Maybe you'd make the profile oversize and route a channel in the top, so that the outward joint with the profile is vertical rather than horizontal. Kind of like this, with whatever curvy upstand profile you felt like:

------+---- | | | +-----------+ |

------------------+

If you were to keep the joint tight (biscuits/dominos?) you might not notice it to be there.

You could potentially do that with chipboard too, maybe even a contrasting wooden strip if you were feeling brave.

Theo (interested because having a sloped/curved upstand might be a good way to avoid it collecting dirt/water)

Yes, re the last bit (... avoid it collecting dirt/water) that's exactly my reason for asking the question. On a boat it's quite often that the boat's trim means that water collects at the back of the worktop and easy to clean plus smooth/impermeable would be a 'good thing'.

I suppose the problem with my picture is that water could collect above the vertical joint, get into it and push it apart. I wonder if there's a way to mitigate that. In a kitchen you could angle the worktop slightly so water drains forwards, but on a boat the roll is going to be variable so that won't work. Impermeable glue will help, but still water can get at it through the sides. wood. Maybe a surface coating that makes a smooth finish such that the joint is not exposed, one which will stretch to account for movement in the wood?

Theo

Being a river/canal boat the issue isn't that extreme. :-) However it does surprise me that it's not something that there isn't a standard answer for. Even in an ordinary kitchen one often sees dirt building up in that corner at the back of the worktop. Silicone mastic or whatever is the usual solution but surely a one piece surface would be a much better solution.

I suppose you could make something like that out of fibreglass, like one piece shower trays. Not sure how robust it would be for hot pans and dropped knives.

Or rolled stainless steel, as has been mentioned. Maybe there's something for commercial kitchens, where cleanliness is a big deal?

Theo

You can get island worktops with the same visible edge on both the front and back.

These are deeper than the usual 600mm and so you could cut the rear 100m or so off and attach to the main surface to make an upstand?

a 2.4 metre straight worktop in a boat that

Aha! This is not the kind of boat or galley I had imagined. Not a small seagoing yacht with a tiny galley liable to be drenched in brine. TW

No, it's an 11 metre, steel 'cabin cruiser' that potters around (at times) on French rivers and canals. :-)

Laminated chipboard should still be suitable if all the visible chipboard surfaces are completely sealed against water ingress before fitting. Seal along the whole length of the back, around any cutouts, and perhaps the underside of the front edge where any water dripping from the front edge may travel back under the edge.

Possibly not in the marketplace because it requires a perfectly plumb back wall for a decent finished look?

When applying the silicone see this video

I highly recommend the fugi profile type tool as shown in the video. Actually there are alternative makes that are equally effective. Mine came from Lidl and cost under a fiver.

Just as a follow-up to this thread I've found that the magic name for a worktop with an upstand as I want is a 'coved upstand'. They tend to be aimed at medical and other environments where cleanliness is particularly important but you can find them from some (usually stupidly expensive) kitchen worktop suppliers.

I've sent out a few enquiries and I'm waiting for replies.

Thanks, that's very handy to know.

Searching on that, somebody made a jig to route out a coved upstand in Corian:

This post describes how they work Corian:

Does stainless appeal?

Thanks, though stainless steel doesn't *really* appeal it might be OK and the price isn't too silly.

S*it that's bloody nice...