How To Install Laminate Countertop Side Splash
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How to Install Laminate Countertop Sheets: Cut a Dado in the Backsplash
Before yous assemble the underlayment, plow a 1/4-in.-deep, 1/4-in.-wide dado into the backsplash (Figure A). The laminate slips into the groove to requite you lot a little wiggle room when you install it. Y'all can cutting the dado by making a few passes on your tabular array saw.
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Raise the Kitchen Countertops
If you're working with factory-built cabinets, you lot'll have to install "enhance strips" made of three/4-in. particleboard on top of the cabinets to make room for the top drawers to clear the front edge of the kitchen countertop. Install a lath instead of a raise strip where the underlayment corner seam will be. Cutting the underlayment and so information technology sticks out 1 in. past the finished end of the cabinet (or make it flush if the chiffonier abuts an appliance). Stagger the top, backsplash and nosepiece seams at least 1/2 in. Fasten it all together with i/iv-in. crown staples that are 1-one/four in. long and spaced about 5 in. apart—no glue required.
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Verify Sink Size
Cutting the hole for the sink subsequently the underlayment is installed but before y'all install the laminate. Nigh sinks require a 21-one/4-in. ten 32-1/4-in. pigsty, only make sure you take your sink on mitt so y'all'll know what size hole to cut. Cut the dorsum side of the pigsty with an oscillating tool, and then cut the sides and forepart with a jigsaw.
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Sand the Seams
There tin exist a pocket-size gap between the underlayment boards, but the seam has to be absolutely flat. Marking the seam with a pencil, so sand with 50-grit newspaper until the lines disappear.
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How to Install Laminate Countertop Sheet: Employ a 'Slitter' for Narrow Strips
A laminate slitter ($140 at online retailers) is almost a must for cutting thin laminate strips. Information technology has an adjustable guide, so you lot can cut strips ranging in width from 1/2 in. up to 4-1/4 in. Cut any narrow strips kickoff, earlier rough-cutting the big kitchen countertop pieces. All the pieces volition be cut a chip long and trimmed downward after they're installed. Make sure y'all take plenty of the sheet left over to cutting the big 50-shaped section.
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Rough-Cut the Top With a Circular Saw
Cut the master peak piece of the laminate with a circular saw. Apply a board to create a infinite so the saw blade doesn't grind into the floor. Avoid scratches by sticking a few strips of masking tape to the underside of your saw base. The front end side of the laminate volition hang over the border and be trimmed off, so your cuts don't need to be perfect.
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Glue the Stop Caps First
Cutting the cease cap so the bottom portion and the very top are shut enough to be cleaned up with a file. The rest will be trimmed with a router. Cut the finish cap to size with snips, then paint a thin layer of mucilage on both surfaces. Allow the glue dry simply until it's no longer wet to the touch, and then carefully line upwards the top and ends and tip the piece into identify. Embed the end cap by lightly tapping the whole surface with a smooth, burr-free hammer, and then it's ready for the router.
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Scribe and Cutting the Acme Cap
Earlier you get your commencement whiff of mucilage, make sure every piece fits. The top of the backsplash will need to be scribed and trimmed down. Use a small silver marker to scribe the tiptop, and then carefully cutting it with tin snips.
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Make Small Cuts
To avoid cracking the laminate, don't cutting more than than ane/4 in. at a time. Clean up the edge with a chugalug sander.
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Use Tin can Snips
Tin can snips are a good tool for cutting the scribed line.
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Trim Excess Laminate in Place
Install the front edge flush with the lesser of the underlayment, and set it with a hammer. Then trim off the excess with your router. A meaty router with an offset base is a must-have when you're building kitchen countertops in identify.
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Routing Tip
When you lot trim the main kitchen countertop and the peak of the backsplash, the guide of your router flake will be running along finished laminate, so keep the router moving. If you stop for whatever length of fourth dimension, the flake volition grind into the surface of the laminate. Rub a little petroleum jelly along the edge where the chip rides to prevent marring.
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Apply the Agglutinative With a Scrap
Clean all surfaces with compressed air earlier gluing up the top surface. Cover the perimeter with a brush and then catch a scrap piece of laminate to spread on the rest. Apply the mucilage on the underlayment the same way. It gets messy trying to glue the backsplash after the pinnacle is installed, so cover the backsplash with glue at the same time. And this stuff is a potent chemical, so e'er use an organic vapor respirator, open a window and turn on the exhaust fan.
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Use Spacers to Install the Height
Laminate adhesive is sometimes referred to every bit "contact cement" considering information technology sets every bit soon every bit the 2 coated surfaces come into contact. That's not necessarily a good thing when you're trying to maneuver a large, floppy canvas into identify. Cut strips of leftover laminate and use them as spacers. Considering the adhesive won't stick to the strips, you'll exist able to slide the canvas around. Start pulling out the spacers once the top canvass is in position. Make sure the spacers are clean so they don't get out debris behind.
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How to Install Laminate Countertop Sheets: Shine Laminate With a Lath
Instead of using a roller to smooth out the surface, use a board wrapped in a towel. If a slice of debris does go far between the two surfaces, the soft rubber on a roller tin indent around the lump and actually crack the laminate that surrounds it. Start on the back side and work your way out to the edges.
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Trim the Backsplash With Snips
A router won't exist able to reach the inside corner of the backsplash, and so use can snips to trim information technology down before yous install it (make minor cuts). That way you won't accept as much material to remove with your file. Press the section on with a board the same way you lot did the summit. The top cap piece is set into identify with a hammer.
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Trim Out the Sink Hole
Use your router to trim the hole for the sink. Just poke through the material with a spinning fleck and work your style to the edge. Right earlier you finish the cut, support the flake material so information technology doesn't autumn down and tear out the concluding little section.
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File Downwardly
Once all the pieces are in identify, file all the edges, including the bottom. You can purchase a file peculiarly designed for plastic laminate for less than $xx online. E'er file in a down management, never back and forth. Make clean off excess glue with lacquer thinner or whatsoever solvent your agglutinative manufacturer recommends.
Originally Published: September 06, 2022
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/installing-laminate-countertops/
Posted by: westmorelandhement.blogspot.com
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