CRACKED COUNTERS
Making repairs seamless
A how-to guru advises a reader who is looking to repair a crack in a Corian countertop.
Q Our Corian countertop developed a crack, I believe, after the stove that abuts it was moved. We have a very large countertop and it is really out of the question to replace it, because it is in good condition otherwise. Is there any way to repair or at least disguise the crack — which is, at its widest, about 1/16 of an inch (1.59 mm) across?
A A cracked countertop made of solid-surface material such as Corian can be repaired to look virtually good as new by cutting a matching scrap piece into narrow strips and gluing them into a smooth channel that straddles the crack.
Winkhel Sahagun, owner of the Countertop Guru (gurutops.com), said that finding matching material for the patch isn’t as difficult as it might seem.
Installers often give homeowners cutting board-size pieces made from sections that were cut out for a sink or stove top.
When a homeowner doesn’t have that, Sahagun said he often finds something that works stashed in his shop or the shops of several friends who install countertops. “We share when we need a piece,” he said. Or if the style is still current, he orders samples or larger pieces as needed.
As a last resort, he sometimes scavenges a section of backsplash from a side wall and the homeowner just paints there instead.
Sahagun uses a router to cut a smooth channel along the crack, making it about half an inch wide and an eighth to a quarter inch deep. If he has access to the back of the counter, he glues reinforcing pieces underneath. Then he cuts strips of the scrap material to fit in the channel and stuffs them into the gap along with a special glue made by DuPont, the maker of Corian. If the room temperature is about 21 C, the glue dries in about an hour. Then he levels the surface with 80-grit sandpaper and goes through six progressively finer grits — 100, 150, 180, 220, 280 and, finally, 320 — to create a smooth matte finish that usually matches the surrounding countertop.
If the countertop is shinier, he continues sanding with four even finer levels of a different abrasive, winding up with 1,000-grit.
“When I’m done, it will look like the original piece,” Sahagun said.
He estimated that repairing a curved crack like the one you have would cost $400 to $500 and take about three hours or less.
Tom Jones, a technician who works at FixIt Countertop (fixitcountertop.com), also said that repairing a crack in Corian requires cutting out a smooth groove and gluing in matching material, then sanding it smooth.
He estimated the cost at $600 to $800. Some handy homeowners tackle these repairs themselves.
Besides using a router to cut the groove, it’s also possible to use a small rotary cutter, such as the ones made by Dremel. This cuts a narrower channel, which you could stuff with slivers of matching countertop material and suitable glue.
The website solidsurface.com sells adhesives matched to many Corian colours, as well as in a clear formula. If you don’t have matching countertop material but do have a current style, you can get up to six free sample pieces by visiting the DuPont website.