Countertops and solid surface

Countertops take more abuse than anything else we build. They get wet and hot, people lean on them, and staff clean them with whatever is under the sink. We fabricate two main families in our shop. Plastic laminate tops are high-pressure laminate bonded to an engineered core, finished with a self edge, a postformed edge or an applied edge. Solid surface tops are a filled cast polymer (Corian, for example, is acrylic with a mineral filler), the same color all the way through, cut and joined into vanities, integral sinks, transaction tops and nurse-station counters. For hospital and clinic restrooms, solid surface is often the default. For break rooms, workrooms and most office counters, laminate does the job for less money. Quartz and natural stone have their place too, and part of our job is telling you when one of them fits better than what we fabricate.

A laminate top starts with the laminate grade. General-purpose sheet, about .048 inch thick in Wilsonart's line, is made for flat work. Postforming grade is thinner, about .039 inch, and can be heated and rolled over a simple radius, typically around 9/16 inch on the outside, which gives a rounded front edge with no seam on top. A backing sheet goes on the underside so the panel stays balanced and flat, and cutouts for sinks and grommets get rounded inside corners, because square inside corners in laminate tend to crack. Solid surface is a different process. Sheets are cut and routed, then joined with a two-part adhesive that bonds chemically, with a strip of the same material reinforcing each joint from below. Sanded and finished, those joints are inconspicuous, and an integral bowl bonded to the top leaves no rim to trap dirt. Because the material is the same through its thickness, most scratches and burns can be sanded or repaired back to the original finish.

Countertops are measured after the cabinets are set, because walls are never perfectly straight and a top has to scribe tight to them. Long tops travel in sections. Laminate seams fall where the shop drawings put them, ideally away from sinks. Solid surface joints can be bonded on site with the same adhesive, so a long nurse-station counter can arrive in pieces and leave as one surface. Sinks, faucets and soap dispensers need their cut sheets before fabrication, not after. And the laminate maker asks for the laminate, backer and core to sit together for 48 hours at about 75 degrees before they are glued up, which is one reason a rush order still takes a few days.