Formica Scratch Repair
Dion Kennard lives in the Bahamas.
The land of milk and honey sea and surf and humidity.
Here's his story:
"When we built our house we had a local contractor build our kitchen cabinets and prepare and install our counter tops.
They are 1/2" thick Formica sheets in a dark stone color.
Unfortunately he polished them to a high gloss and they are now showing every scratch and mark.
Is there some way that I can refinish them myself so that they would be more forgiving?"
I believe there are scratches here, but they're hard to see. Photo credit: Dion Kennard
Here's my simple answer:
To disguise scratches, you need to get rid of the high gloss. Gloss, by its very nature, shows minor surface imperfections because of the way light is reflected by the imperfection.
A matte finish is more forgiving.
How you might create a pleasing and uniform matte finish is a mystery to me.
You may be better off just trying to repair the scratches as they happen as you could ruin the top trying to change it's look.
CLICK HERE for some repair kits that may work.
My wife and I also live in The Bahamas. We needed to renovate battered, old formica countertops, but could not afford high-end materials. We tried a product called 'Reclaim' - essentially a thick, textured paint - and are extremely pleased with the results. For $120 you get a very attractive countertop. As for durability, only time will tell.
Thanks for info, I will write it down for future use in case I need it or someone else does it......
Now that I have everyone's attention, I have a question ......hope someone can help .....my neighbor says her bathroom ceiling vent has a sound that sounds like a drip leak......she asked the Mgr. about it and he told her it wasn't a leak.....did tell her what it was, but she wasn't happy with the answer and it still makes the sound.....does anyone know what it could be and how to fix it....as my guess is the mgr.didn't know either and just told her it wasn't nothing to worry about.....does anyone know what it might be ?
Neale,
Thanks for the feed back. I have looked at a number of videos on how to refinish glued Formica laminate, unfortunately that is not our issue as ours is a solid product. As you would be aware I mentioned that we live in the Bahamas on a small island to indicate that there are no contractors available for this kind of thing and we mostly have to solve our own problems. I believe that I will contact 3M and find out what grits I need to take the gloss of and return it to a Matt finish.
Once again thanks.
I thought that the pic looked like a solid surface product and reading your last reply I'm fairly certain it is. A solid surface top (Corian, Hi-Macs, Living Stone, etc...) is not formica and can be resurfaced. When I've repaired it in the past I've had to play around with different grit pads to match the gloss level just right. I would buy some automotive finishing sandpaper and play with it in an inconspicuous spot until you got it right. I would guess you will be happy with somewhere between 600-1000 grit. 2000 grit is rather glossy. good luck!