Kitchen worktop, distorting

[bricksmasher]

Hi

Recently I'm my kitchen where two prices of laminate meet I could see that they are starting to swell up.

I thought it was water damage form cleaning down and it going between the gap.

I put a glass worktop protector on tom of the join and moved it today and it looks worse. It doesn't appear to be wet, not really in a position to replace the laminate so wondered if there's any fixes or reasons as to why I happened in the first place.

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 174758]

...not really in a position to replace the laminate so wondered if there's any fixes or reasons as to why I happened in the first place.

The reason why is simply that the joint was not properly sealed, and because of this water has entered the joint and csused the chipboard core of the worktop. Once blown, there is no going back - the worktop is scrap. Unrepairable.

The design of the worktop has some bearing on how well the joint holds up. For example unsupported joints and joints where the sink is adjacent to the joints are obvious examples of where joint failure is more likely. You haven't posted a wider angle photograph, so unfortunately it is impossible to say whether there are other factors in this failure.

In the short term about the only thing you can do is to seal the joint with something like silicone. Ugly.

 

[^woody^]

Get some edge trim the same as the surface. Score the top either side of the joint equal to the width of the trim. Chisel/scrape/rout out the laminate surface, prep the core with some filler, glue down the edge strip. If need be, fill joints with sanitary silicone or coloured joint filler.