Crock Pot Use. More Bad Info.

Another crack brought to you by a Crock Pot.

It's not unusual for me to be told that a homeowner thought that they could put a crock pot or any other hot thing on their solid surface countertop. I know that when I was just getting into the countertop business back in 1993, there were some salespeople that actually thought that was true. Since they thought that it was true they passed that information along to consumers. Needless to say, that came back to bite a lot of kitchen and bath bath people in the backside.

It also exposed the fact that while solid surface countertops are high quality, durable, and can enhance any area that they are used in, they are not now nor have they ever been indestructable. They are not now and have never been advertised as such by any of the actual manufacturers. Dupont is the pioneer of solid surface with Corian®, and I can promise you that even though the myth of indestructableness is widespread, Dupont never put it out there. In fact they have always tried very hard to be sure it was marketed properly.

I was just cruising around through some stats and seeing what links people used to find my blog and website. I found this forum that is sure to drum up some work for us solid surface repair specialists. This thread is titled Crockpot Use.


Things like this forum and other do it yourself type message boards give out bad information about what these countertops can and cannot take. Another thing that goes around is that you can't use crock pots on solid surface but that you can use them on stone countertops. Not true. Even stone countertops can and do crack from using Crock pots directly on them. I've even heard people say, "I have used my Crock Pot on all my countertops with no problem." To them I say, "You have been very lucky." Some people have cracked their countertop with the first use of a Crock pot directly on the countertop.

I really wanted to get on that forum and join the discussion but not enough to pay the $5.00 fee to join. Anyway, maybe I will get lucky and all the people that are taking the advice that this forum is dishing out will be North Carolina residents and then I can fix their countertops for them.

Just so you know, I'm not sharing this information about crock pots so that I can knock myself or any other countert top repair specialists out of work, I just want to share things that you should already know, but probably do not know.

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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So Your Expensive Corian® Countertop Is Cracked - Don't Panic

Anytime you spend a lot of money on something only to have it break down on you, it usually will send you into a tizzy. Well if it is a solid surface counter top then there is no reason to freak out.

One of the big selling points for solid surface counter tops is the fact that they can repaired if they are scratched, cracked, chipped, burnt or anything else. As long as your counter top has not been ground into a pile of powder or confetti, it can be repaired.

On occasion, I will run across a posting in some diy forum or message board and people will post replies about repairing solid surface counter tops. They say how you can fix a crack with super glue or some new fantastic resin that you can simply pour on the crack and then sand it down and then it's fixed. Well, that simply isn't true.

Other than simple scratch removal and some stain removal, there is no such thing as a homeowner doing a real, legitimate, invisible, beautiful repair on their own solid surface counter top. It's just not going to happen. That is one big myth that can be busted in the blink of an eye. Just ask anyone who has been unfortunate enough to take this advice. Sure, maybe the magic potion that they poured on the crack filled it in, and sure, once they sanded it down after using the magic potion the crack was no longer felt when you rubbed your finger across it, but what did it look like? In a word, awful.

In the event that it doesn't look awful at first, just hold on, it will. It will start to change colors, usually it goes darker. So if you had a crack in a white counter top and you did a diy fix on it, it's not going to be long and it will start to turn black. Imagine how proud you would be of your handy work then. Your once beautiful counter tops now look like something that you salvaged from some old hotel or something. YUCK!

The good thing is, even if you are not qualified to repair your own counter top, there are people out there that are qualified, and, if you do try to fix it and are disgusted by what you've done it can still be repaired beautifully.

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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The Effect of Lighting on Solid Surface.

One thing about solid surface counter tops and showers that some people do not take into consideration is the way that lighting in a room affects the appearance of the surface.

My most recent case of this is a Corian® shower. The color is Cocoa Brown. There are only 2 walls and there is a shower pan. Just to the left of the shower there is a small window and it is the only outside light coming into the bathroom.

On this particular shower, the wall panels had to be polished to a high gloss. The shower pan also needed to be polished. Because of this, I decided to bring the first wall panel into the shower before making all the cuts for fitting so the homeowner could inspect and approve the polishing job on the pieces.

Before I even had the panel resting comfortably on the shower pan the homeowner said, "Those pieces don't match." Immediately I looked down and sure enough, it looked like 2 very different colors. Now, I knew that they were not two different colors but even though I knew it, for one quick second I even had to second guess the colors between the panel and the shower pan.

Immediately my helper was on the phone with the fabricator (I wasn't the fabricator, I was just helping the fabricator on this job) trying to figure out how they could have made such a mistake.

I had the piece of material that was cut out to allow for the hot/cold controls. I put it on the shower pan and it was the exact same color as the shower pan. However, when we held the cutout up on the wall, it then becamethe same color as the wall panel. They both looked very different but they were the same after all.

So, what caused the drastic difference in color? The light from that one small window. As soon as the "problem" was noticed, I took a picture. While we were waiting for the designer to show up and inspect things, we went to lunch for about 45 minutes.

When the designer got there, the lighting had changed so drastically in that bathroom that she walked in, looked at it and said, "It looks the same to me." Sure enough, the wall panels looked the same as the shower pan. I went ahead with the rest of the installation and when I was done, the lighting had changed again and once again it looked like two different colors. I turned the bathroom lights on and off and each time the color went from different, back to the same.

Basically, the point of this story is this.
Light can really do funny things to your solid surface material. Window light in particular can play some serious tricks on the appearance of the color and also in the correct light angles, you can see more scratches and smudges and just plain busyness (new word) on your surface.

The pictures below will tell the tale. Now, they kind of look like those old Bigfoot films where you can't really see everything clearly. That is because apparently I forgot how to use my camera properly or something. Anyway, even though they are mostly blurry, look at the colors of the panels in each shot.


See the difference between the shower pan and wall panel.


Notice the difference between all three pieces.



Finally, this all looks the same.


Here is the shower after it is completed. The plumbing and the glass doors still need to be added but my part is finished. Sorry for the awful quality of the pictures, but I think you can see what I am trying to show you anyway.

This is with bathroom lights off.


This is with bathroom lights on.



IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU DON'T LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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Solid Surface Counter Tops and Crock Pots. They Do Not Mix.

This a good example of the kind of damage that a crock pot can do to your solid surface countertop.


Lots of people love to cook with crock pots, rice cookers, electric skillets, griddles, and other types of electric cookers that are designed for use on counter tops.

While these are very convenient items for slow cooking, they are also very often the culprit in a lot of cracks in expensive Corian and other types of solid surface counter tops.

As a solid surface repair expert I have repaired hundreds of counter top cracks that were directly caused by the use of these convenient yet potentially harmful items. That being said, don't go throw your cookers out the door. Simply take some precautions and you can keep on cooking.

My personal rule of thumb for protecting my solid surfaces at home from heat damage is this. If I can't hold the hot item in my hand without it burning me then I will not put it directly on my counter top.

If you are going to use any electric cooker on your counter top then you need to protect the counter top surface from the heat by using a cutting board or trivet that the counter top fabricator provides. If your fabricator did not provide you with at least one cutting board or trivet then you need to purchase your own. In most cases, a fabricator will provide you with this at the time of installation. Often times though, someone may have purchased a home that has had the solid surface counter tops for a while before the home was purchased. Usually in this case the cutting boards have moved out with the previous homeowners. People love their cutting boards and they usually take them when they move.

It is very important to note that a trivet or cutting board that sits flat on the counter top and has no air flow under it is just as bad as using no trivet at all. If you purchase your own board, you should put small bumper feet on the bottom of the board. A simple clearance of about 1/4" is sufficient to provide air flow between the cutting board and the counter top. Also, I am not a big fan of those thin little glass composite cutting boards, at least not for heat protection.

It is also important to note that a cloth potholder sitting on the counter top is not enough protection either. They are fine for putting hot pots that will cool fairly quickly but even then I would double them up, just out of an abundance of caution. Never use a pot holder as the only heat protection for any plug in heat producing gadgets because they are not enough protection and that would also create a fire hazard.

Your counter tops were expensive and they are durable and high quality. They are not indestructible though and with just a little precaution they can last and be beautiful for a lifetime. On the bright side though, you made a very intelligent choice by using solid surface counter tops because they can always be repaired if they get damaged.
IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU DON'T LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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Can a crack in a solid surface sink be repaired?

The short answer is no.

If a solid surface sink ever gets a crack in it the only proper remedy for it is to replace the sink. Unlike your actual countertop which can be repaired if it is cracked, a solid surface sink can not be repaired if it is cracked.

Having said that, I'll say this. Since I am sure that there are some "diy" types that may read this blog entry and then think to themselves, "I bet I can fix it with some epoxy or something." There is one way to do a repair on a solid surface sink crack without replacing the sink.

I would personally not ever do this repair because it is certainly a hack job type of fix and it will be ugly to look at as well as not standing up beyond the first week of use,(but I have seen where others have done this).

It can be cut into with a dremel tool and then filled with the color matching solid surface adhesive. Let it dry, sand it down. And now you have a very ugly, unreliable repair for the sink crack. It is much cheaper to do this than to have the sink replaced but it is a waste of money if you pay someone else to do it because you will pay them, they will do it, and then you will pay them or someone else to replace your sink in the not too distant future because that repair will certainly, definitely fail.

This option should be reserved for "do it yourselfers" that are not concerned with the appearance or the longevity of the repair.

Now that I have said all that I think it would be a good idea for me to post some photos of this type of fix. Sometime down the road I will do a "mock repair" on a sink that I have cutout of someones countertop so my readers can see exactly what I am talking about.
IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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First job of 2008. SSV faucet crack repair.

This is a Wilsonart SSV countertop. I got the call to go and check out what could be done. It has one of the typical problems that SSV tops get. Cracking around the faucet area.


There are several ways to fix this problem but almost all of them just involve cutting out the bad material and replaceing it with other SSV or the regular Wilsonart Gibraltar material. Either way, I do not ever like to repair SSV without giving a long tiring speech about how I can not guarantee the repair for more than about 5 minutes. (I will be posting more about SSV issues later.)

The alternative that I came up with to get around the problem of doing a repair that I can not stand behind, is to fabricate a platform for the faucet to be installed into. The platform is made out of the 1/2" material of Gibraltar that matches the color of the SSV.

Here are the before and afters. By the way, if you have seen the pictures on CSSR that look like this job, it isn't the same one. Same color and same situation but not the same job.



Finished. Even though this is not a typical repair, it is the best way to repair a crack around a faucet when it is in an SSV countertop. Had it been regular 1/2" solid surface, I would have done a normal repair that would have been invisible. (Ooops, you can't say invisible, it is inconspicuous!)

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU DON'T LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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Stainless steel sink dropped from countertop.

Imagine, 1:oo am the night before Christmas Eve. Your in the bed with visions of gumdrops dancing in your head, all of a sudden you hear a crash in the kitchen. You rush in to see what the heck is going on and there is your kitchen sink laying in the sink base cabinet no longer attached to your countertop.

That is exactly what happened on this job. Fortunately the homeowner was a good improviser and was able to prop the sink back up temporarily until they called me to come fix it on the day after Christmas.

Now, most of the time a sink will not fall out. This one just happened to be installed with silicone and nothing else. That is never the way to install an undermount sink, with silicone alone.

After some extensive upside down modifications to the under side of the sink area I was able to get the sink reinstalled and it should never be a problem again.

This is the way it was when I got there. The homeowner had it propped with pvc pipes.

I had to remove the sink all the way so I could scrape the old silicone off and allow it to sit tight against the underside of the countertop.

Finished. While I was hooking the faucet back up I got water on the fresh silicone that I lined the sink with. That is what the blob is that you see just uder the faucet in the center of the sink. Since the silicone is still fresh I didn't wipe off the water because it would smear the silicone.


IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

IF YOU NEED SOLID SURFACE OR STONE COUNTERTOP REPAIR AND YOU DON'T LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA CLICK HERE!

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