Solid Surface Countertops. How Not To Remove Scratches. Part 2

Okay here we go with part 2 of Solid Surface Countertops. How Not To Remove Scratches. How Not To Remove Scratches Part 1.

I have to apologize for my photography again. I don't know whether it is me or my camera or what but my pics seem to be blurrier and blurrier lately. I'm getting a new camera soon so we'll see.

This is a Corian countertop. The color is Hot. The people have had these countertops for about 10 years and they wanted to get the fine scratches out of the countertop. They were a little nervous about trying to do it themselves even though they had directions on how to clean it and remove scratches that were provided at the time of their installation.

They called around to some K&B places and to a couple of fabricators and asked for advice on removing the scratches. Every single place told them to break out the sandpaper and Scotch Brite pads and start scrubbing. They did it. In a flash they realized that was definitely one of the worst things that they could have done. The marks left by the 320 grit sandpaper and the maroon Scotch Brite pad were way more noticeable than the fine scratches that they were trying to remove.

Here is the island before I did a complete refinish or scratch removal.


In this next series of pics, there is a particular patch of scratches on this top but I was not sure if the scratches would show up on camera. For this reason I used a black marker to symbolize an actual scratch.


As you can see, the patch that I rubbed on with a Scotch Brite pad really stands out. Who wants that?



This is what the scratch patch looks like after I wipe off the white dust that I made while rubbing with the pad.


With the sunlight coming through this window, even in a poor quality picture you can really tell how the homeowner had tried to get the scratches out himself.


This is after I did a refinish on it. The Scotch Brite pad scratches are all gone. I see I left a little dust in the ogee edge before I took the picture. Oops, I should have used my
Countertop Magic before taking the picture.


This is the island after refinishing.


The whole lesson behind this article is this. Your countertops were expensive, they are high quality, elegant and beautiful. Even so, from time to time they may need some maintenance type of attention. It's no different than your automobile, when it needs maintenance, sometimes it is just better left to a professional that has all of the proper equipment and experience to do the job for you.

It isn't something that a normal homeowner with moderate experience with a sander could not do themselves but most homeowners do not have the proper sander, abrasives, and dust extraction equipment like a vacuum tool system. Here is a good sander and vaccum system if you are interested in trying it yourself.