Laminate - A Great Choice for Countertops

By Paul Bianchina

When it comes to bathrooms, one area you can be assured will get a lot of use is the countertop. So if you're thinking about new counters for your bathroom - or for the kitchen or utility room as well - plastic laminate offers an excellent choice with a lot of advantages. Plastic laminate - referred to by many people as Formica after the name of one of the original manufacturers of the material - is very easy to clean and care for, is available in a huge range of colors, patterns, and textures, and is one of the most affordable countertop materials on the market today.

Laminates have always been a good choice for countertops, but were not always the most attractive of options. One problem was the limited choice of colors, but perhaps the biggest drawback was the standard "flat lay" installation method used since the 1960s. Plastic laminate gets its name from the fact that a thin sheet of specially manufactured and coated plastic is adhered (laminated) to a thicker sheet of backing material. All of the color and pattern that you see is only in that top plastic sheet, so when the material is cut you are able to see a thin black line, which is the edge of the backing.

With the older method of flat lay installation, laminate was first adhered to the edge of the countertop, then a wider sheet of laminate was placed on the top of the counter. When the top piece was trimmed off flush with the edge piece, that resulting black line was very visible, and rather unsightly, along the edge of the entire counter.

Eliminating the Black Line

Around the mid-70s, countertop manufacturers developed the beveled edge counter, which is still very popular today. Instead of having a sharp 90-degree corner where the edge of the counter meets the top - and resulting in the black line - the counter is machined off at a 45-degree angle along the top edge. A thin strip of laminate is then placed along this beveled edge, and since all of the joints are mitered into one another, the black line disappears.

Bevel edge counters offer a couple of other advantages as well. Since the edge is at 45 degrees instead of 90, the entire counter is smoother and actually safer. And if you're looking to stay within a neutral color range such as white or almond for the counters but would still like to work in a splash of color, the beveled portion of the top, which is only about 1/4" wide, can be done in laminate of a different color. For a real contrast, the bevel can even be done in a different material altogether, such as wood strips or even thin strips of brass.

Another popular choice for putting an attractive edge on a laminate counter and getting rid of the black line is to use solid wood edging. Hardwoods such as oak, maple, and cherry are all popular choices, and will hold up well to the day-to-day impacts and cleaning.

With this method, the counter is fabricated with laminate on the top only; the front edges are left raw. After the counter is installed on top of the cabinet, the wood strip is attached to the front edge of the counter using glue and small, air-driven brads. The wood strip - typically about 3/8" to 1/2" thick and about 2" wide - is beveled or rounded over on the top edge to provide a smooth transition to the laminate top, and is then stained to match the wood of the cabinets. Two or more clear top-coats of polyurethane are then used on the wood to seal it against moisture.

What's New

The newest laminate countertop evolution is the combination of plastic laminate and solid surface material. Solid surfacing - again, more commonly known by one of its trade names, Corian - is a dense, man-made polymer composite material that is very hard and smooth. It also has the advantage of being solid color throughout the material, so when it is cut or shaped, the resulting edge is not a different color.

With this type of counter design, plastic laminate is used for the top of the counter, and solid surface material is used for all or part of the front edge. There are hundreds of possibilities for color combinations and edge shapes, and the resulting counter is smooth, durable, and very attractive.

To look at any of the possibilities for plastic laminate counters, check your Yellow Pages under "Counter Tops."

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