Topic 'Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project' in forum 'Home Improvement' - dslreports.com

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:57:37 EDT

TA63 posted : Many sellers of countertops sell them cut to suit your kitchen.

This often includes a visit for the seller to measure your kitchen.
--
The talented hawk speaks French.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:50:20 EDT

Ken posted : Rust-Oleum does make a Cabinet Transformations line. I haven't researched that product at all so no idea if it's good or crap.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:44:52 EDT

alkizmo posted :

said by Coma:

Thats what routers are for.

Well they are for other things too :p

But ya I can see how they'd trim the excess edges of laminate flush with the particulate board of the cabinets.

Hmmm kitchen refacing seems like it could happen within a year or two.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:10:42 EDT

Coma posted :

said by alkizmo:

Speaking of refreshing a kitchen, I wonder, is it easy enough for a good DIYer to change the laminate surface on kitchen cabinets?

Our kitchen cabinets are "fine", but it's a very generic white.
The handles and mouldings are simple enough to replace, but laminate.... seems very intensive in terms of having to be precise in the cuts.

Thats what routers are for.

--
November is National Epilepsy Month

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 12:55:28 EDT

alkizmo posted :

said by Jtmo:

All appliances are black except for the ugly white stove, just saying Sears has a nice ceramic black stove for $450.

He's doing this to make the house more appealing for selling it. So appliances are of no impact.

Speaking of refreshing a kitchen, I wonder, is it easy enough for a good DIYer to change the laminate surface on kitchen cabinets?

Our kitchen cabinets are "fine", but it's a very generic white.
The handles and mouldings are simple enough to replace, but laminate.... seems very intensive in terms of having to be precise in the cuts.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 12:25:35 EDT

dandelion posted : Looks very nice when done.. and I even like the color in your kitchen area. I can't imagine I will ever have a need for it but very interesting instructions. My laminate top that was eventually replaced was curled in places so this wouldn't have been an option. The option at the time was wait a couple of years until could afford to get a new one. :D I AM very curious however how long this type of top would last.
--
Spare computer cycles can help find answers
Find A Cure!

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 02:24:36 EDT

Jtmo posted : Good job.

All appliances are black except for the ugly white stove, just saying Sears has a nice ceramic black stove for $450.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 01:51:07 EDT

dogma posted : TheMG , did you do your garage floor? Would you happen to have a few pics of the floor? I'd be interested to see it.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:22:19 EDT

TheMG posted : That stuff looks a lot like our garage floor. Same idea, base coat then chips then epoxy. Only difference is the chips are larger and the chips don't get sanded before the clear coat.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:37:46 EDT

garys_2k posted : Thank you! We're going to be selling next year and I've been wondering about this exact system. I >REALLY< appreciate the great job you did on documenting the whole process.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:10:25 EDT

mix posted : Looks goods! Look into getting a matching black stove.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:05:32 EDT

dogma posted : That looks really good Agent 007...

said by Ken:

I see this product as being for people that just don't have the know how to replace their countertops and would rather pay slightly more money to just paint their countertops with a product that probably won't last as long.

...as in "Never say never again" ;)

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:24:55 EDT

kjgi posted : Nice job!

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:18:15 EDT

Jack_in_VA posted : Ken it looks great. Excellent job

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:05:00 EDT

Warzau posted : Now that is cool! Im going to tell my in Laws about it.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:02:23 EDT

sludgehound posted : Yes terrific job for a fast, no use, cosmetic fix for selling that most important part of house sale. Also occurs as to duration
under average to heavy use. Probable a careful couple might get buy but a fair size young family could mess it up quickly. Days of school making meals, dinners, weekends, parties, after school. etc.
Anyway nice job for fast visual fix up.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:01:39 EDT

Ken posted :

said by Jack_in_VA:

Ken I just can't help wondering being it's paint based just how it's going to hold up. Countertops take a beating. My Corian counters are in dire need of sanding down again to get the scratches and gouges out. Thank goodness it can be done multiple times.

The base coat is just paint, but the clear top coat is a 2 part epoxy. If they used a good quality 2 part epoxy it should hold up to quite a bit of abuse and wear.

said by flibby3655:

Ken, how are we going to know what was in the safe if you moved?

The safe is at the new house we just moved to. I have plenty of time to crack into it still.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:53:40 EDT

flibby3655 posted : Ken, how are we going to know what was in the safe if you moved?
--
"Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye"

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:31:19 EDT

Jack_in_VA posted : Ken I just can't help wondering being it's paint based just how it's going to hold up. Countertops take a beating. My Corian counters are in dire need of sanding down again to get the scratches and gouges out. Thank goodness it can be done multiple times.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:23:19 EDT

Ken posted :

said by sempergoofy:

How to you apply the chips? Do you just throw them on by hand and hope to get an even coverage? Or did I miss something and there is an applicator?

There is an applicator, it looks like an old flour sifter. You turn the handle and it throws the chips around. You also hand throw them on the front edge by hand. I didn't really talk about that because there is almost nothing to it.

said by cdru:

How smooth is the clear coat finish? Can you still feel the texture of the paint chips or does it pretty much self level out as it dries?

The clear coat itself I think would be really smooth. However the chips have a fair amount of texture to them so it telegraphs through and you end up with texture. That is how it is supposed to be though according to the texture sample they give you to compare to. You are not supposed to sand the chips smooth, I'm not sure why.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:14:52 EDT

cdru posted : How smooth is the clear coat finish? Can you still feel the texture of the paint chips or does it pretty much self level out as it dries?

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:03:09 EDT

sempergoofy posted : The results look really good from the photos. Great job documenting.

I have only one question. How to you apply the chips? Do you just throw them on by hand and hope to get an even coverage? Or did I miss something and there is an applicator?
--
nohup rm -fr /&

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:57:41 EDT

beck posted : I'm not there in person, but it looks great to me. Thank you for posting this!

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:41:05 EDT

workablob posted : Very excellent and thanks for both the idea and the how-to shots.

The wife is going to be beside herself.

She does 90% of the home improvement work.

Here are just a few of her projects

Upstairs re-floor with laminate
Re-floor stairs with Laminate
Drywall
Painting
Flooring in baths and kitchen
New ceilings
The list goes on and boggles my mind.

Dave
--
I may have been born yesterday. But it wasn't at night.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:32:29 EDT

Ken posted : That's true I didn't think about that. I wasn't going to remove the sink mainly because I would have to wait for the clear coat to dry before putting the sink back in. I wanted to get in and out as fast as possible.

Re: Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:30:06 EDT

alkizmo posted : Nice result!
One thing though. I'd have removed the sink before doing this. That way you get the little edge under the sink, in case you replace it with another sink that has a smaller rim.

Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Project

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:25:08 EDT

Ken posted : There was a thread a long time back about using these paint type products on a countertop. In that thread a made a comment that now is quite humorous.

said by Ken:

At the time that made sense to me as I couldn't imagine a reason it would be better to paint vs just replace. Fast forward a few years later and we are living in a house that is partially remodeled but with some things we just haven't got around to fixing yet. Then my wife suddenly gets offered a promotion, but it's in another city so we have to move. There is no way that I can fix everything that is still wrong with the house in the amount of time and budget we have, so we do what we can and try selling the house at a reduced cost knowing that certain things still need done. One of those things was the old countertops in the kitchen. They where very badly stained when we bought the house and I knew some day we would replace them along with the backsplash and stove. We just didn't get around to it. We put the house on the market and just kept getting continuous complaints about the countertops. Going back and putting in new countertops would have only cost me about $300 but I would have had to rip out and replace the tile backsplash because it is mortared down onto the old countertop. This would have only added maybe $200 to replace the tile, but the real problem was time. I now live 2 hours away, I don't have the time to go down and do a week long project like that. Suddenly the idea of painting the countertops sounded like a really good solution to my problem. So that's what I did.

I bought the Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations in Desert Sand from Home Depot. I could have ordered it cheaper though Amazon, but being a last minute decision I needed it right then. I think the black color called Onyx or the gray color called Charcoal would have been a better fit, than Desert Sand. However I read numerous horrible reviews about Onyx being a total disaster. I was also worried about making the kitchen any darker as we don't have any windows in that area. So I picked the lighter Desert Sand. The other reoccurring theme I kept reading in reviews besides stay away from Onyx was there isn't enough base coat in the kit. Numerous people over and over saying they bought the small box which states it does 30 square feet (12 linear feet) and while they had enough chips, clear coat, and wetting agent to do way more than 12 linear feet they ran out of base coat at 10 or 11 linear feet. Being that I had right at 12 linear feet I bought 2 of the small boxes with the intent of returning one if I didn't have to open it. In the end I barely had enough base coat to go the stated 12 linear feet and yet I hadn't even used half the clear coat or wetting agent. Even more amazing I didn't even use 25% of the chips and I thought I went crazy with them. So I got to return that second kit.

Here are a couple shots of the kitchen as it was. First shot is the whole kitchen area
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Second shot is closeup of the countertop on the far left.
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Third is a closer look at the right area.
[att=3]

Fourth shot is a closeup of the really bad area around the sink. Not sure how it ever got like that, it was that way when we moved in.
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Day 1:
First thing I did was tape off with blue masking tape and plastic anywhere I thought I might touch while painting the base coat. It is recommended to remove the sink and stove when doing this, but I didn't want to. Mostly it was a time thing.

The right area is taped off.
[att=5]

The left area is taped off.
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Next step is sanding the current laminate to open it's surface up and give the base coat something to bite on. They include a small diamond grind stone. That would take hours to accomplish so disregarding the instructions and going completely against the warning not to I used my random orbit sander with 60 grit paper. I hooked it up to my shop vac with a fine dust bag inside to cut down on cleanup.
[att=7]

While I was able to sand the bulk of the countertop I could not get the backsplash or front edge that well. So I did have to come back and hit those areas with the grindstone.
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I then used the same shop vac with a small brush attachment to clean up as much dust as possible.
[att=9]

Then you use damp lint free rags to wipe the countertops clean. I ended up doing each section about 10 times until I finally got all the dust up. Here you can see I wiped down the left side.
[att=10]

Minor problem discovered at this point. The instructions actually stated to put up your tape and plastic after all the sanding is done. I thought it would be better to do it first and I found out I was wrong. In the process of sanding I tore up my tape in a couple places. No big deal though I just put new pieces over those areas.
[att=11]

Here the rest of the countertop is all sanded down and cleaned up.
[att=12]

And finally one last problem. They don't want you to use a power sander as you could blow right through the laminate surface. I did just start to do that in a couple spots when I tried to power sand the front edge. I still have no regrets about using the random orbit, you just have to be real careful.
[att=13]

Finally we get on with the fun part. You use a brush to cut in and use a roller to fill the rest in with the base coat. You have to put it on thick enough that you can't see through it, and work fast enough that it doesn't start to dry before you get the chips down. My counters are cut up into many separate areas so this was no problem for me.
[att=14]

As soon as you are done with a section you spray the wetting agent down and then blast the whole thing with the chips. I thought I was going overboard with the chips and I ended up only using 25% of what they gave me, so feel free to use way more than you need. I also discovered the chips fly a lot farther than I expected and I should have put plastic down over much more of the floor.
[att=15]

Here is a closeup of the area after it has set for a couple hours.
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Here is the entire area on the right all finished up for the day.
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Finally one more shot of the right area. Notice how many chips made it all over the floor.
[att=18]

Day 2:

First thing I did was roll the plastic back towards the cabinets so I'm not walking through the chips and tracking them everywhere.
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Here is a shot of the area to the left of the stove after I took the shop vac to it and sucked up all the loose chips. Notice how many chips went down into the stove.
[att=20]

Here is the sink. I already sucked up the loose chips with the shop vac. Apparently the wetting agent that I was spraying around the sink coated the bottom and somewhat melted the chips to each other. Luckily it scraped out with a plastic scraper and then washed up nicely with a sponge. For future reference though I would plastic off the sink.
[att=21]

Next step is to take the plastic scraper and scrape off as many loose or semi-loose chips as possible. If you look closely you can see the left area has been scraped and is much smoother than the right area.
[att=22]

After scraping you are supposed to sand again. Again I completely disregarded the instructions and warning labels and used my random orbit sander to do the bulk of the work. The highest grit paper I could find was 220 grit so that's what I used. I didn't try to do the front edge or backsplash at all this time and it turned out great. I definitely saved myself a bunch of time, but it would be easy to really screw up if you aren't careful. They include a sample that you rub and compare to your countertop to see if you have sanded enough.
[att=23]

After sanding with the random orbit and then hand sanding the front edge and backsplash and quite a bit of cleanup the area is done and ready for the epoxy clear coat.
[att=24]

Minor setback when scraping around the sink. I guess I didn't sand this area enough the day before and the base coat didn't stick, it scraped right off.
[att=25]

After a new sanding, then basecoat, wetting agent and finally a bunch of chips this area is repaired. This really cost me a bunch of time as I had to sit for 4 hours waiting on it to dry.
[att=26]

Now again I disregarded the instructions at the final stage. They want you to put down the clear coat and wait for it to dry overnight. Then they want you to carefully score between the clearcoat and tape and carefully remove all the tape and plastic. This would have put me into day 3, which I couldn't do. So I removed all the plastic and tape right then before the clearcoat. I knew I would have to be really careful with the brush while cutting in the clear coat, but I'm pretty steady with the brush. So after all the tape and plastic was removed I painted on the clear coat. Here is the finished area left of the stove.
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Here is the finished area that's off by itself on the far left.
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Here is the finished sink area
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Finally here is the whole thing.
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I think it turned out really good although who knows how long this stuff will really hold up. I think the product went down pretty easy although they kind of gloss over how much work all the sanding by hand will be. That's why I did the power sanding, but of course I'm sure I voided whatever warranty there was by doing so. Watch out for how much base coat you really need, and be super careful if you do like me and use the power sander. I think it's a good product if you have some reason like I did that you can't easily just replace the countertops. We still haven't sold the house yet, but nobody is complaining about the countertops anymore. They don't like our neighbors, I wonder if there is a paint for that?