Plastic countertops for the kitchen

Plas­tic coun­ter­tops for the kitchen are pre­ferred by house­wives who skill­ful­ly use prac­ti­cal, orig­i­nal and eco­nom­i­cal mate­ri­als in the dec­o­ra­tion of the room.

Today, man­u­fac­tur­ers offer a wide range of such prod­ucts for the home, they can be pur­chased ready-made and to order. It is pos­si­ble to choose kitchen sets with plas­tic coun­ter­tops that are suit­able in size, col­or and price, giv­en some of their fea­tures.

Advantages and disadvantages of plastic coated countertops

Plas­tic coun­ter­tops are chip­board with a dec­o­ra­tive coat­ing. This mate­r­i­al has both advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages.

Melamine coat­ing is val­ued for such pos­i­tive qual­i­ties as:

1. heat resis­tance (short con­tact with dish­es, the tem­per­a­ture of which can reach + 230 ° C, will not spoil the appear­ance);
2. the abil­i­ty to with­stand expo­sure to water (if there is no dam­age to the pro­tec­tive lay­er and the integri­ty of the ends is not bro­ken);
3. strength, as well as the absence of dam­age under mechan­i­cal stress and the use of aggres­sive house­hold chem­i­cals;
4. resis­tance to sun­light;
5. ease of instal­la­tion;
6. rich col­ors, a vari­ety of tex­tures (mat­te, “sha­green”, glossy fin­ish);
7. afford­able price.

Giv­en the pecu­liar­i­ties of the use of plas­tic, it is worth pay­ing atten­tion to the dis­ad­van­tages of such prod­ucts. First of all, it is a short ser­vice life. If the integri­ty of the plas­tic lay­er is bro­ken, then water can enter the crack and swell the plate. To pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing, it is imper­a­tive to use a cut­ting board for cut­ting prod­ucts. With open ends, harm­ful sub­stances can be released, even in small quan­ti­ties. The appear­ance and tex­ture of plas­tic coun­ter­tops for the kitchen still lose to prod­ucts made from nat­ur­al mate­ri­als.

Selection Tips

In order for a plas­tic coun­ter­top to serve as long as pos­si­ble, you need to choose the right one, tak­ing into account all the nuances. First of all, the thick­ness of the chip­board. The more sol­id it looks, the more it resem­bles stone and wood, the more reli­able. Basi­cal­ly, buy­ers choose prod­ucts hav­ing a thick­ness of 28 and 38 mm.

To avoid the neg­a­tive effects of high pres­sure and tem­per­a­ture, which can spoil the appear­ance of the pur­chase, it is worth con­sid­er­ing the thick­ness of the plas­tic lay­er. It should be at least 0.4 mm (such for prod­ucts of a domes­tic man­u­fac­tur­er).

Appear­ance is also of prac­ti­cal impor­tance. On a dark sur­face, the small­est dirt, water drops, etc. are clear­ly vis­i­ble. The least brand will be a light semi-gloss coun­ter­top.

The big advan­tage of the prod­uct is the seam­less edge and increased depth. In the first case, the sur­face is bet­ter pro­tect­ed from mois­ture, in the sec­ond it is con­ve­nient that you do not have to con­stant­ly touch the pro­trud­ing han­dles of the head­set with your feet.

Kinds

Plas­tic coun­ter­tops dif­fer in many ways: mate­r­i­al, con­sumer prop­er­ties, cost.

The thick­ness of the prod­uct depends on the den­si­ty of the mate­r­i­al:

• high (table­tops 18, 28 and 38 mm);
• medi­um (50 mm);
• com­bined (60 mm).

Sur­face Size:

• for coun­ter­tops installed along the wall — 60 cm;
• for open­ly locat­ed — 64 cm, 90 cm.

Side pro­file type (post­form­ing table top):

• “block­age” (round­ing of the coat­ing from above);
• “hem” (round­ing on both sides).

The cost of a plas­tic coun­ter­top starts from 1500 rubles per 1 run­ning meter. The bet­ter the mate­r­i­al, the more reli­able the man­u­fac­tur­er, the more expen­sive.

Installation

The process of installing a plas­tic coun­ter­top is best left to pro­fes­sion­als if there is no self-con­fi­dence. But with your own hands, hav­ing the skills to per­form such work, it is also pos­si­ble to install it.

Work is car­ried out in stages:

1. Remove the old coun­ter­top (if any). Align kitchen cab­i­nets hor­i­zon­tal­ly using a spir­it lev­el.
2. Apply mark­ings on the coun­ter­top, attach­ing the prod­uct to the future loca­tion (dis­tance from the wall 5 mm). If the recess­es are cut with an elec­tric jig­saw, then make marks from the end side, if with a hack­saw, then from the front. Deter­mine a place for a sink.
3. Stick mask­ing tape on the intend­ed cut­ting line, which will avoid cracks dur­ing work.
4. Adjust the plate to the required dimen­sions. It is more con­ve­nient to cut along the guide bar. Process the ends with a file.
5. Cut out the marked holes. Fill cuts and joints with sil­i­cone sealant.
6. Put the coun­ter­top in place and fix it on the cab­i­nets.
7. Close the end cuts with over­lays, if nec­es­sary, install the plinth.

When doing work on your own, it should be borne in mind that cracks and chips that have arisen dur­ing the instal­la­tion of a PVC table, kitchen work­top can­not be elim­i­nat­ed.

Custom-made plastic countertops

Man­u­fac­tur­ers of cab­i­net fur­ni­ture offer their ser­vices for the man­u­fac­ture of plas­tic coun­ter­tops. Types, col­ors and sizes — at the request of the cus­tomer. Design ser­vices are pro­vid­ed. Some peo­ple pre­fer to install a coun­ter­top instead of a kitchen win­dow sill. It is bet­ter to entrust the imple­men­ta­tion of such a deci­sion to a spe­cial­ist.

You can choose the option you like in the online store. Employ­ees of the com­pa­ny will clar­i­fy the nec­es­sary details: the shape, size, loca­tion of the sink, etc. Then they will make a lay­out, dis­cuss all the nuances with the cus­tomer and install the prod­uct.

Caring for plastic countertops

In order for the coun­ter­top to serve as long as pos­si­ble, it is nec­es­sary to ful­fill the basic require­ments for the oper­a­tion of a plas­tic prod­uct. Stains and liq­uids should be removed from the sur­face imme­di­ate­ly. It is advis­able to apply a mild deter­gent on old dirt, wait a while and wipe this place with a damp sponge. From a mat­te sur­face, stains can be removed with a fur­ni­ture pol­ish (only if it is allowed to be used in the kitchen).

Oil, grease and wax are removed with organ­ic sol­vents. You can wash the sur­face with salt and soda.

Do not leave hot dish­es on plas­tic for more than 20 sec­onds, but it is bet­ter not to put them on such a sur­face at all. Sub­ject to all the rules of care, a plas­tic coun­ter­top will be a prof­itable, beau­ti­ful and con­ve­nient pur­chase.