Wooden worktops

T

TillyD

Registered User
Messages
262
Hi,

I am looking for advice on wooden worktops. I have a walnut worktop picked out and now everyone is telling they are a nightmare to keep. I'd love to hear from anyone who has one and what they think.

Thanks,

Tilly.
 
We got Ikea birch tops for our stand-alone units in the kitchen. The advice from Ikea was to oil them. A friend had done this and they always end up looking a bit grubby, so we asked our carpenter for advice. He suggested floor lacquer, three coats with a light sanding in between. We did this and they look great after a year and a half of bashing/chopping veg etc.

One thing, though, we had to do the undersides aswell, as otherwise moisture could seep in and they might bow/deform.
 
i fit kitchens and solid wood worktops. i always spray the tops with polyeurathane laquer both sides. 3 coats and sanding between. i have never had a call back
 
I've also heard they were a nightmare to keep but still had one installed. To be honest, I dont find it any harder to keep then any other work top I've had. It looks great!
 
I had a beech worktop for years. It looked great, but it was more work that granite or formica. You have to be very careful with hot pots, and knifes.
I had a termeric stain on mine for 2 years.
Having said that, beech is very pale so everyhting showed up. I know someone with walnut worktop and because it is darker, less of the minor stuff shows up.
 
I just had a design meeting with "in-house" & the sales bloke said if we got wooden worktops then we'd have to oil them every week in the 1st year, every fortnight in the 2nd year & every month in the 3rd year.

He said you shouldn't varnish / laquer them as they are used for food prep.

Any comments??
 
We had an iroko worktop in our last kitchen and I must say it looked fantastic. The only problem is around the sink areas where you have to be careful to mop up any water.
Having said that oiling is quite simple. Just put some of the oil on a cloth and rub it on.Couple of minutes work. We did ours every couple of months.
 
Thanks for the reply Beldin.
The guy in 'in-house' told us we'd have to rub it down with steel wool - always going with the grain & then rub the oil in afterwards.
He estimated it would take an hour.

Based on what he said it turned us off wooden worktops.
 
We have solid walnut and in the first couple of weeks we oiled and sand it every few days. Then once a month after that. It hasn't been done now in a while and it looks great. I thought it would be so much harder to care for than it is. The first few weeks you'll mind it like a baby and then you realise even though walnut is a soft wood it's not that soft after it has been oiled properly.
 
Definitely getting granite, thanks for confirming my suspicions.
 
I agree Gautama - I was hoping here would alay my fears but it looks like I'll join you in the non-wood worktop.
Pity as I think they look great.
 
I'm in Oz and have just rebuilt my kitchen from scratch. I wanted shaker style painted cupboards and timber benchtops. It is now finished and looks amazing (even if I say so myself!). I researched wooden benchtops and you are not supposed to varnish them if you are preparing food on them. I decided to varnish mine for maintenance reasons (too much to do to bother with oiling). Three coats of marine varnish - good enough for boat decks ... anyway the end result is great. No harder to look after than any other benchtop I've had and I always use cutting boards when I'm cooking. My benchtops are kwila (nice reddish hardwood) - bought 30mm thick planks from the timber yard, biscuit joined & glued, planed and sanded then 3 coats of varnish.
 
Hope this helps... Solid worktops are meant to be oiled not lacquered. Please buy the correct oil too. Since you chop food on the worktop you will no doubt break up the surface, lacquers are considered dangerous for this purpose.
 

Quite simply he was wrong to say you need to oil a worktop 52 (!!!) times in year one and 90 times in the first three years... at most 5 or 6 coats at the start, then maybe 3 or 4 times more in year 1, then oil as required. Many people probably don't re-apply oil at all with few or no problems. Buy a pre-oiled worktop from the likes of Noyeks for the same price as a raw one and save a load of work... still needs one or two extra coats at the start (on top of four factory applied coats).

Oil penetrates the surface... lacquers sit on the surface where they can be cut... refinishing a lacquered surface is much more difficult in comparison to re-oiling a worktop. Fixing damage on an oiled worktop just means a bit of sanding, remove all dust, then re oil.

Polyurethane lacquers are used for commercial bar counters for example. They are very waterproof and hard wearing but not invincible.

Wood isn't the most suitable material for a worktop or a floor although it is ok.

Cheers
Joe
 
frash said:
I just had a design meeting with "in-house" & the sales bloke said if we got wooden worktops then we'd have to oil them every week in the 1st year, every fortnight in the 2nd year & every month in the 3rd year.
Click to expand...

He's a sales man, how would he know?
 
frash said:
He's a saleman therefore he should know how to maintain what he is selling.

He used to be a fitter (or possiblly still is).
Click to expand...

That's a very dangerous assumption, I've encountered many situations where that is certainly not the case. Perhaps he's just trying to sell something else with a higher mark-up?

Lesser fitters wouldn't be as keen on solid wood work tops as it's difficult to mask mistakes. They probably wouldn't want to get involved in oiling either.
Leo
 
derek_red said:
Hope this helps... Solid worktops are meant to be oiled not lacquered. Please buy the correct oil too. Since you chop food on the worktop you will no doubt break up the surface, lacquers are considered dangerous for this purpose.
Click to expand...

Use a shopping board rather than the worktop if you're concerned about this.

We sourced some elm for our worktops, owner had dried for 3 years, we dried it in the house for another 6 weeks. We then had them cut to size and glued on. We used two pack lacquer, several coats with sanding in between.

It looks absolutely amazing and there are no marks on it yet 5 months later, no problem around sink area.

As I see it, if you like the look and touch of wood and are prepared to do a little work to prepare it you can have a great solution.
 
frash said:
He's a saleman therefore he should know how to maintain what he is selling.

He used to be a fitter (or possiblly still is).
Click to expand...

I know how to oil work tops, and lots more besides, and what he told you was simply not true.

If he was talking about using linseed oil then he would be correct but linseed oil should not to be used on a kitchen work top, thus he was talking through his hat (while sitting on it).
 
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