Share
Hello, our wooden table appears to have cracked near a knot in the table. It looks to be filled near the area with resin already, but it’s split. It’s only a few months old, but they don’t cover this under warranty. The crack goes all the way through the top bit. Just not sure how to fix, will be grateful for any advice.
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @rebecca658. It's great to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about repairing a split timber table top.
It appears that there is a considerable amount of stress in that location. Typically, you'd want to fill the split with glue and then close the crack up with long clamps across the tabletop and wait for the glue to dry. You then would add some mending plates on the underside of the table that traverse the crack to reinforce it. There appears to be horizontal movement and a vertical shift to the timber structure. If you push down on the split area, does it close the gap at all?
You could attempt to fill the crack with an epoxy, but since the table is still obviously in the process of expanding, the repaired area is likely to fail again.
Given that this would be quite an extensive repair on a new table, I'd encourage you to reach out to the supplier again and request to work with them to resolve the issue. If this were a table you've purchased through us, I'd be more than happy to contact the manufacturer to resolve the issue.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Thanks Mitchell. When we push down it doesn’t seem to close the gap. We have however noticed a crack appear at the other end of the table, right where the screw is understand, however, it’s not directly inline to the first split shown. See images of other crack just noticed. Could this have happened from the recent hot weather at all? I’m just trying to figure out what’s occurred recently. We haven’t moved it.
I would say it has to do with moisture content in the timber and how it reacts with the ambient temperature of room @rebecca658; possibly a seasoning of the timber issue. A split on a screw location typically means that a stress point has been introduced into the timber from not pre-drilling the location correctly before installing the screw. Unlike the first split, which has spread from a compromised portion of edge timber, this split is more reflective of construction techniques. I'd update the supplier on this new split at a fixing point, as it should not be expected on a piece of furniture and is more likely to be considered a manufacturing defect.
Mitchell
