Share
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @AngeSam. It's splendid to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about protecting a laminated desk.
When you say the benchtop is laminated, I presume you're referring to the timber being laminated together, not a melamine laminate over the timber?
You can certainly use clear epoxy to protect laminated timber benchtops. A couple of products in our range are designed specifically for timber benchtops, including the Feast Watson 1m² Glass Finish and Protite 750ml Glass Coat Kit. The other option is to consider a hard-wearing polyurethane like Feast Watson 1L Gloss Timber Floor Varnish. Most people would typically use Cabothane Clear Varnish for such a project, but it likely won't offer as much wear resistance as the previously mentioned products.
Here's a helpful Best Advice article on How do you seal a timber kitchen benchtop?.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Hello @AngeSam
Would it be possible for you to post a photo of the actual products that you used? The products that @MitchellMc recommended are all excellent sealers, but we just need to be sure that they are compatible with the product that you've placed on your benchtop. Can you also please post a photo of your benchtop. This will give our members a chance to assess its current condition. We can then make recommendations on how to proceed.
If you need a hand posting the photos, please let me know.
Eric
Hi Eric, I’m not at the house till tomorrow. It was the White Knight series ( primer, paint for laminated bench top and the sealer). Epic Fail . Next effort involved DULUX aqua enamel and the undercoat was Taubmans 3 in 1, as recommended by Bunnings senior staffer plus DULUX tech person.
Hi @AngeSam
Thanks for the photo of the benchtop. Did you sand off the White Knight layer or did you leave it on and just painted directly over it with the Taubmans primer and then Dulux aqua enamel? I just want to make sure I have the sequence of events correct.
Please allow me to investigate further to make sure that the sealers will be compatible with the enamel paint. As soon as I have more information, I'll get back to you.
Thank you for your patience.
Eric
Hi @AngeSam,
I do apologise for the situation you are now in. In the first instance, when the WhiteKnight product did not perform as expected, the clear should have been sanded back to the paint coating, and another coat of WhiteKnight laminate paint applied to correct the colour. The addition of soft water-based products (Taubmans 3-in-1 and Aquanamel) over hard coatings is not what I would consider the best course of action. I'm not privy to why this was suggested, perhaps as an alternative to removing the original coating or using the same product again. Aquanamel is not typically recommended for benchtops.
I know this won't sound appealing, but the advice at this stage from WhiteKnight, Dulux and myself would be to remove the coatings. The only alternative I've been able to come up with would be applying Cabot's CFP over the Aquanamel. However, I do have concerns about whether it will crack due to having different layers of soft and hard paint under it. If this were my benchtop, I'd be using the Cabot's CFP on it instead of going to the effort of removing everything and starting again.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
There's a chance that if you were to apply Cabot's CFP over the top of several different coatings, it will crack @AngeSam. If you are happy with the look now, I suggest you try the CFP. The other option is that you sand everything off and start again.
Mitchell
