How to repair a chip and fill gaps on stone benchtop?

[martinn]

Hi,

Can I please get advice on how to repair a chip, fill up a gap and polish my stone benchtops? 

Please see photos attached.

 

 

[KatieC]

Hi @martinn,

Let me extend a warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community! It is wonderful you have decided to join and ask about your benchtop repairs. Our resident DIY guru @EricL will be online later this afternoon and will be happy to assist. In the meantime, let me tag @Nham and @Brad who have experience with stone benchtops to see if they have suggestions. 

Katie

[martinn]

Thank you Katie 😊

[EricL]

Hello @martinn

Thank you for sharing your question about how to repair a chip on a stone benchtop. If you can identify your benchtop, I suggest calling the manufacturer and asking them if they have a stone repair kit available.  I usually suggest that if you still have the chipped piece that came off, I propose trying to glue that back on. You can also try using PC-11 56g White Epoxy Paste, however, the challenge here is trying to match the grey colour of the benchtop. If you misjudge the colour the repair will even be more noticeable. 

Unfortunately, the gap in your benchtop is usually filled with grout with the colour of your benchtop mixed in. If you're willing to experiment, I suggest looking for a light grey grout that closely matches your benchtop colour. To polish your benchtop I recommend using Glitz 750ml Stone And Benchtop Cleaner. It is a non-acidic and non-abrasive cleaner that's safe to use on stone benchtops.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Nham]

Hi @martinn 

We had some chips on our white Ceasar Stone and for us, we asked our stone mason to do the repairs. Since we had white he just mixed up the adhesive, filled in the chip. waited about 30 minutes then he sanded it down. For DIY using a matched colour epoxy as suggested by @EricL is also a good idea. Good luck with the repairs. 

[EricL]

Hi @Nham

Thanks for the handy tip. I think matching stone benchtop fillers is one of the most difficult things to do if you don't have the proper materials to match them with.

Eric

[Brad]

Eric do you have any recomendation on a range of tints that would be suitable for the PC-11 epoxy?

My first thought is the standard mica powders that are available for the clear epoxies available, not sure how they would work with a white base?

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Brad,

There are no specific tints for use with the PC-11 epoxy. It's a two-part epoxy with a plasticine consistency. The hardener is actually dark grey, so the more you add to the mix, the more of a grey-toned colour you'll get.

I'd imagine you could mix mica powder into it without issues. You'd need to add enough to offset the white base, though. However, if you add too much, you'll weaken the bonding strength of the product.

Mitchell

[Brad]

Thanks Mitchel,

The manufacturer of the epoxy I use recomends a 10% maximum for addatives to the mix and I aim to stay at 5% or less which works with the clear base.

[martinn]

Thank you @EricL & @Nham for your help!

It looks like matching the color for something like this will be a nightmare so after doing my research I found that the best way do it is getting a stone professional which I already found someone will hopefully come next week to reapir it (cost $300). which is a good price I think.

I'll upload photos once its done.