Water damaged chip board

[Flick23]

Hi all, I have a question about how best to seal chip board? I have a cupboard that has water damage along an edge and has split. I just want to seal it to prevent further damage but am not worried about cosmetic look. Any ideas!? 

 

[Jason]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Flick23. It's great to have you join us. 

Let me tag our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. expert @EricL for his thoughts, as well as helpful members @TedBear, @Prawns and @Brad to see how they would go about ensuring that no further damage is done.

Please feel free to post anytime you need a hand or have a project to share with the community. You'll see we have clever and creative members sharing help and inspiration on the site every day. Thanks again for joining in the discussion.

Jason

[EricL]

Hello @Flick23

Thank you for sharing your question about your damaged chipboard.

Looking at the photo it seems that there is already a certain amount of water damage. I suggest the following steps:

• Using a hairdryer or heat gun on a low setting run it over the damaged area to make sure that it is totally dry. Do not come too close or use high settings to prevent curling and warping of the benchtop. Our objective is to dry the wood inside before applying glue.

• I suggest using Gorilla 59ml Glue Bottle. Using a toothpick make sure to allow the glue to reach the innermost parts of the damaged area.

• Once you've placed the glue on, I suggest putting a light bead on the edge of the entire join. Please allow adequate time for the glue to cure.

• Once it is totally dry lightly sand the excess glue off. This type of glue dries clear and is not water-soluble. Please make sure that it does not get on your clothing or any other part of your floor or furniture.

This repair should blend in nicely until you decide to replace the benchtop.

If you need more advice or information, please let us know.

Eric

[Prawns]

Based on just wanting to stop further damage and not worried about its look - If it was mine Id test a small spot underneath the benchtop with a tiny amount of superglue or perhaps liquid nails? and wait a couple days. Check if its discoloured or melted the laminate and if its actually stuck there ok. If it seems ok - id pump glue into the lifted section - and then clamp the whole thing down for a couple days (make sure you remove any excess glue before it dries and making sure you havnt glued the clamps to the bench also lol)  And depending on how it looked at the end maybe paint the benchtop?

Or, Have you looked at how the benchtop is mounted? If its easy to remove perhaps its faster and easier just to put a new top on? Or pehaps its possible to spin the benchtop around to hide the damaged side against the wall?

[Brad]

Most of the edge trim is put on with hot melt glue, the heat gun/hairdryer may come off and that is not such a bad thing as you can then get to the raised edge.

Test with a clamp to see if the water damaged edge will come back or you may need to remove some material with a Stanley knife or similar.

Some aluminium rhs makes for a good glue up as wood glues won't bond to it, once it is set you can put the end trim back on with some epoxy (that will bond with aluminium) I have some edge clamps that fit on quick action clamps (Irwin) that save the press and hold fixing method.