That is amazing...it looks wonderful. I am truly impressed by how professional it looks. What did you use to cut the laminate - your corner is perfect.

I did love your red counters and green walls, such a pretty combo, but this is equally nice and you must enjoy having a change.

WOW!!!! You are INCREDIBLE!!! That is a gorgeous laminate!!

Gracious alive, you are good!! Those are fabulous. I would be anxious to hear how you did this. Instead of DH replacing our entire counters in this house when we move, I'm sure he'd love to hear how you made this redo look and sound so easy. Great job.

GREAT job!!! Wow!

Ok, I'm impressed!! That looks AWESOME!! How I wish dh was confident enough to take this on. As we're paying someone to do ours Tues. Oh well, the difference COULD have been a new flat screen for him. His loss, lol :)

Very impressive job! Love it! YOu did great....bonnie

WOW WOW WOW! Great job!!!!

Wow is right! You are good.

It looks great, that corner is a piece of art !!

Nora, the things that you can do really impress me....you are like Wonder Woman. I have no clue how you learn to do so many things, I didn't know that you had done the red couonter that I thought was gorgeous. I love the new Basalt also, and seamless besides. Your kitchen cabs are to die for, love the style and color. Thanks for allowing us to see another one of your talents!
I don't know if I ever complimented you on constructing that ottoman, it is just stunning. You made the structure seem so easy to do and I'm sure it was very time consuming. It did turn out wonderfully though.
Now when your gardens are growing & flowering, we'd love to see them too. Happy gardening!!!

I liked the before too, but this looks fabulous!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! Wow....great job!

So there *is* a seam there, straight down following the edge of the longer (top/right) side? It's just invisible?! Also wondering how you did the radiused corner - the modular factory wouldn't do any radiused corners for my countertops, so I had them clip the corner on the bathroom and paid someone else $1500 to do a straight 61" counter in lower part of my island and a "U" with radiused corners and 143* angles on top (9'3") part. They said to bend it (also did curved inside corners) you need to use a thinner laminate and a really high-pressure roller, think heat too?

Outside corners

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Inside corner

I am amazed that you could do those corners at home! Great job!

Oh my goodness, what next from you? Once again I am completely bowled over by your bravery, your talent and your go-do-it-iveness. Wow! Your counters look incredible, and your cabinets are really nice. I love your choices.

When you scored and scored with that knife, were you doing it from underneath? Because from above I can't see how you could be sure you had the measurement right. I'm trying to picture this. How come you didn't use a circular saw or a saber saw? Did you cut them oversized to allow for trimming with the router?

Did you also have to cut that narrow facing strip perfectly? Or do you buy them already cut?

How do you keep the router going straight? Did you use a bevel blade?

And how on earth do you intend to lift the sink out all by yourself?

Did you glue this right on top of your previous laminate?

Don't you have to position the new laminate perfectly before you allow the contact cement surfaces to touch? Was that difficult?

Gosh, I wish I could do mine. I've done quite a lot of projects, wood trim work, laid tile floors and shower, laid vinyl floors, and even laid a tile countertop on top of my old Formica in my other house, but this looks pretty hard to me. Nevertheless, my counters are OLD Formica that looks like butcher block, and the front edges are oak that has gotten stained from water drips. Pretty exciting, huh?

Gosh, I cannot get over what you have done on-your-own. What do you do with the old laminate? Take it off the base, or leave it on. I assume you re-used the wood base?

Great job!! That's amazing! Could you post a before photo?

To answer some Q's:

ajsmama ~ I can't fathom why your modular company wouldn't do a radiused corner. Our original counter had the radiused corner on the hutch. I used the original counters as a base and laid the new laminate sheets on top of them. This time I removed the red counters and again, laid the new laminate sheets on top of the original, which was a bear because I had to remove all I could of the existing adhesive. For the radiused corners I used a heat gun to heat up the laminate in order for it to bend around the corner. I rolled everything with a "J" roller.

As far as a seam in your counter, the only reason I can think of as to why they seamed it is because modular companies order their laminate in rolls, usually in one particular width, and they seam it when they're using it on wider applications, like your particular counter run.

oceanna ~ "When you scored and scored with that knife, were you doing it from underneath?"
You score it on the top side of the laminate. What actually happens is that you are scoring into the surface/plastic side, so every time you make a pass with the knife, it digs deeper into the surface, which causes a crevice-like line. You then lay a heavy-duty straight-edge (I used a 4 foot metal ruler) on top and snap it towards you. When it's scored adequately, it should snap with little resistance.

"How come you didn't use a circular saw or a saber saw?"
I could have used a circular saw with the blade reversed, cutting it from the underside of the laminate, but I feel I have more control with the laminate knife.

Did you cut them oversized to allow for trimming with the router?"
I cut the pieces about 1/8-1/4" at the edge so that I could use the router. Using the router creates a smooth edge because the heat from the laminate bit "seals" the edge.

"Did you also have to cut that narrow facing strip perfectly? Or do you buy them already cut?"
I cut the edging pieces from the sheets of laminate. I used the factory edge for the edging because each factory cut edge is perfectly straight. I positioned the factory edge on the bottom of the edge strip and routed the top edge.

How do you keep the router going straight? Did you use a bevel blade?
I use a carbide laminate bit for my Roto-Zip. As far as keeping it straight, the bit has a ball bearing on the tip. This helps keep the router flush with the edge or top. That, and a very steady hand and nerves of steel LOL.

And how on earth do you intend to lift the sink out all by yourself?
Mr. Marv will assist with that. That bad boy is cast iron and it is heavy.

Did you glue this right on top of your previous laminate?
I removed the red laminate, got as much of the previous glue off the counter, and applied the new laminate over the original laminate. There are two layers of laminate, the original and the new.

Don't you have to position the new laminate perfectly before you allow the contact cement surfaces to touch? Was that difficult?
Yes, you do. I used thin wooden dowels laid between the existing surface and the new laminate. The dowels keep the two pieces apart until I could position the new laminate exactly where it needed to be. Then, starting from one corner, I adhered the two pieces and started removing the dowels (one at a time), until the new piece was laid correctly on top of the counter.

I think the most important tool I use is the laminate file. It has 3 surfaces. One side has a wider "cut", one side has a finer "cut" and the edge has a fine "cut", which is used mostly for finishing hard to reach places and the edge where both pieces meet.

And...is it hard? You betcha, but it's not rocket science, either. How this all started was when I first re-laminated them 5 years ago. I had asked our contractor friend if he could re-laminate the counters and to give us an estimate. His response was, "I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than do it." Okay, well then, guess I'll save us some $$$ and do them myself, said I. Not to be deterred, and never one to shy away from a challenge, I conquered. And now you know the rest of the story.

Wow - I'm going to have to try that on the old vanity we gave my parents when we remodeled old house in 1997 - it's still sitting in their basement!

So no special laminate to do curved edges? Do you have a seam in the corner or were you able to get wide enough sheet to do the whole L width? My seam isn't bad, have to really look for it - but width from fridge to corner is 6ft, corner to range is 11ft and I don't know if they make sheets that big.

I don't know why modular factory wouldn't do radiused corners either - though the managed to mess up the depth of the long edge of the L - it wasn't scribed to wall, so I have a gap I'm going to cover with oak shoemold, and the overhang varies from 1" to 3/4" just from one side of the sink to the other. So when it comes time to replace the laminate, I'll have to replace the whole counter. But maybe you can teach me (or I can hire you LOL!) to relaminate the island and the small counter to the right of the range! Again, great job!

Oh, and I had a horrible time getting someone to do the 9ft island with all the angles and radiused inside and outside corners. It really had to be templated and some people don't want to bother to template laminate - HD and Lowes didn't.

"So no special laminate to do curved edges? Do you have a seam in the corner or were you able to get wide enough sheet to do the whole L width?"

No special laminate for the curved edges. Just a heat gun and muscle 8-)

The corner piece was from a sheet that I cut an "L" out of, so there is no seam (please don't take offense, but I abhor seams). I ordered a 4' x 8' sheet that I used for both the hutch counter and the "L" corner counter.

After reading what you have done, I agree with your friend..."I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than do it." :) I thought it might be simple and I could help my daughter re-laminate her counter tops. I think I'll just let the kids pay someone to do it.

Just curious...how much did you save?

The total cost was under $150.00 + sweat equity LOL. I'm not sure what the cost of new countertops would be.

Sheesharee ~ here are some pics.

5 years ago, going from the original counters to the red re-laminated counters (halfway through the job)...Gad! Weren't the original green ones ugly? I still can't believe I ordered them. We knew it was a mistake when they were delivered LOL.

The finished hutch from the original re-laminating endeavor...

MrsMarv,

You did a beautiful job! I am wondering if you removed the red layer or did you just glue the new laminate on top of it?

Thanks,
Necia

Necia ~ I removed the red laminate, got as much of the adhesive off the counter, and applied the new laminate over the original laminate. There are two layers of laminate, the original (green) and the new (basalt slate).

Will you come do mine? LOL

Great job!