Stable wooden kitchen worktops

[Beau]

I help fit kitchens from time to time normally with solid wood worktops like oak and beech. This is fine for simple layouts but for more complicated kitchens allowing for the expansion and shrinkage of the worktop can be a bit of a headache. Went into a Homebase the other day and saw some bamboo ply worktop. Now this seems like a great material for kitchens being stable and hard waring. Are there any solid wood equivalents around these days? I did see some from Italy many years ago but no one was importing them.

 

[MikeG.]

Bamboo looks brilliant (in my view), is one of the world's most sustainable resources, but absolutely murders your tools. Oh, and costs a fortune.

 

[Ttrees]

It looks nice to me too MikeG, what roughly is a comparable priced hardwood to the bamboo (timber?)
Presuming the hardwood is surfaced four sides for an easier price comparison
Thanks
Tom

 

[Beau]

Thanks Mike. Never worked it before so it's tough on the tools. Are the edges plane-able at all or does it all need to be routed?

Ttrees. Only prices I have seen to date was £350 for 3.5m x 650mm x 40mm but not done much research yet.

Anyone seen a solid wood equivalent?

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Anyone seen a solid wood equivalent?

You could try this link to Plyboo for information, including what they call 'lumber' in various lengths, widths and thicknesses. I've only worked bamboo plywood two or three times and didn't find it particularly different to working wood based sheet goods, e.g., hardwood and softwood plywood with all the usual machinery and power tools. I didn't work the boards with machines such as a planer, thicknesser or spindle moulder, but I wouldn't normally put those machines to work on plywood either with perhaps the exception of a spindle moulder. I have done some hand planing, sawing, sanding and the like on the stuff, mostly on edges and again found it worked much the same as you'd expect for something like birch plywood. Slainte.

 

[Beau]

Did find this but it's not in the UK and D3 not D4 adhesive http://www.alfa-massiv.com/en/3-layer-panels/standard

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.worktop-express.co.uk/wood_ ... rktop.html

A bit cheaper. I suspect the comparisons between worktops, flooring and ply are a little pointless as how hard they are to work will very much depend upon what they are impregnated and surface coated with. I built a kitchen table (should have taken photos, but I left it when we moved house as it suited the kitchen so well) out of left over flooring - it was murderous stuff to work, I couldn't get the finish off with paint stripper or a torch and as a square foot of quality 40 grit wouldn't strip a square foot of the flooring I ended up using a scrub plane (honed every couple of minutes). I doubt tops and ply are treated to be quite so hard, but they'll still be hard. The flooring is good for fences and jigs as it's so hard wearing and stable.

 

[Beau]

So is bamboo like in the above link stable with no seasonal movement? I presumed it would still need to be a ply type build up to be dimensionally stable.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've just looked at a bamboo chopping board that's years old. It's 300mm by 18mm laminated in single strips from side to side (looks a bit like end grain perfectly quarter sawn oak) and it's less than 1mm hollow. These strips are about 7mm thick, which I suspect is about the maximum, from what I've seen. As the strips in your top are layered alternately (like ply) it should be well nigh perfectly stable.

 

[Beau]

Yes I am pretty sure the ply type should be stable just wasn't sure about the stability of the stave like construction in your link.

 

[Beau]

I didn't get a kitchen fit job recently as the customer wanted some odd shaped tops. Laminate was going to look bad as they wanted some of the ends curved and I explained lippings looks poor so then we looked at solid tops but that was a no go as some of joints would potentially open up. A solid wood ply type construction would have been perfect. I did offer a fully custom top with a ply core and a constructional veneer top but that was going to cost a lot for me to make it

 

[MikeG.]

....... how hard they are to work will very much depend upon what they are impregnated and surface coated with. I built a kitchen table..........

No, it's not that. Bamboo has extremely high levels of silica in it, naturally. That's sand crystals, really. The stuff is tough as old boots (but prone to insect attack, or it would be one of the primary building products in the whole world), and whatever treatment it has had it will be hard on edge-tools.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's hard - but the finish makes it a damn sight harder. It's way easier to work after you've got through the finish. I've also cut bamboo that obviously hadn't had the same treatment - it was softer.
Of course ply in particular probably wouldn't be pre fininished, but I can't speak for worktop.

 

[ColeyS1]

I made a kind of bath step/mat from some bamboo flooring . I pushed it through the spindle moulder to put a tiny champfer on the edge. By the time I'd finished it had completely wrecked the cutter.

Hope its alright to ask this hear- Would you recommend oiling the top of the bath step thing? Reading up on it i read it's particularly hostile to damp/mould so thought it would be a good choice . I put plastic feet on the underside to raise it off the tiled floor but after a few weeks I looked on the underside to see what looked like tiny bits of mould forming (i left that side factory prefinished. The bathroom has an extractor, I thought it may have been a better choice than a damp bathmat.....?

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