Laminate benchtop repair in Sydney and Melbourne

Yes. Burns are the job we do most on laminate, from small scorch marks to full rings left by a hot pan. Laminate is a thin printed layer over particleboard, so a burn can’t be sanded out the way it can on timber. We clean and mask the area, fill the burn with a two-part resin, level it flush, then paint the pattern back in by hand and seal it to the closest sheen.

Heat often yellows the laminate around the burn as well, so we treat that halo as part of the same repair. Bubbling around a burn, like the Randwick job above, is repaired the same way. The result is a flat, sealed surface in the same colour and pattern, but we never promise it will be invisible.

Send a close-up and a wider photo of the burn and we’ll tell you how well it will blend before you book anything in Sydney or Melbourne.

Yes. Chips are the other job we do most, along with burns. Most are on the front edge, on rounded corners, or beside the sink and cooktop where pots get knocked. We fill the chip with hardwax for small chips, or a stronger two-part resin where more is missing, level it flush with a blade so you can’t catch it, then paint the pattern back over the fill by hand and seal it.

Chips that show the pale board underneath look worse than they are: in Cranbourne East a customer thought their dark stone-look top was peeling, and it turned out to be two round chips we repaired on site. A small chip usually takes an hour or two.

Not sure it’s laminate? A laminate chip shows pale or brown board underneath; stone chips to its own colour, and that’s our stone benchtop repairs page. Send a close-up and a wider photo so we can see the pattern around it.

Usually not from normal distance, but we never promise invisible, and the type of laminate decides how close it gets. Stone-look laminate is the easiest to hide, because the veining and speckle disguise small differences; it is also the most common top we repair. Wood grain and other patterns are next.

Plain single colours are the hardest, because there is nothing for the repair to hide behind. The colour and pattern can be matched closely by hand. The sheen is the hard limit: our clear coat is matched to the closest sheen we can get, not the exact factory finish, so in raking light or from some angles the patch can reflect a little differently.

On a plain gloss top that can be obvious, and if it matters a lot to you, resurfacing the whole top may be the better answer. We tell you which applies to your benchtop from the photos, before you book.

A small burn or chip, about the size of a dollar coin, usually takes one to two hours on site. A medium burn takes around two to three hours, and a large burn or several burns takes three to four hours or more. Joins and complex patterns are the slow ones: they can take six hours or more, and occasionally we need to see the benchtop before we quote.

Most of that time is the hand painting, because rebuilding the pattern over the fill is what decides how well it blends. Once we’re done, leave it 24 hours before you use the benchtop. Nothing is removed or disconnected, so your sink and cooktop stay where they are and the rest of the kitchen can be used while we work.

We tell you how long your job will take when we quote it, and we book a time that suits you, Monday to Friday, in Sydney or Melbourne.

No. When water gets into the particleboard under the laminate, usually at a join or around the sink, the board swells and lifts the surface. Once it has swollen it doesn’t go back flat, and nothing we put on top will hold, so it isn’t something we can repair to a standard worth paying for.

That section of benchtop needs replacing, and we’ll tell you that from the photos rather than take the job. A chip or burn near the sink on board that hasn’t swollen is different, and we can usually repair it. Repairs right next to the sink sit in water and cleaning products every day, though, so we tell you in writing before you book if the warranty doesn’t cover that spot.

If you’re not sure whether your top has swollen, send a photo looking along the join or edge, and press on the area: soft or raised board is the giveaway.

We give you a fixed price from your photos before anything is booked, and that price includes labour, materials and travel. What drives it is the size of the damage, how many spots there are, whether a burn has a heat halo around it, and the pattern: a plain single colour takes more care to match than a busy stone-look.

Each repair is its own line on the quote, so you can see what you’re paying for. If your top is damaged in lots of places, stacking spot repairs stops making sense, and we’ll tell you so and suggest resurfacing instead. Replacing a laminate benchtop usually means a new top made to measure, removing the old one, and a plumber to disconnect and reconnect the sink, which almost always costs more than a repair.

Send two or three photos through the quote form and we’ll usually reply within 24 hours.

For burns, chips, scratches and stains on a top that is otherwise sound, almost always. A repair is one visit, the top stays in, and nothing is disconnected. Replacing even part of a laminate benchtop means measuring up, waiting for a new top to be made, and getting a plumber back for the sink.

Matching is the other catch: if your pattern is no longer made, a new section may not match the rest of the kitchen. Replacement is the better call in a few cases, and we’ll say so: the board has swollen from water, the top is sagging or moving, or the surface is worn out all over.

If it is worn all over but still solid, our benchtop resurfacing sprays a new finish over the whole top instead. We only repair, so we have no reason to talk you into anything. Send photos and we’ll tell you honestly which makes sense.

Yes, but that’s a different job from a repair, and it has its own page: benchtop resurfacing. A spot repair fixes one or two damaged areas and leaves the rest of the top as it is. Resurfacing sprays a new coating over the whole benchtop, in a colour you choose before the job is booked, and it takes a full day on site.

It suits a top that is damaged in lots of places, dull or worn all over, or one where you want a different colour. It isn’t a fix for water damage: a coating over swollen or lifting board fails along with it, so we check the top is sound first.

The coat is thin, so chips and burns are filled and levelled first or they show through. If you’re not sure whether you need a repair or a resurface, send photos of the whole top and we’ll tell you which one makes sense.

Yes. Every repair comes with our warranty, unless we’ve told you otherwise for your job before you book. We check your photos first, so if anything about your benchtop affects the warranty, it’s in your quote, in writing, before anyone turns up. On laminate that usually only comes up in two cases.

Repairs right next to the sink sit in water and cleaning products every day, so they aren’t covered. And a crack caused by the benchtop or cabinets moving can open again, because the repair is cosmetic and the movement is still there. If your job is one of those, we’ll explain what it means so you can decide with all the facts.

The repair itself is filled with material that sets hard and bonds to the board, hand matched and sealed over, so it wears with the benchtop rather than sitting on top of it.

Sometimes, for a very small chip in a busy pattern. Hardware-store kits use coloured wax or filler, and on a tiny chip in stone-look laminate that can be good enough. The trouble starts with burns, larger chips and plain colours. Laminate is a printed layer a fraction of a millimetre thick, so you can’t sand damage out: sanding takes off the printed pattern and exposes the board, which makes the damaged area bigger.

A kit gives you filler, but the pattern still has to be painted back in by hand to blend, and that is most of the skill. If you do try a kit, test it somewhere hidden first, and stop if the spot is getting bigger.

If it is a burn ring, a chipped edge, or anything in a kitchen you are about to sell or hand back, send us photos first.

We repair laminate benchtops across Sydney and Melbourne, from the inner suburbs out to Penrith, Wollongong and the Central Coast in New South Wales, and out to the Mornington Peninsula, Casey, Cardinia and Geelong in Victoria. We don’t currently work in other cities. Not sure if we cover your suburb?

Put it in the quote form and we’ll confirm before anything is booked. Our technicians come to you, so there’s nothing to drop off, and travel is included in every quote. Most customers book by sending photos through the quote form, which takes about a minute, and we reply with a fixed price, usually within 24 hours.

Repairs are booked Monday to Friday, and we work around tenants, property managers and builders as well as homeowners. If you’d rather talk it through, call 0483 988 922 between 9 and 5, Monday to Friday.