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I got a call today to replace some bathroom cabinets/tops in a Sororiety House where we installed a kitchen last year. As I was walking through I was checking on the kitchen and noticed one of the splashes had let go in a few places. Crap. The splash will not move laterally, rather, there are a few places where it can be pushed in/out to follow the contour of the wall.
Maybe not enough silicone, anyway my question is this. Should I cut the whole thing loose (14 feet) and clean it up and re-install or try to wiggle and squeeze silicone/hot melt in behind the loose spots and see if it sets?
I am also wondering if the heat from appliances helped convince it to let go. In about a 10 foot run of the wall there is an in cabinet ice maker, a countertop George Foreman, countertop oven/toaster oven, coffee pot, dishwasher and sink.
As always, any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Chris
In about a 10 foot run of the wall there is an in cabinet ice maker, a countertop George Foreman, countertop oven/toaster oven, coffee pot, dishwasher and sink.
And not a trivet in sight, I bet.
Chris, how bad is the wall?
If it has a bad dive, then you might need to heat the splash.
If it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle, you’ll have better piece of mind removing, resealing, and regluing.
If it will be a major pain, your idea is fine, but get a good dose of sealant under the splash.
And sure, the heat could loosen up the splash, if it was put in with a glue that reactivates by heat, such as panel adhesive, construction adhesive, etc. But there might be some wall shape influences that are helping out. Either crowned or coved.
Tom
Chris,
If this was a replacement, I bet the old top had a gap between the top and backsplash, which allowed dirt and grease to get on the wall. You probably unknowingly attached the splash to that.
I always clean the backsplash area with alcohol and scotchbrite.
KC
KC,
This was “new”, or rather a remodel. BUT, I bet a dollar that the drywall dust was everywhere when I set the splash. Add cleaning the drywall to the list of lessons learned.
Thanks
Chris
Heating the splash like Tom said is a good idea if the wall is real bad. We only silicone the splash to the deck and use hot melt to the wall, this insures that the splash will always move with the deck and stay firmly attached to it for a good seal. If the seal to the deck is tight and the space behind the splash is not too big could you just caulk the splash to the wall? This would tighten up the splash after the caulking has set up, of course you would not want to do that if the gap was too large.
Shane
Heating the splash may work, but it is not really something you want to do if you don’t have any experience with it. It can cause more problems than it’s worth.
If it were me, I would shim the splash so it does not move in and out when you puch on it. The bow in the wall is really not something you can fix. So here is what I would do:
- Put blue tape above the splash on the wall where it came loose
- Put blue tape on the top of the splash where it came loose.
- Shim the wall to remove the spongyness from the splash
- Cut the top off a silicone and squeeze a generous amount down far around the shim. (make sure you can’t see the shim from the top, push it down in there.)
- The Blue tape was there because you probably got some of the silicone on the wall and top of splash. Remove the tape
- Caulk the gap with paintable caulk and you are done.
This is not the perfect solution, but it is the safest without opening a can of worms.
Thanks all,
I will probably try to shim it and caulk it. If it looks good and feels good. Great.
If not, I’ll cut the whole thing out, clean it up and replace. Not to worry, the heat gun isn’t leaving the shop. (Yet
)Chris
Oh, and Andy if you are implying that I would get caulk on the wall and the splash, and then make a huge mess of trying to clean it up then, YOu Sir must have been watching on the first install I did. Not Pretty. Lots of clean-up. I tape off all my caulk now.
Chris
Chris:
I think this is much too serious to be left to chance. Considering you said this is a Sorority House, I think you should mount a live-feed video camera across the room trained on the splash and have Andy allow us to access this live feed 24/7 on this board. Although it would be a great sacrifice to keep our collective eyes on your sorority house splash constantly, no sacrifice is too great for a fellow fabricator.
I’ll chip in for the camera,
Joe
Joe beat me to the sorority comment by 55 minutes.
I mean got ahead of me.
I mean he rose to the occasion…
… oh never mind.
Naughty Pirate, indeed.
Tom
You guys really have your mind on business today. It took 8 posts before someone caught the “sorority house” part. I was expecting to hear that you needed to go back at least once a week to and make sure it was staying in place. You will probably like Joe’s idea better.
Linda
Has anyone else heard about the guy who hid a camera in a shampoo bottle?
He
hashad two female roomates.They charged him with fifteen counts of whatever they could charge him with.
One of the roomates noticed a wire coming out of the shampoo bottle. Busted.
Tom
Linda:
Thank you for noticing how much we concentrate on business.
Although I’m sure we would have no problem finding fabricators willing to sacrifice whatever time and effort it took to help Chris monitor his repair at the Sorority house in person, I tried to offer the most consistent, cost-effective and technologically advanced solution availiable.
Perhaps there is a conversion kit for Photo Top.
Joe
P.S.
For some odd reason, I’m picturing that as you posted, you gave a resigned sigh along with the capitulating shoulder shrug in perfect combination with the is-that-all-they-ever-think-about eyeroll. Or is my wife the only woman who does that?
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