Attaching wood trim to granite

[Fred Woodward]

I recently built a BBQ cabinet for our deck. The cabinet is Tigerwood w a granite top. Only the front edge of the top is finished and polished. I am making trim to wrap the sides and back of the top with Tigerwood, mitered corners. Just not sure how to attach to the top. A friend suggested to glue with a construction adhesive.
Suggestions or experience on similar project is appreciated.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/fishinnut50/SizedFront.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/fishinnut50/SixedLeft.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/fishinnut50/TopTrim.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/fishinnut50/LTrim.jpg

Trim shown is just a cutoff of the trim I made for the top.

[Jim Foster]

As a first suggestion, I would consider clear silicone caulk, when granite tops are mounted to cabinet using this, I'm told the cabinets will rip apart before the caulk seal if you try and remove the counter tops. I'd also make sure you get good run-out that gets removed with a razor, just to make sure you have a complete water-proof seal.

[Jamie Buxton]

Construction adhesive and epoxy stick to stone. Or you might could make a plywood subtop, fasten it to the cabinet, fasten wood edging to it, and drop the granite into the resultant tray. Or if you want the edging to overlap the stone like that, you'd slide the granite in from the front.

[Carl Beckett]

A nice piece Fred. I can understand the suggestion of just using construction adhesive - worthy of another thread entirely but I have found the newer versions of constuction adhesives to be 'not very good'. They reformulated for low VOC - many are now waterbased - and besides being very confusing to pick the right one, I dont get the results that the older formuations gave me.

My recommendation would be to just NOT attach it to the granite. Build the trim piece up from the cabinet such that the granite just sits there and doesnt have to track the wood movement. Wood moves over time and although your trim is going long grain, I would guess I much higher movement than what the granite will be. Two dissimilar materials trying to be bonded makes for a lot of repetitive stress cycles that will cause problems in the long run.

If you can build it out from the side of the cabinet and attach the trim, the wood can move without the granite moving.

Having said all that - we arent talking about a long piece and just gluing it together may work just fine (and be the simpliest!). Caution on the particular adhesive! In particular, when I go to the home store to by 'Liquid Nails', there are many different flavors now, and all of them appear to be water based and none of the ones I have tried work as well as the old formulation. I did switch to a 'PNL" product (I think this was the brand) - it was solvent (non water) based and worked well.

[Fred Woodward]

Thank you Jim, I mounted the top with silicone and it is definitely solid mount. Wasn't sure if the bond for the wood trim would work well. The trim is finished with poly urethane.

[Carl Beckett]

As a first suggestion, I would consider clear silicone caulk, when granite tops are mounted to cabinet using this, I'm told the cabinets will rip apart before the caulk seal if you try and remove the counter tops. I'd also make sure you get good run-out that gets removed with a razor, just to make sure you have a complete water-proof seal.

Great suggestion! And also allows movement between the two different materials

[Fred Woodward]

All good suggestions, thanks very much. I hadn't thought about building the trim up from the cabinet. There is reveal all the way around the top, 1" on either side, 3/4" on the rear, and 1 3/4" on the front. There is no subtop though I thought about it. The cabinet is very heavy; should have resawn the TW sides, they are 5/4 x 6 pieces. The cabinet probably weight 300# + (before the granite). The top is attached with silicone bead on the top edges of the cabinet frame.

[John TenEyck]

The guys who installed my granite countertop used a clear polyurethane adhesive. I don't recall the brand, but I bought something similar at HD to glue some granite tile into wood frames - no problems after 5+ years. Cures to a pretty hard consistency (much harder than silicone caulk) and the bond is tenacious. Call a local granite countertop shop and see what they use for installation. If it's not available retail, maybe they'll sell/give you a tube.

[John Lifer]

In my opinion, why add the trim to the top? Do your kitchen countertops have an overlaid trim? To me it is much easier to wipe off/clean without the trim holding junk on the top of the countertop. The cabinet looks great without it. But just my opinion..... There are liquid nails type adhesives for wood to granite. Would probably be best.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

+1 for John's suggestion. I think it looks great without the polished edge- and boy will it be easier to clean without the trim.

[Mort Stevens]

In my opinion, why add the trim to the top?

I'm going to agree with this, not only is a crumb trap, it's a place water is going to get under, sit and mildew and rot the wood. Plus you're limiting where you can slide stuff on/off the counter; you're always going to have to be lifting stuff over that damn edge! :)

If the raw marble edge bothers you, you can have it finished, or you can do it yourself with a right-angle grinder and about a half-dozen different grits... it's not that hard, I saw the installers that did my kitchen make some last-minute adjustments and they just ground and sanded away until they got the correct profile. Took them about 30-minutes to take a 36" rough edge to full polish.

[Dave Sabo]

An RTV silicone should be fine - that's what the granite guys around here use. Make sure it is RTV.


For the ultimate , look at Loctite Universal T.A.C.. - Not silicone, but some tough adhesive voodoo in a tube. High grab and shear strength + ability to deal with movement, moisture and temp swings.

Be aware that it may have been discontinued and costs $10+ a tube. Is/was available at Depot & Lowes

[Steve Ryan]

Get the edges polished with a simple pencil edge. You can do it yourself but will need the correct backer pad and about 5 different diamond grits to do it. Blue masking tape along the edge about an even 1/8 back. Use the coarse grit to start polishing the edge and to round the edge over. Work to the masking tape. Keep the edge soaking wet and do not let the disc go so far over as to touch the top surface. It is a lot easier than you would think but....go diamond or forget about it.