Gel Coat repair on cultured marble countertop?

[Perry Holbrook]

The new house bath has cultured marble shower walls. When they were installed, one 5'x7' panel was damaged and rather than taking it back to be trashed, they left it with me. The plan was to use it for a countertop in the laundry room with the install to be done by the cabinetmaker. I was told yesterday that he didn't want to do it, so it's my project now. Should be no problem, the stuff cuts with standard ww tooling.

I plan to band the top edge with a 1 1/2" strip of the stuff and wanted to know the proper adhesive to edge glue the strip to the top piece for the best invisible glue line. I contacted the local company that made the panel for their advice on an adhesive. They said what I wanted to do could not be done because when the stuff is cut to size the saw cut edge becomes chalky, ie it no longer will have a gel coat on the sawn edge.

I refuse to believe that it would not be possible to recoat the edge with something. Just don't want to go thru the trial and error to find out what to use. There are some repair kits sold online that may have some promise. Just hope someone has already done this.

Thanks

[Tom M King]

Gelcoat doesn't sound right to me, but it may be. I don't believe an invisible repair can be made on that stuff. I can do an invisible gelcoat repair on a boat. I'd either edge it with something else, or just toss it.

[Jamie Buxton]

I know nothing about that material. But if those guys are right, and it can't be edgebanded with itself, how 'bout using wood? Y'know, a hardwood 1x2 or the like. It'd look like a design decision, not a bad repair.

[Perry Holbrook]

Apparently they spread a gel coat on the form and pour the epoxy slurry mixed with marble dust into the form. It’s made upside down.

The wood trim is plan B. I just don’t like putting the contact line between the wood band and solid surface on top, it’s never perfect. If I butt the wood under the edge, I still have an exposed edge and a thin looking top.

[Jim Becker]

Total Boat's Thixo might be an adhesive that will work...contact them and ask for a technical opinion.

[Walter Mooney]

What about flooding the edge with thin CA glue, then a light sanding and then gluing the strip onto that edge?

[Kev Williams]

3M 5200 marine adhesive sealant is supposedly as good as it gets as an adhesive. Many a boater on the boating forums I frequent warn others to NOT use it if there's ever a chance you'll want to separate whatever you glued together with it! Comes in white, tan and black as best I can tell, not sure those colors would be conducive to an 'invisible seam...

[Perry Holbrook]

I'll try the CA glue to see how good it seals the raw edge, good idea. The 3M sounds like a good way to glue the 2 pieces together, I/ll get some.

Thanks, it's great having access to smart people.

[Tom M King]

3M 5200 is a caulking consistency adhesive, and no way to make an invisible joint with it.

[Rick Potter]

Could you simply brush a coat of resin on the edge? I am pretty sure the original gel coat was polyester, not epoxy resin. Lots cheaper.

If that doesn't look good, you could then use hardwood.