Kitchen Island Repair

[pastorpaul]

I'm in the process of attempting to repair my daughter's kitchen island. The previous owners built it themselves using some kitchen cabinets and adding a tile top.

The bull-nose wooden trim on one side has come loose. The plywood top base for the tile was cut too small to provide proper attachment of the trim; leaving a small gap between the plywood and the trim. The only place the trim makes contact with any other material is the mitered corners of the trim, and a VERY SMALL edge on the bottom of the trim that butts against the cabinet faces. The finishing nails that attach the trim go through dead air space before entering the edge of the plywood tile base.

I attempted to re-install the trim using Gorilla Glue, but even after about four hours of clamping it immediately popped apart. My first thought was that something was putting pressure on the trim piece, but found no evidence of that.

So where do I go from here? Here are a few of my ideas: 1) Increase the amount of glue used (I had been sparing with it per the directions on the bottle) and increase the amount of dampening of the wood to better activate the glue. 2) Switch to TiteBond Carpenter's Glue to see if it provides a better bond, but this is the first time I can remember having Gorilla Glue fail. 3) Shim that gap between the trim and the plywood edge to give something more for the nails to drive into, and eliminate the gap that allows the trim to flex. 4) Leave the clamps on for a full 24 hours.

My plan is to do 3 and 4, but I'm not sure whether to go with 1 or 2. Any and all thoughts and advice are welcome. I need to try to finish this project Tuesday so the grouting can be done in preparation for a home inspection.

PP

[TDHofstetter]

I've got a pretty strong hunch that the trim is contaminated with oils or possibly a finish (polyurethane?) on its back. PU glue won't bond to either very well, as you've seen. I'd recommend sanding the back (glue) side until you get to clean wood, then trying the PU glue again.

[pastorpaul]

Tim,

Thanks for the advice. The wood looked good and clean when I first took things apart, but I'll give the sanding a shot... assuming there is enough that it won't shorten the trim too much. I'm thinking I should also shoot a few nails in before I put the clamps on.

Well, I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow! When I get done at the kids, it is back home to see how much yard work I can get done. I want to play in the shop, but grass needs mowing, the strawberry bed needs soil added and some stray plants moved to it, and most of my flower garden beds need weeds and grass pulled out.

PP

[pastorpaul]

Too pooped to do much, so this is my reply on the other site:

Removing all the trim was going to be a major undertaking especially not knowing when I would have to take off at a moment's notice if my brother took a turn for the worse. Besides, from what I could tell, it was just the one side that was put on with only the bottom edge of the wooden trim making contact.

I removed the loose piece of trim, reglued the miter joints with TB (can't remember if it was II or III), nailed the miters (hadn't been done before), placed a few nails along the length, and clamped the ends. I was going to use shims at strategic points along the trim, but the plywood was so uneven that it was nearly impossible.

Everything tightened up great and last night we grouted. Looks good, and I think it will hold for a long time to come.

PP