How to seal wooden kitchen worktop joint

[fex10]

We're having a kitchen fitted with oak worktops. The worktops are oak all the way thru but they are made of small oak sections joined together.

The carpenters did a decent job of the kitchen but I'm unconvinced by how they sealed the joint to stop water going into the joint. Underneath the worktop they cut round holes with a channel and did a lovely joint to pull the two worktops together. Then they put clear silicone into the joint and tightened it. The silicone squished out and was allowed to dry. Thewy left so 24 hrs later I tried to trim the silicone, and it won't trim neatly.

Is there a better way? I just feel that the joint needs to be 100% flush to stop water sitting in it.

 

[chappers]

yep the tops should be flush, should have used biscuits to line them up, waterproof PVA to join.

 

[Chud]

How badly do you want the join to be perfect??

...you could remove the bolts holding the worktop together, sever the silicone with a guitar string (high e) or similar, remove the worktops, clean up the joint face (you will probably have to plane away the surface) and refit with dowels/biscuits and waterproof PVA but it wouldn't be an easy job. It could be that the reason Silicone was used in the fist place is because the surfaces are not uniform enough to mate cleanly?

 

[foxhole]

I would use clear silicon to allow movement, glue could cause splitting.

 

[matz]

I'm surprised theres not a kind of expansion joint you can fit similar to when you build long walls - something that compresses to a few mm also and takes up any uneveness... perhaps there is!

 

[fex10]

Thanks for the feedback. The joint is actually very even, just there is a small 1mm "trench" left because the worktop edges are rounded where they join. I thought water would sit there. Just going to put in some clear silicone to finish it off.