How to support quartz breakfast bar?

[ismellburning]

Hey all. I just had a 3cm thick quartz worktop installed in my kitchen. At one end is a breakfast bar, which runs a little over a metre beyond the last supporting kitchen carcass. Obviously this needs supporting (it’s currently resting on old worktop offcuts). I am going to use a 90mm thick post on one corner as a leg, and a batten at the back, screwed to a wall. Question: if I rest a sheet of plywood on top of the post, and on top of the batten, will it do a good job of supporting the worktop?

 

[robinbanks]

No.

For the dimenstions you've given (sounds like approx 1000mm x 600mm supported on the back by a wall, one side by the new cabinet and the other two sides form a free projecting corner) , a 30cm slab of quartz will self support the 900mm it needs to bridge; skip the plywood

 

[ismellburning]

Thank you this is encouraging. I have read in a few places that the longest unsupported span for quartz of this thickness is about 300-400mm so we’re obviously more than double that now - do you really think a metre long projection supported on one corner and along the back will be safe once a few people are leaning on the middle?

Follow up would the plywood, if i did it in the spirit of belt and braces, actually be doing anything or would it be pointless?

Very helpful input though thank you!

 

[thomp1983]

A picture would help us give advice

 

[robinbanks]

actually be doing anything

It'd be looking ugly if nothing else..

Follow my logic here:

You rest a strip of plywood between two kitchen carcass side panels
The plywood bows under its own weight and sags down by 2mm at the half way point between the supports
You place a strip of 30mm quartz on top of all this. It sags down under its own weight by 0.5mm
There is thus 1.5mm of air gap between the quartz and the ply

What support is the ply offering the quartz?

You decide to wedge a 3mm packer in by flexing the ply down a bit. Now it is offering some minuscule amount of support to the ply; roughly whatever effort (a few kilos) you had to apply to deform the ply by an extra 1.5mm. Give it a few months in a warm moist kitchen and you'll likely find you can blow your packer out again

There isn't really any meaningfu, enduring support a subtle (eg 18mm thick) lay of ply can offer your double-the-thickness-of-the-ply stone overlay

When you place a quartz top across your units, including your 900mm pan drawers etc, it genuinely is only getting support at certain points where the sides of the cabinets are. When it's spanning a 900mm pan drawer there is a point on the quartz 450mm away from its nearest support.. by the time you've placed your support leg with an offset away from the corner the support will be closer than it would be with a pan drawer

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I'd speak to the supplier, typically the suppliers say you need a post when the overhang gets beyond 3/400mm but they don't really talk about clear spans between supports. If it were me and I was fitting a support I'd use something like a 25x75mm steel angle spanning between the leg and the adjacent unit, you would never be able to see the short leg of the angle unless you were a dwarf.

 

[ismellburning]

Thank you everyone this has been helpful so far.

Attached is an image as things currently are - you can see the kitchen unit and the leg supporting the worktop; the total unsupported span is a little under 1000mm, there’s a batten at the back you can’t really see. All thoughts welcome!

 

[Elsa TLC]

Chant its name while clapping your hands.

 

[Mottie]

Chant its name while clapping your hands.

Give us a Q, give us a U, give us an A…….

 

[Tigercubrider]

Couldn’t you use two steel square tubes between the two units?
Level with the top and about 100 mm from each front/back edge.
Powder coated white or sprayed

 

[Elsa TLC]

Give us a Q, give us a U, give us an A…….

What have you Got?

 

[Mottie]

Quack