Bailey Dinette Table Top Damage (Laminate Type?)

[meccarroll]

Hi all I have a Bailey Pursuit Caravan 2014 model and have damaged the Dinette Table Top. It's a lightweight top 20mm thick made with a paper core like interior doors. A jar slipped out of my hand and put a good ding in it. I might try a temoary fill repair but would also like to buy and stick on a laminate to match. Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[Cabinetman]

What does the edge of the table look like?
There are a lot of Caravan manufacturers on the Humber plus there is a bespoke manufacturer who also has a shop selling every available spare part used in caravans/motorhomes, in Grimsby, also they sell sheets of lightweight ply etc not sure if they have Formica type stuff or not.
Ian
Magnum Motorhomes Ltd Grimsby

 

[meccarroll]

What does the edge of the table look like?
There are a lot of Caravan manufacturers on the Humber plus there is a bespoke manufacturer who also has a shop selling every available spare part used in caravans/motorhomes, in Grimsby, also they sell sheets of lightweight ply etc not sure if they have Formica type stuff or not.
Ian
Magnum Motorhomes Ltd Grimsby

I have not tried to peel off the edge yet but it is a plastic edge presumabully glued on. I assume glued on because of the paper core) I am trying to find out from Bailey who was the laminate manufacturer so I can try to match it. It's quite astonishing just how much the spare parts companies charge for something like a table top as it can be around £350 although I have not found an exact match for my caravan yet.

 

[Cabinetman]

Next time I’m in Grimsby I’ll call in and have a nosy around. (It’s always interesting).
Ian

 

[MattS]

Really interesting as a fellow caravan owner I hadn't realised the tables were hollow core like that nowadays! Ours is a 40 year old van and has a table of heavy manufactured board of some sort, plastic laminate top and real wood lippings. Due to the lack of mod cons overall it's very lightweight but I guess with water heaters etc manufacturers now need to save weight where they can!

 

[Alasdair]

You could have a look at IDS (International Decorative Surfaces) they are one of the largest UK suppliers but only supply to trade/merchants. They are helpful and will put you in touch with someone local that you can buy through if you find what you are looking for (looks as though it may be a cherry laminate).

International Decorative Surfaces - UK’s Largest Surfaces Distributor International Decorative Surfaces

www.idsurfaces.co.uk

 

[meccarroll]

Really interesting as a fellow caravan owner I hadn't realised the tables were hollow core like that nowadays! Ours is a 40 year old van and has a table of heavy manufactured board of some sort, plastic laminate top and real wood lippings. Due to the lack of mod cons overall it's very lightweight but I guess with water heaters etc manufacturers now need to save weight where they can!

Yes things have change quite a lot over the years regarding refinements. Ours is an ultra light caravan being Alutech Construction which is very easy to tow. I have now found a laminate similar to ours which is called Cherry costing a total of £150 ish including delivery so I may just go ahead and purchase but am waiting on other enquiries before I do.

Very nice to hear from you!

Mark

 

[meccarroll]

You could have a look at IDS (International Decorative Surfaces) they are one of the largest UK suppliers but only supply to trade/merchants. They are helpful and will put you in touch with someone local that you can buy through if you find what you are looking for (looks as though it may be a cherry laminate).

International Decorative Surfaces - UK’s Largest Surfaces Distributor International Decorative Surfaces

www.idsurfaces.co.uk

That is very interesting to here and could be very useful too, thank you for the heads up! And yes agree Cherry is looking like a good match. Regards Mark

 

[Eric the Viking]

Just as an aside, I had a quite torrid time recently, resizing a hollow-core tabletop.

It was an Ikea domestic desktop, for a home-office, and designed to fit into a corner (basically a right-angled isosceles triangle, with a bite taken out of the hypotenuse). I had to trim about 3" off both of the short sides (completely cutting away the softwood edging) and add stiffening to accept a re-sited back leg, a bolt-through monitor stand, and the peg of an Anglepoise-like mic stand.

Lots of careful width-measuring, both before and after the trimming, availed me nothing. Running in a 1" chisel to scrape off all the cardboard glue didn't really help either. Nor did lots and lots of clamps during the glue-up! I couldn't avoid the position of the new softwood edging and extra stiffening pieces telegraphing through the 3mm MDF Ikea had used for the upper and lower surfaces. It was also ridiculously hard to trim the cardboard web neatly, without detatching too much of it from upper and lower surfaces.

Fortunately this doesn't show, as the top surface is covered with carpet (it's for a recording studio). But honestly it would have been much easier, and the end result much neater, if I'd just made a new top up from scratch, as a torsion box (i.e. with a lightweight frame inside instead of the cardboard web), or simply made a solid top up from staves.

I only mention this as, whoever you get your new top from, if it's hollow core make absolutely certain you don't need to go beyond the softwood internal back edge, when trimming it to fit. If you don't, a world of pain and embarrassment awaits, as I found out.

E.

PS: I should know better, too: I got talked into trimming the hollow-core doors in my daughter's house for new carpets, only to discover the builder, who had walked off the job (having thoroughly bodged the doors and casings), had only trimmed the bottoms of the doors, leaving several with no bottom edging left at all. At that point we should simply have gone to B+Q (or whoever) and bought fresh doors...

 

[meccarroll]

PS: I should know better, too: I got talked into trimming the hollow-core doors in my daughter's house for new carpets, only to discover the builder, who had walked off the job (having thoroughly bodged the doors and casings), had only trimmed the bottoms of the doors, leaving several with no bottom edging left at all. At that point we should simply have gone to B+Q (or whoever) and bought fresh doors...

When I was a younger (In the 70's) we often had to replace panelled doors with flush doors. The newer flush doors would be 6'6" and often too tall for the old opening which resulted in cutting them down. Often there would be no bottom rail left so I would use a piece of softwood and glue one back in a lot of carpenters would just leave the doors as yours have been.

 

[Cabinetman]

Just missed the company on Saturday, will try again Tomorrow (Tuesday)
Ian

 

[Cabinetman]

PM,ed you. Ian

 

[duke]

When I was a younger (In the 70's) we often had to replace panelled doors with flush doors. The newer flush doors would be 6'6" and often too tall for the old opening which resulted in cutting them down. Often there would be no bottom rail left so I would use a piece of softwood and glue one back in a lot of carpenters would just leave the doors as yours have been.

The not so good carpenters still won't fill in the bottom of a cut hollow door!

 

[meccarroll]

The not so good carpenters still won't fill in the bottom of a cut hollow door!

And there are becoming more like it as time passes.

Although there are still some very good Carpenters/Joiners emerging from firms that send their staff to colleges for training the people who gain their NVQ on site are very often lacking in knowledge and pick up bad habits.

One aspects of NVQ Carpentry/Joinery qualifications is they can simply be obtained by logging on site work with pictures and write ups which are then sent by email to an assesser. The assessor might make a day visit to site and watch some work being done and discuss the applicants progress with a site supervisor but there is likely no actual tutoring and very little or no theory.

 

[meccarroll]

Now found a laminate supplier that has a pretty good match for the table top. It's not an exact match but as the table sits far enough away from other surfaces it should not be too noticable.

The sheets are 8'x4' @ £80 a sheet + Delivery and vat all adds up to £140 so an expensive ding!