jo4hn wrote:


It's amazing how much water accumulates around a kitchen sink. I put in
a white oak butcher block style counter top in my previous house. That
was a once in a lifetime experience. Get the hardest, nastiest,
waterproof stuff that you can find to coat it with and renew it often. I
used oil based poly and it took a couple months for dark spots to start
showing. Sand, sand, poly, poly. Then sand, sand, poly poly in a few
more months. Perhaps I should have tried a marine type varnish or
asphalt. In short, it was a lot of work and it didn't look all that
great. Perhaps you and SWMBO are better at keeping wet stuff off the
counter than we were, but then that's what counters are for.

This time I went with the quartz based stuff (Silestone, Caesarstone,
etc.). Impervious to anything after almost two years. Yea, stamp,
whistle and other expressions of childish glee.

mahalo,
jo4hn

I would suggest a number of coats of very thin marine epoxy, such as
those made by West, Raka...Make sure to get one that cures very slowly.

You might consider making the counter by the sink of a different
material. You could use granite, marble... Give at least 1 foof space
around the sink. Make it like a granite insert in the wood top. You
could then use wood for the rest of the counter. I agree with another
poster, though. You should probably use harder/tougher wood.

-Peter