We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

--
Tim Lamb

Tim Lamb wrote in news:81WQtRlLkLpVFwS5
@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?


Pub Table syndrome! Wrong choice of cleaning materials mayme. You don't
tell us what type of material the worktop is made from. I would only expect
a wooden one to go sticky.

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

After two decades, I'd have thought a plastic-finished laminate worktop
was fairly knackered anyway. Why replace the whole kitchen, just because
the worktop's tired?

In message , Adrian
writes
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

After two decades, I'd have thought a plastic-finished laminate worktop
was fairly knackered anyway. Why replace the whole kitchen, just because
the worktop's tired?

It looks fine. Just drags a bit when you run a dry hand across the
surface. Plastic finish laminate certainly but I don't know the
specifics.

There is a level of pressure from the user who appears to believe
something related to operating theatre white would be better than the
real Oak doors:-(

--
Tim Lamb

No some of these slightly soft rubbery ones do as well. Could be cleaning,
or just leaching of plasticizer from the material. You often get this on the
stuff on cameras f around 10 years ago, I also foound it on a non Sony
walkmanof more years, and it had mainly lived in a pocket for years.
I sometimes wonder what sort of long life testing is done on such
materials. My original long whit canes handle went this way also.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.222...
Tim Lamb wrote in news:81WQtRlLkLpVFwS5
@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?


Pub Table syndrome! Wrong choice of cleaning materials mayme. You don't
tell us what type of material the worktop is made from. I would only
expect
a wooden one to go sticky.

In message 2,
DerbyBorn writes
Tim Lamb wrote in news:81WQtRlLkLpVFwS5
:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?


Pub Table syndrome! Wrong choice of cleaning materials mayme. You don't
tell us what type of material the worktop is made from. I would only expect
a wooden one to go sticky.

Plastic finish laminate as Adrian suggests. I don't know more.

A similar top at my sister's house is much worse. She may have done more
frying without using an extractor fan and was fond of Cif cleaning
products.

--
Tim Lamb

On 14/07/2015 08:45, Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

After two decades, I'd have thought a plastic-finished laminate worktop
was fairly knackered anyway. Why replace the whole kitchen, just because
the worktop's tired?


Think again. Ours was as good as new after 30 years. Only chucked
because her indoors wanted a different colour (not one of her better
decisions as it turns out)

On 14/07/15 09:02, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Adrian
writes
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

After two decades, I'd have thought a plastic-finished laminate worktop
was fairly knackered anyway. Why replace the whole kitchen, just because
the worktop's tired?

It looks fine. Just drags a bit when you run a dry hand across the
surface. Plastic finish laminate certainly but I don't know the specifics.

There is a level of pressure from the user who appears to believe
something related to operating theatre white would be better than the
real Oak doors:-(


You could either replace the worktop or clad it in thin corian (there
are firms that specialise in this). Or even tile it.

On 14/07/2015 08:23, Tim Lamb wrote:
We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

I had a similar problem with the black plastic finish on the barrel of a
camera lens. I used mild solvent (surgical spirit) on it which removed
the sticky layer very effectively. Suggest you try a test on a small
area first, just in case...

On Tuesday, 14 July 2015 08:24:07 UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:
We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

We don't know if its muck or degradation, so I'd start with ammonia & thick bleach, separately of course.


NT

On Tuesday, 14 July 2015 09:15:23 UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:
There is a level of pressure from the user who appears to believe
something related to operating theatre white would be better than the
real Oak doors:-(

Well if the user wants to spend her (I presume!) time cleaning the kitchen to operating theatre conditions every day, I'm sure it will look wonderful.

If this is Mrs Lamb you could suggest she wear a nurse's uniform while she does it :-)

Owain

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 09:02:32 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

There is a level of pressure from the user who appears to believe
something related to operating theatre white would be better than the
real Oak doors:-(

Do not even think of asking us to get involved in THAT kind of domestic
debate...

In message ,
writes
On Tuesday, 14 July 2015 09:15:23 UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:
There is a level of pressure from the user who appears to believe
something related to operating theatre white would be better than the
real Oak doors:-(

Well if the user wants to spend her (I presume!) time cleaning the
kitchen to operating theatre conditions every day, I'm sure it will
look wonderful.

If this is Mrs Lamb you could suggest she wear a nurse's uniform while
she does it :-)

I doubt I am up to any temptations induced:-)

--
Tim Lamb

In message , nemo
writes
On 14/07/2015 08:23, Tim Lamb wrote:
We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

I had a similar problem with the black plastic finish on the barrel of
a camera lens. I used mild solvent (surgical spirit) on it which
removed the sticky layer very effectively. Suggest you try a test on a
small area first, just in case...

That sounds hopeful. Ta.

--
Tim Lamb

In message ,
writes
On Tuesday, 14 July 2015 08:24:07 UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:
We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

We don't know if its muck or degradation, so I'd start with ammonia &
thick bleach, separately of course.

*muck* would be fighting talk in this house! I think it is some form of
degradation. I'll try the surgical spirit first. Leached plasticiser is
my inexpert guess.

--
Tim Lamb

On 14/07/2015 08:23, Tim Lamb wrote:
We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?

I'm told that Relay Spray http://www.relayspray.com/ works on plastic
and rubberised surfaces. Seemed worth a try at under £3 but then
discovered the minimum delivery charge is an extra £6 so haven't ordered
it yet !

Chris

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?
A window scraper works best for me, the type with a plastic handle
into which you fit a Stanley knife blade. Use a new blade, but use a
smoothish grindstone to just round off the two corners to reduce the
chance of digging it in and leaving scratches.

Start with an area thats less visible, just to practice on, and you'll
soon get a feel for how hard to press and what angle to hold the
scraper, and you can see the gunge coming off. Work in one direction,
then go over it a right angles as well.

The gunge is quite sticky, so use the scraper to move the stuff off
the edge into a dustpan or something, and clean the blade off with
some kitchen paper every so often. Then wipe the surface over with a
damp cloth, let it dry, and run you fingers over it, you'll soon
notice and bits your missed.

I use the same method to remove burnt on deposits from a ceramic hob,
then polish with ceramic hob cleaner.

In message , Davidm
writes
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:23:55 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:

We had a thread a while back on plastic handles degrading on some hand
tools.

Two sets of kitchen worktops installed in 1995 seem to be exhibiting
similar symptoms. The surface appears sticky to touch.

Much worse next to the hob and sink where more aggressive cleaning may
occur.

Any suggestions or is it *new kitchen* time?
A window scraper works best for me, the type with a plastic handle
into which you fit a Stanley knife blade. Use a new blade, but use a
smoothish grindstone to just round off the two corners to reduce the
chance of digging it in and leaving scratches.

Start with an area thats less visible, just to practice on, and you'll
soon get a feel for how hard to press and what angle to hold the
scraper, and you can see the gunge coming off. Work in one direction,
then go over it a right angles as well.

The gunge is quite sticky, so use the scraper to move the stuff off
the edge into a dustpan or something, and clean the blade off with
some kitchen paper every so often. Then wipe the surface over with a
damp cloth, let it dry, and run you fingers over it, you'll soon
notice and bits your missed.

I use the same method to remove burnt on deposits from a ceramic hob,
then polish with ceramic hob cleaner.

Hmm.. I'm not rushing at this as the group may have noticed. Today's job
was taking down the lower branches of a huge Silver Birch so that a
*climbing* tree surgeon can take the top out. Carefully avoiding the
alarm cable from the sewage pumping station and the nearby
greenhouse/lorry box/barn:-)

--
Tim Lamb