Question about Re-Gluing Formica

Vaughn McMillan

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I'm doing a repair job for a friend Monday. She runs a beauty salon, and some of the plastic laminate on various counters and edges in her shop has come unglued. I've got contact cement (the good stuff, not the waterbased stuff) and have plenty of experience installing new Formica. But I don't know if I can re-glue without removing the old glue or not. I can scrape off the bigger chunks and any loose stuff, but I don't think I'll be able to get it all. Am I buying myself problems down the road by not removing all the old glue?
 
If it's pealing, you'll have to remove all that you can of it. Should be OK once you have that off. If you don't the glue is only on one side of the pealing stuff and it will still come loose in those areas. Just my .02
 
last time I had to do a repair, I had to get all of the glue off on both the counter and the old formica. The cleaned it up with mineral spirits. I remember some of the harder pieces I had to chip away. I made the mistake of going to deep on one of my scrapes and had to patch it with plastic wood. Besides it being a pain in the butt, it turned out Okay
 
I redid about 4 Mazzio Pizza Parlor a few years back and had to remove as much old glue as I could with lacquer thinner and acetone to get the new lam to glue down smooth and hold. :dunno::dunno:

Worked on each one all night so they could open in the morning. Glad I dont do that anymore :doh:
 
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