Galley Countertop Makeover

We FINALLY got to doing our galley countertop makeover - and the vanity tops in the heads, but will show those in another video. Its been a long road with a lot of indecision with regards to what material we would finally use. Corian had always been the plan, but at this stage of the project, the costs involved just didn't seem possible or justifiable. After a lot of research into options, we decided to go with bamboo. Its an ecofriendly option made from a sustainable source and really light weight - each 1.2m x 2.4m board weighing only 10kg! I had my reservations - was it going to look ok mixing bamboo with teak? - was it going to make the interior seem dark? - and too "woody"? - would it hold up to the marine environment? We got an enormous amount of info from Bamboo Warehouse, here in Cape Town. They assured us that their product had already been installed on a few super yachts here in Cape Town, and that with the right sealing of the surface, it would be hard wearing and definitely suitable for our project. as a bonus, all their bamboo is from sustainable sources, totally ecofriendly and in the long term an easily renewable material. We have come to realise that there is very little that is ecofriendly when it comes to building boats so this appeased our eco-conscience a little. We were taking a bit of a risk going with the 5mm boards because they are not cross-bonded like the thicker laminates and therefore fragile. We wanted to keep weight to a minimum, were putting these boards over existing 9mm marine ply surfaces so did not need to go with "strong" boards and keeping the cost down was an added bonus - so decided to go with the 5mm board and work carefully. The project did not start out well ☹. After explaining to the courier company responsible for transporting our boards up from Cape Town, just how fragile the boards were, and getting reassurances that it would all be fine, 2 of the 3 boards arrived here broken. After a couple of phone calls the courier company reimbursed us for some of the damage when we agreed to have them leave the damaged boards with us. They said that they would not be prepared to collect new boards from Cape Town for us and we just wanted to get on with the job! Robin went back to the drawing board and worked out a new cutting schedule that worked well and we still managed to cut what we needed out of the remaining pieces of boards - AND even managed to get our head vanity tops and cabinet doors out of what was left!! The project took longer than we had envisaged - surprise, surprise😆 - the prep work took a while because of all the re-planning, once fitted, cutting the edges back and then all the detailing and finally the very slow varnishing process meant that the project took the better part of 3 weeks from start to total finish. What can I say - we are slow - but meticulous 😉 We had planned on a total of 4 coats of polyurethane varnish in a low sheen - matt finish - not sure what this companies idea of "matt" is but we have ended up with pretty glossy tops that I'm hoping might dull down in time. Could possibly have something to do with the fact that I eventually put on 6 coats, partly because at the half way mark I changed from the "low sheen" varnish to the "matt" and I was just never happy with the surface of each coat. Varnishing in a pretty dusty environment with added cat hair in the air, is not conducive to glassy smooth varnish finish. So we eventually decided it wasn't going to get any better and we would live with what we had. So we are now complete and happy with the finished product and its just so good to have a pretty, functional and 99% completed galley!! Now onto the next project...... "Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music If you are in South Africa and looking for flooring, countertops or even decking, and considering using bamboo - give Bamboo Warehouse a visit at https://www.bamboowarehouse.co.za PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/sailingsaoirse We hope you enjoy our video and don’t forget to subscribe to see where the wind eventually takes us. Thank you for watching! Follow our adventures through our Instagram accounts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sailing_saoirse_/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/findingfr33dom/