Corian Countertops: What do I need to buff them?

S

sahrcar

New member
I have a detailing customer of mine whom has asked me to polish her corian countertops. I've been told that its possible with a rotary which I have and also with sanding discs. Im out of the discs at the moment but was wondering what grit I should get when I order more. Im sure its a bit harder than clear so I was thinking about starting out at 1000 and then going up to 1500, 2000, and then either 3k or 4k and then polishing out with the rotary. Or do I need to start at 600 or 800?



After that Im not sure what to seal them with. Her main concern is that when the light hits it just right she can see all the slight surface scratches from things being dragged across it and also a few scratches here and there from not having a cutting board. Just like swirls and rids on a car.



I have a Makita rotary, PCXP, Griotts, Surbuffs, Optimum wool pad, Ardex 3000, Menzerna SIP, IP, Optimum Compound II, Megs 105 & 205, Chem guys 700, Turtle Wax rubbing compound (used only once about 6 years ago, so maybe it could finally get some use as I'd never put that on a car again), and several misc polishes with finer cutting abilities.



In regards to sealants, I have Collinite Insulator & Chem Guys M-Seal as my super long lasting sealants on hand but not sure how they would actually do on a sealed type of rock material. Thanks.
 
Hmm... Interested in this as well as my parents have a corian countertops and I was debating polishing them one day to remove spots, rids, etc.
 
I Googled Corian to be sure I knew which surface you are talking about and came across the following site which pictures a rotary and some DACP ( probably from several years back) so I'm guessing the countertops can be polished out well with car compounds and polishes:



Corian Countertops | Doors sliding
 
Corian is hard and will take some work. I got ambitious once and decided to polish the corian counters in the house I was renting from my friend. I did the island and never continued due to time. It took me a lot longer than I'd planned. I don't remember what grade paper I used, but it took quite a while to get deep enough to remove the scratches. One thing to consider is, just like a car, it will develop scratches again and a perfectly polished surface will highlight those scratches. Consider testing this concept for the customer to see. Do a side by side of a matte finish from sandpaper vs. polished. Then drag a ceramic plate or some silverware across it and see what it does. The island I polished wound up looking pretty tore up just a few months later.
 
Ditto that. We have a similar type of counter in our house that is man made, can't think of the name now. But it's sort of a matte finish, and scratches pretty easy. I tried a test spot just using my PC and some polish. It shined up nice, but didn't take out all of the scratches, and like Nth Degree said, it greatly magnified the scratches. I ended up taking a 0000 steel wool pad to it to take out the shine and get it looking like the rest of the counter.
 
Gotcha... So I guess I'll just start out at around the 1000 grit and see what happens from there. But from what yall have said I'll just focus on correction and smoothing out my sanding marks but wont spend too much time on properly "jeweling" the finish.



I havent officially accepted the job yet but just told the lady that it was possible for me to do the work. When we last spoke I told her once I got the materials in then we could talk terms. I need pads anyways so Im not getting supplies just for this task. Its an L-shaped island and is probably about 12 x3 ft total. My regular detailing rates are $45/hr for basic cleaning and then $60/hr for paint correction services. Being that this may be an intensive project and also my first counter top correction I'm thinking about basing my price off of a $50/hr rate. Before reading yalls comments here I was only thinking that this may just take around 5 hours to do. How long could this really be?
 
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