Looking for some advice on a laundry benchtop

[Alex14]

Hi Team,

Just moved into a new place and looking at sorting out the laundry with a bit of DIY. I am not a builder and not much experience with DIY at all but someone will be helping me with cutting the benchtop. We have already replaced the laundry tub to a smaller one to fit both the dryer and the washing machine so not keen on replacing the laundry tub cabinet so hoping to enclose this into a benchtop as we found it isn't that practical without it. The laundry tub is tall enough to allow a decent gap between the bench and the dryer and washing machine.

I've attached a photo of the original and the other one marked in red is what i'm thinking about doing and cutting the benchtop that way. I would use L shaped metal brackets to fix the bench to the walls to wall studs. Might not be perfect but keen to try it.

Would this be achievable? has anyone tried this before? Anything to consider? At the front of the laundry tub the benchtop would be about 80mm wide so hoping it wouldn't sag over time

Any advice would be much appreciated even if i'm

[JacobZ]

Hi @Alex14,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is brilliant to have you with us.

The main concern I have with your design is there is no vertical support to the centre of the benchtop. Securing the benchtop to the studs on all three sides with angled brackets is fantastic, but the sag that you've mentioned would concern me long term.

A simple fix would be to add some melamine of a suitable size either side of the laundry tub connected to the ground and the benchtop with the same angled brackets. This would offer vertical support to the benchtop to prevent it sagging over time.

Let me know what you think.

Jacob

[Alex14]

Hi Jacob,

Thank you so much for your reply. Is this what you had in mind? Would you use a whole panel or just legs cut out from the same benchtop material? if i get a 900mm wide benchtop panel we could cut the back edge of it and use that length to make the legs. 

Thank you,

Alex

[JacobZ]

Hi @Alex14,

That layout is exactly what I was thinking. If you have additional benchtop that you can use that would be fantastic and save you spending more money on materials.

Ideally you would use a piece of timber the full depth of your benchtop, but a leg at least 70mm deep would provide support to the weakest point of the benchtop. As long as the benchtop is well supported around all three sides, a leg from the same material should be fine.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob