Cutting Cultured Marble

kenvest

Working on an investment property that suffered some damage in the master bath. I have 56" wall to wall to replace a 1 piece sink and of course everything avaliable today that could work is 61".

Question...what's the best way to cut cultured marble and has anyone here done it? No one at the big box could give me an answer and it'll take 3 weeks and 100 extra dollars to order one as needed. They do have side splashes in stock so i'll have at least 3/4" per side to cover up any chipping that i know would occur while cutting.

I'm assuming either an abrasive/diamond blade on a grinder could do the job but i hate trying something on a $200 piece that i don't know will work.

Thank You! Happy turkey day!

cabela

Hay Ken,

I have been a Tile contractor for 30 some years and some things are better left to the people who know how to do it right. I would take it to a marble and granite shop and have them cut it for you. There is some risk in doing it your self, chipping, cracking,
John

Mike Finley

Ken, I run into this all the time, the odd sizes due to something being built in place or no longer being a norm.

Sorry can't help you with what you want to do.

But, how about a $30.00 drop in sink and a $125 piece of corian? Around here I can do what is called a conversion where I give them the template, they fab and I install. Works good for something like what you are talking about.

Ask your local big box who does their Corian fabrication and give them a call direct.

Tom R

Yeah, Ken, - - just put a good diamond blade in the grinder and 'score' it at 55 3/4", - - then make your actual cut at your 56" by 'scoring' first, and then cutting. This will give any 'accidentals' a stopping point.

Keep a good support completely underneath, - - don't allow 'fall-off'.

Don't try to cut through all at once, - - go with several passes, - - a little deeper each time, - - 1/4" at the most per pass. Less strain on the blade and less likely to bind and chip.

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Teetorbilt

I uninstall this stuff all of the time (2 today), a 32 oz. ballpeen removes it well without too many flakes.

The stuff is a combo of polyester resin and marble dust. Polyester will melt and load blades if they are too fine so I would avoid diamond and masonry blades unless you can wet cut. I would try a fine tooth carbide blade and stop if you begin to smell 'burning polyester'. This is one job where I would buy cheap blades, marble is relatively soft. I'd cut from the back side with the top fully supported, if there is an integral backsplash cut that first then cut from the front to the rear. If pressures create a chip, it should be in the back and on the underneath side.

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kenvest

thanks guys....

mike, the corain thing sounds promising and if i had time to plan the job out a little, it would probably make a nice alternative to the cultured marble. i'll file that one away under "alternatives to cheap looking big box stuff"

thanks tom. as this job needs to be done ASAP, i'll give it a shot. i figured it could be done with a little technique. i guess i could score both sides with a sharp razor knife or maybe even a glass cutter? should i grind/cut from the bottom side to prevent the dreeded "uncontrollable grinder syndrome"??

thanks again for your time!

Tom R

Actually, I meant you could do your score-mark with the diamond blade itself, - - run a piece of duct tape to the good side, - - and if you want, - - clamp a piece of 1/4" luanne as a straight-edge guide, - - just try not to rub it too hard.

Not sure if I would trust a glass cutter to score quite deep enough for this paricular application, - - but that's just my opinion.

Wouldn't hurt to 'score' the bottom also (after the top), - - but don't 'cut' from the bottom, - - you may cause 'blow-out' on the finish-side.

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Mike Finley

This thread got me curious so I did a search for "cutting cultured marble"

boy what a lot of opinions there are on it! Everything from using a router, a wood blade reversed, cutting it upside down, using diamond blades... I even found special diamond wet cutting blades for this purpose. This stuff is old and not too much is installed anymore, but around here every freaken expensive house built in the 1980s has it in the master bathrooms, entire walls, showers and tubs.

If you run into problems I'm sure I could ask my rep at the granite fab shop for tips, I'm pretty sure they should have some older guys who actually did the fabrication of this stuff in the 80s and should know all about it.

Teetorbilt

Mike, I spent a short stint as a salesman for JARMCO back in the 80's and sold resins/abrasives to a few local shops. They all used polyester resins, GP, the cheap stuff. You have to CUT not grind this stuff.

Polyester shrinks forever and most failures on this stuff occurs around the drains and overflows. Want more proof? Go to the marina and scope out the side of the best maintained old Hatt, Bertram or whatever and you can tell where all of the bulkheads and anything else were taped in. There are dimples in the hull from shrinkage.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

scentralpirate

a skill saw?

seriously, on the hotel addition I was on last spring all thiry-six cultured marble sink/counter tops had to be cut down a 1/4" on either side because the interior designer gave the wrong dimensions when the walls were being framed up.

just a skill saw and a 4 1/4" grinder, a tyvek suit, goggles, and a good dust mask. VERY messy, VERY stinky if your not familar with resin smell you'll never forget it


edit* just a regular wood blade, not reversed

Teetorbilt

scentral, if it smelled really bad, you were burning it. Why the suit? Catylised resin and marble dust won't hurt the bod.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Rich Turley

Ditto on the circular saw. The sidesplashes will probably need some sanding and shaping to fit well. I don't know why this is always the case, the stuff is so expensive! One of my guys took over an hour to fit one splash today. Next time I order one I am going to tell them I want the splash to it and see how that goes.

Rich

PS, use a belt sander to shape.

scentralpirate

I was refering to the dust gets in your nose, hence the smell and we (me and another guy) didn't feel like taking all that crap home on us so having the suits kept our clothes clean from dust. It only took cutting up one sink to realize that this was going to get messy with so many sinks to cut.

and I correct myself there were only 24 sinks not 36...now I cant think of what the 36 was for.

kenvest

certainly a wealth of information - thanks guys

i'm going to cut the old unit with a circular to perfect my technique. i'll probably score the new on like tom suggested just because it makes sense.

i'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

kenvest

fyi - ran into an old freind who's done this and he says to make sure and seal up the cut edges. the stuff he's seen is like a plaster product molded to shape and then covered with some sort of resin to form a hard outer surface. if the plaster subsurface gets wet, it tends to fall apart in his experience.

thanks again!

Teetorbilt

This stuff came out of the 60's and was not made by any major manufacturers for many years so anything is possible. I could understand shooting a clearcoat of some sort and then filling it with some sort of plaster mix, he may well be right.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

mdshunk

I've been around when a few Marblux showers were put in. Big panels of cultured marble. They just used plywood blades in a skil saw, and regular hole saws for the round openings. It does stink like an auto body shop when it's being cut.