As above, decided I’m renovating my work bench.

It’s 2.6m long so can cut down a 3m worktop if needed.

It currently has a thick piece of marine ply wood on it.

The ply is far from smooth and attracts dust so isn’t easy to wipe down…

I was thinking if replacing it with a piece of kitchen worktop.. but is there anything else worth considering?

could give the ply a sand and a varnish

although i went with laminate flooring from the reduced damaged package section of my local bnq.

takes a beating and comes up like new time and time again .

I got an Ikea solid beech breakfast bar off freecycle and cut it down. I would go with some kind of solid wood kitchen worktop if available.

The good thing about ikea ones is that you can easily search on ebay.

I’ve since bought another off ebay for £20 that was much better wood than I could have got otherwise.

Plywood with a formica or similar plastic laminate on top.

The problem with a worktop is that it will become shabby over time. I would say a couple of layers of marine ply to make a 30-40mm thick surface screwed down with a thin layer of smooth hardboard on top which is pinned down. When the hardboard becomes knackered just pull it up and put another layer down for a couple of ponds.

However I’ve used used some lengths of 4×2 I used to make the bench as the top, my word it’s strong now!

I’d second the ikeas beech stave worktops. Cheap enough if you buy them new and they’ve been about for a long time so plenty of old ones about. A more robust surface and edge than plywood, also a squarer edge than regular chipboard worktops. They’re smoother for keeping clean but not as slick as laminate so work is easier to clamp without slipping about.

All of the above sound good, but I did do the kitchen worktop offcut and it’s worked out fine.

Although to be honest it’s hard to tell as it’s covered with a 6 inch pile of stuff, bits and more stuff patiently waiting for me to tidy it.

Edit. To be more helpful a mate covered his ply workbench with a piece of stainless with the front edge bent down. That seems a really good solution? Not sure of the price though…

To be honest it’s not going to be taking anything heavy duty on it. I’m looking at doing it as to service my forks I’ve ended up putting a sheet if bubble wrap down to keep everything clean. A dip clean surface would have been better.

Terry I quite like your idea of laminate flooring over my existing worktop… but getting it sized right will be a pain in the arse!

I used scaffold boards on mine. Half where I do my bike and fishing bits I sanded down really well until smooth then applied a varnish on to it. Wipe clean if I spill oil etc. on but also was as cheap as chips to do.

Terry I quite like your idea of laminate flooring over my existing worktop… but getting it sized right will be a pain in the arse!

If you want to just keep the board you’ve got and want a robust, wipe clean surface you can get cheap self adhesive floor tiles in B&Q. Just trim them to size with a stanley knife.

Our you can treat the board you’ve got to make it smoother and easier to clean. A few coats of sanding sealer with a sand in between will level off the grain and make it easier to clean. You can get that from Toolstation and it dries really quickly so you can get a few coats and sand-backs done in an afternoon. (and its meths based so you can mix any leftovers with Fanta – chin chin)

I rescued a length of solid wood kitchen worktop from a skip for mine. It works really well.

I picked up an old fire door from gumtree which I made into a bench with it as the top / timber underneath. Think it cost a tenner and it seems tough / reasonably smooth. As it was so cheap I’m not too worried about what gets spilled on it etc.

Easier to cut out laminate for a bench top than flooring a toilet mind 😉

I have a secondhand workbench that is topped with a sandwich of 18mm chipboard, 18mm plywood, and then 6mm hardboard on the top.

Forget the chipboard as thats OTT, but just scrape down the plywood if its not really ragged, and then tack a sheet of the hardboard on top.

Works really well as its shiny/smooth, its sacrificial so you can easily remove and replace in a few years, and if you do anything silly like spill brake fluid or oil all over it, you can replace it at minimal cost.

I used to deliver stuff from Howdens. There’s always a worktop out the back that has been dropped or had the corner nicked by a forklift truck. They sometimes chuck them out if they’ve got multiple scratches or write them off and let them go for cash in the office tea fund. Worth having a snoop around the ‘rear entrance’ of Howdens, Benchmark etc and talking directly to the guy who works the store room, not the front office!

A cheap internal flush fire door works well for a work bench top, can be used with a sacrificial hardboard or ply top too.

My work bench is 50mm planks which came from the pallet base used use to ship a large industrial machine. This was then topped with a wardrobe side panel from the ikea free bin, nice and wipe clean but not that robust. Kept an eye out for a used/free/cheap kitchen worktop. That’s what I have now, on top of the previous layers. It’s hard to see past it really for a cheap reasonably robust wipe clean surface for bike fettling and DIY. Heavy metal working would warrant a more robust top, ie a metal one.

If it gets too damaged I’ll just replace it with similar again. Though I do have a smaller off cut that is used as a sacrificial surface for those odd jobs that are likely to cause damage (cutting/scoring, heavy duty hammering)