Kitchen splashback - acrylic

[Mojooo]

What a pain a simple thing like this is....

I am currently decising on a kitchen splashback.

The options were

1 - fully tiled (don;t wnat grout lines and expensive)

2 - an upstand with paint, acrylic, or tiles

3- glass splashback (expensive)

4 - acrylic splashback

5 - paint (easily damaged)

I have a gas hob and cannot used acrylic behind it so I have decided on a coloured glass splashback and acrylic everywhere else.

Ideally I wanted to find one company that did both so I could select the same colour and it would match - the alternative is that I choose 2 colours.

Now B and Q and Homebase both provide acrylic splashbacks. I have seen that there are also a lot of companies online that will just sell sheets of acrylic for much less.

My queries:

- anyone know any other companies that sell both and acrylic that match

- some sellers of acrylic sell a polished clear edge whereas others recommend using metal edging like you do for tiles. Is the clear look OK?

- differences over whetehr they acrylic should be stuck on with sticky back pads, grab adhesive or screws. Grab adhesive sounds best.

Essentially I will end up with osmething liek this - although thye have a metal splashback

[Simpo Two]

That kitchen is much like mine only a bit bigger.

Acrylic won't stay perfectly flat and could throw odd reflections, so stump up and get glass throughout. If you go to a trade outfit rather than a kitchen company (who simply send it to the trade outfit and mark it up) it's affordable; mine was about £600 in 2008. This is the main bit:

[tr7v8]

I have roughly twice the area of the above with a lot of cut outs & paid £1300 last year fitted in 6mm glass.

[Mojooo]

that is way out of my budget - i figured acrylic would only be £300 max.

I did look into glass but having the cut outs for sockets etc will make it expensive very quickly.

I need about 6m worth in 3 seperate pieces.

[worldwidewebs]

Take a look here: http://expresstoughening.com/content/painted-splas...

I met these guys at a homebuilding show last year and they had some excellent stuff at not-too-ridiculous prices

2000mm x 600mm of coloured toughened splash back glass in 6mm thickness is just over £200. Cut-outs are £19.50 per cut

[RobinOakapple]

Acrylic is shiny but soft, and scratches very easily. Perspex is acrylic so you can experiment with it if you have any of that around the house. If it's all you can afford at the moment I suggest you wait until you can go for proper glass. Get a quote for glass in the meantime so you can see how much you need to save up, it might not be as much as you think.

[kev1974]

I used acrylic 18 months ago from these guys: http://www.acrylic-splashbacks.com/

Got a few samples from them first to help choose the colour, went for a lime green in the kitchen and a turquoise blue in the bathroom.
I was short of time and money so thought I'd just go with the acrylic as a short term thing until I had money for glass or whatever but it still looks brilliant, 18 months on, so that combined with the sheer ease of fitting it means I will never ever tile again and nor will I bother to replace this with glass. If it ever gets scratched I will just replace it.

Had to measure all the panels I wanted and all the socket cutouts very carefully, to millimetre precision, my techie brain helped with that I admit. The panels showed up just a few days later and were cut exactly as I had drawn out, including some massive panels for the bathroom. They come with protective plastic film that you have to remove as you glue it up (well from the wall side anyway, I left the "front" protection on until everything else was done).

I edged them with stainless steel L-shaped trim that you can get from B&Q to go around tiles, it makes it look very smart indeed (helps that the other fittings in this kitchen are stainless steel; you can get white trim as well that might look OK).

The adhesive that the acrylic company supplied was rubbish so I wouldn't get that from them again; even though it was allegedly white/neutral colour adhesive, and even though the panel is translucent, the first panel I stuck up with it you could definitely get a hint coming through of where the adhesive was on the back and any bits that were "missed". So for the rest I went to B&Q and paid out for a truly transparent grab adhesive, all the rest of the panels mounted with that look miles better.

You do need to make sure the wall behind is properly prepared, so smooth and newly/uniformly painted. But I think you would have to take equivalent care if putting up glass splashbacks too.

I think the glass splashbacks may have a slight advantage when it comes to the polished edges, you may get away with no trim, but as I say in my case the very thin stainless steel trim makes the whole thing look stunning. However where acrylic totally wins is if you make a slight mistake with the measuring. I had one bit where I'd put a socket cutout about 2mm wrong, and another bit where two bits joined on an inside corner and I'd not made enough allowance for the adhesive behind. In both cases I was able to quickly and easily use the dremel to shave a touch off. Try doing those tiny adjustments with glass, you just can't.

Oh for the part behind the hob? I went for stainless steel there too. I think it would be too hard to match acrylic and glass to the same colour, they will also have different reflective qualities and possibly a sub-mm thickness difference, and so it will always jar no matter how good the colour match. So I would not attempt to match, I would go down the route of a different colour or material for the hob and just get two that work together and make a feature of it.

Edited by kev1974 on Sunday 31st January 09:56

Edited by kev1974 on Sunday 31st January 09:56

[Simpo Two]

kev1974 said:

You do need to make sure the wall behind is properly prepared, so smooth and newly/uniformly painted. But I think you would have to take equivalent care if putting up glass splashbacks too.

Glass splashbacks have the colour as a layer on the back, so they're opaque and can go over any wall. Mine is natural glass (hence the colour) with a white backing.

[j80jpw]

We manufacture loads of splashbacks, they aren't the cheapest option but very practical and cover poor walls quite easily. We use a specific paint for glass then foil back to ensure nothing shows through from the back and the adhesive doesn't react with the paint over time. (Always apply adhesive in strips so it can cure quickly, blobs or circles don't!)

We also manufacture using low iron (completely clear) glass so the green hue seen in standard float glass doesn't tinge the colour of the paint.

It's is a lot harder to scratch than acrylic and if you have any exposed edges the polished edge of glass looks much better than an acrylic edge. It's a reasonably long process, water jet cutting or cnc cutting then polishing toughening and finally painting. If the painting process isnt perfect first time it's start again from scratch unlike paining anything else.

[sparkythecat]

OP, for the colour match you're looking for, why don't you put acrylic all around and then just overlay some clear glass on top of the bit behind the cooker?

[Mojooo]

sparkythecat said:

OP, for the colour match you're looking for, why don't you put acrylic all around and then just overlay some clear glass on top of the bit behind the cooker?

didnt think of that. i suppose the question is how do you fit the glass over the acrylic as you would see the adhesive?


by the way, i presume you can cut out you own socket holes with acrylic using a multi tool (poor edges covered up by socket anyway) - so another reason for it to be cheaper.

[t2pjr]

Mojooo said:

didnt think of that. i suppose the question is how do you fit the glass over the acrylic as you would see the adhesive?


by the way, i presume you can cut out you own socket holes with acrylic using a multi tool (poor edges covered up by socket anyway) - so another reason for it to be cheaper.

I came across this thread when googling Acrylic splashbacks - What did you go for in the end?

Paul