Kitchen Bench Top Finish

[Chris Parks]

I am planning a kitchen build and want to use some 40mm thick furniture grade pine I have for the bench tops. As it is a soft timber I thought of using an epoxy finish such as West Systems but I am unsure if it will give a good result and how durable it will be. My wife does a lot of cooking & baking so it will see a fair amount of use so is this a good idea or not?

[John TenEyck]

The old guys always said not to put a hard finish over a soft substrate, as it will lead to cracking when it gets dinged. If you want to use the pine, I think you should consider a non-film finish, something like Rubio Monocoat. If you're set on a film finish, then maybe a flexible epoxy like G-flex would work. Your other option is to use a harder wood, like maple, etc.with regular epoxy.

John