The edge
The edge is where protection is won or lost.
Every protective film has to end somewhere. The question is where — and it's the one question most installers would rather you didn't ask.
Cutting the film on top of the benchtop is the fast way. It's also the compromise.
One person, one blade, an afternoon. Trim the film to the stone's edge and the job looks finished.
It leaves two things behind — and you won't see either until you're living with them.
A seam on the surface. The film terminates in the open, on the plane you touch, wipe and rest things on. A fingernail can find it. A cloth can catch it. Given a few years of daily use, that's where lifting starts.
An unprotected edge. The film covers the top. The profile — the arris, the mitre, the bullnose — is left as bare stone. And the edge is the most exposed part of a benchtop there is.
The common wayFilm cut flush on the surface — a seam you can feel, and the edge left as bare stone.
We wrap over the edge and finish underneath.
One person works the film across the surface. A second receives it beneath the edge and seats it home against the underside of the bench. It uses more film. It takes longer. It needs two sets of hands.
The termination sits under the lip — out of sight, out of reach, out of contact.
There's no seam on the surface you touch. No exposed stone on the most vulnerable part of the bench. Nothing for a cloth, a nail or a spill to catch and lift. It's the difference between a film that's still there in ten years and one that starts peeling at a corner in year three.
It's the part of a benchtop you actually touch.
- Your hip
- The edge is at standing height. It's what you lean on and brush past a hundred times a day.
- The dishwasher door
- Swings out and clips the edge of the bench above it, again and again, for years.
- A dropped bottle
- Wine, oil, a jar — the edge takes the knock on the way down before anything hits the floor.
- Stools and chairs
- Pulled in and out against an island edge, every meal.
Protecting the top and stopping at the edge protects the part nobody was worried about, and leaves bare the part that takes the most punishment.
Not every edge takes a wrap.
Some profiles won't accept the film cleanly. Heavily undercut edges and certain shark-nose profiles are the usual ones.
A wrap that won't seat properly is worse than no wrap — it's a lifting corner waiting to happen. So when a profile won't take it, we tell you at the quote, not on installation day.
We'd rather lose the line than leave you with an edge that fails. That's the same reason we do the wrap in the first place.
Ask anyone quoting you how long they'll be there.
A small kitchen we can do in a day; anything with large or many surfaces takes longer, because wrapping the edge needs two people and can't be rushed. Film cut on top is quicker for a reason. The answer to that one question tells you where the film ends.
Send us a photo of your edge profile.
We'll tell you honestly whether it wraps — before you commit to anything.
Get a quote