Clever Repairmen

Our kitchen benches are made of stainless steel and have developed a patina after nearly 13 years of use. Several weeks ago my husband went to plug in our toasted sandwich maker and it shorted causing a huge spark that came out and burnt a hole in the bench (no husband was harmed in the making of this story!)

This was incredibly annoying as I didn't want the hassle of the waste of replacing a whole benchtop. My husband spoke to a friend who works with stainless steel sometimes and he said it was unlikely that it could be repaired so we'd either have to choose to live with it or make an insurance claim to get it replaced. I decided I was going to exhaust all avenues before we decided to do that so I did some research on the internet and found some places that might be able to help. I sent off emails and only heard back from 2 places - one didn't do that sort of thing and the other one said they could attempt to repair it but there were no guarantees they could so we may still have needed to make an insurance claim and get a whole new bench. He pointed out that the other issue with this was that one bench would then look brand new while the other one had the 13 year patina - not something I really wanted to have!

        

The man came yesterday with his welding equipment and in 15 minutes he had it fixed to the point where you can hardly see where it was. I am delighted and so glad I took the time to research and and find someone to try and fix it. It looks so much better!

        

Hopefully the repair bill won't be too big but it should definitely be less than the insurance excess and the subsequent increase in premiums. And no hassle of replacing the bench which is worth so much to me!