The top quality fiberglass rodding that you’ll find on our site is made by trusted name brands like Tenax to ensure that you get the absolute best quality and performance. Fiberglass rodding is very lightweight, yet extremely strong, durable, and recommended by the Marble Institute of America for use when reinforcing stone slabs. At DeFusco Industrial Supply we stock fiberglass rodding in different widths and in rolls of varying lengths, at discounted prices.
Adding rodding to your stone slabs is a cheap and easy way to increase the strength of your natural stone slabs that may break while being transported from your shop to your job-site, think of it as an insurance policy. Although rodding is not required in all stone slabs, we highly recommend that you imbed rods into slabs used for undermount sinks, self-rimming sinks if you make the cutout before installation, pieces with cook top cutouts, all large pieces, any piece that will have a overhang, and any stone that is brittle or already has a fissure in it. Please note, just because you rodded a piece of stone does not mean it cannot be broken.
Rodding stone works the same way as rebar works in concrete and provides extra protection against breakage. Rodding allows you to strengthen a piece of stone by reinforcing it will a rod and epoxy glue. Traditionally, you would include a rod in the backside of your stone slab about one and half inches from the front edge and one inch away from the back edge. In order to do this, you have to cut a grove in the stone slab the entire length of the stone. After you cut your slot, you must vacuum and clean it out to remove all of the dust particles that were created.
Now that you have a slot, its time to cut your rodding to the correct length and rough it up with a coarse grit abrasive in order to ensure that the glue can get a good grip on it. Make sure that your rod will fit within your slotting groove without having to be forced. If you have to force it into place you will create added strain on the stone and minimize the glues ability to properly hold the rod. Make sure your stone and rod are dry and then apply your properly mixed epoxy glue. Insert your rods into their slots and remove any excess epoxy that is forced out. Set the stone aside and allow the epoxy to dry. Once dry, you can grind down the any epoxy that did not get removed while the epoxy was still wet. Your stone is now rodded and has the strength to withstand the bumpy journey to your job-site.
