Can anything be done about water ingress at join in laminate worktop?

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Just noticed that, where there is a join in the worktop near my sink there is a small raised area - about 2 inches long, but not very high. Clearly water is starting to get in and I want to stop it getting worse.

The worktops, which are laminate, were only fitted just over a year ago, by B&Q. The kitchen is under guarantee for 5 years but there's a proviso about looking after worktops properly and not allowing water to sit on them. The join is only about a foot away from the sink so it's inevitable that, water will splash onto the worktop there and may not get wiped up for a while.

We used to have wooden worktops which were a nightmare and used to swell considerably at that point but there's really no way of avoiding a join at that particular point. I thought the laminate looked really neat but I don't want to have to replace it so quickly.

I'll give B&Q a ring but in the likely even that they wriggle out of doing something, is there anything I can do myself to stop the problem getting worse?

No help sorry but I have a similar problem and I'd be interested in the replies.

I've had exactly the same thing happen with a laminate worktop join and it wasn't because of standing water, it's because it isn't a great idea to have an unprotected join: every time you wipe it down, moisture gets in.

Interestingly we have a join close to the sink now, but there's a joining strip and while the strip does not give such a clean look, there's no swelling and the worktop has been there for at least 10 years.

Well, the man from B&Q came to have a look and said the problem might have been caused by heat from the (rarely used) microwave standing six inches away from the join ....

But a couple of hours after he'd gone, I had a call from B&Q to say they were ordering new worktops for me and would be back to refit them!

I'm starting to wish we'd gone with something other than laminate now though as I don't want the same problem to happen again (the join is also about a foot away from the sink so difficult to keep dry).

We have a similar problem. I'm thinking of sealing it with a tiny bit of clear silicone sealant. No idea if that will work.

That's what DH wanted to do Banana but the man from B&Q didn't suggest it as an alternative. He said the joins aren't waterproof which makes you wonder what they expect to happen when one is near a sink. When he comes back I'll ask about the silicone.

I'll be interested to know what the B&Q man says!