Yesterday I was finally able to install the first section of concrete counter top in my kitchen. There are two sections total in my kitchen and since I had never done a concrete counter top before, I figured I would start with the small section first, the easier, and then tackle the big one that includes a cutout for a sink. Personally (and I don't know what made me think this), I thought making a concrete counter top was going to be much easier than it turned out to be. I had read a book on how exactly to make the counter top, modified it here and there to suit my needs, and began. From the outset, it turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. It wasn't so much the actual work that was technically difficult, there were just a lot of little details that needed to be paid attention to in order for everything to work out smoothly. To start with, you need to build an extra strong base on which to pour the counter top as concrete is a very heavy material. That part is fairly easy, just a little time consuming. Then comes the form. This is where measuring eight times and cutting once becomes extremely valuable because if you screw up a measurement, you can't exactly trim an eight inch very easily off of a slab of concrete. Once you get the measurements down, though, it moves along. To do it properly, you use 3/4" melamine (particle board with a smooth laminate finish on two sides) screw it all together, and silicone caulk the inside edges. Still sound fairly simple right?
Well, on to the rebar, which are pieces of steel embedded into the concrete to add strength and prevent cracking. With the rebar, you use half inch steel around all the edges set about an inch in, and then you use a four inch grid to cover the rest. You tie all this together with wire and suspend halfway through the form with wire that goes up and over the edges of the form. (By the way, the counter top is two inches thick for ease of operation, any thinner and it would be difficult to get the rebar just right, any thicker and it would be really, really heavy.) For our counter top, we put in some accent pieces of blue and green glass. We glued it lightly to the bottom of the form (which will be the top of the counter) and once the rebar, glass, and form were set to go, we poured the concrete. Since the first section was small and only required two bags of concrete, I decided to mix the concrete by hand instead of renting a mixer. Not horrible, but definitely tiring. Then the concrete goes into the form, gets leveled off, and then vibrated to help it all settle down properly. Your supposed to use a concrete vibrator which gets inserted into the wet concrete, but I didn't feel like renting one so I used my vibrating sander on the exterior of the form and it worked out pretty well. Once all that is done, you cover it will plastic and let it cure for at least four days, occasionally spritzing the concrete with water and then recovering with plastic. Then comes the exciting and hard part, de-molding the counter top. It only gets hard if you are attempting it by yourself, which I did. Once it is out of the mold and flipped over, the polishing begins. You use diamond grit pads, with water, and work your way up from either 50 or 100 grit to 400. After four hundred grit has been used, you fill in all the air holes that were left from the pouring with slurry (I used grout as you would for tile), let it set and then start with 400 grit and work up to either 1500 or 3000. Then you seal it to prevent staining, wax it to protect the sealer and make it shiny, and install it.
What a process, I know, and it took about two and a half weeks to get it all done. But despite all the hard work, I couldn't be more excited at the end result. It really does come out looking as smooth as granite or marble, and the overall cost is much less in the end. Supplies probably cost me around $200 including wood for the base, form, rebar, and concrete. I'd say it was pretty good. The finished counter top is 2" thick, 41" long, and 26" deep. Not an enormously large counter top, but it weighs in at 180 lbs. To see picture of the finished product (minus the wax, which is in the mail right now) go to my Facebook page and check it out. (The page has public access so everyone should be able to get a glimpse of the counter top). So in the end, I would only recommend someone tackling a concrete counter top if they have had some experience in construction. Without even a little experience, I feel the counter top would be extremely hard for an average person to handle on their own. But by all means, if you want to get a book, read up on it, and do it yourself, then I wish you the best. For me, however, I now need to get started on the large section of our counter top which is about 10' long and will probably weigh in excess of 500 lbs. The hard part with that section will be the knockout for the sink (rigid styrofoam insulation) and the overall weight of it all when it gets flipped over and consequently installed. I will definitely need at least 4 or 5 friends to help me out with it. Guess I better pick up the phone and make some calls. In any case, I needed to talk about my counter top today because I am really excited at how it turned out. Till tomorrow, get your hands dirty and enjoy the day!
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