apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It looks great! I wish we would've done that. We have bamboo counters, and they are a pain- very fragile.

counters are gorgeous.
but i secretly just love the simple dishes.
are those crate and barrel?

This looks awfully complicated and expensive. Obviously it's a great accomplishiment to say you've done it yourself, but why in the world wouldn't you let a professional do this? This is a place where I would say "money well spent" to have it done quicly and properly by a specialist.

Very brave..Really best to hire someone highly recommended. I rep a precast concrete line best of both worlds because its made then you or millwork contractor installs. Not all concrete is created equal. I hand it to you for the doing this yourself.

pretty awesome!


HTTP://WWW.DUSKIN-NY.BLOGSPOT.COM

i for one am gobsmacked. what an amazing job you did! and thanks for showing us how it's done.

Concrete, if done by a pro, are just as pricey as granite. My hubby is a civil engineer and I am hoping he can pull some strings to have some contractors (who normally pour roads) do ours. Soooo pretty and it feels so clean and organic to me.

there's also two great books called cheng concrete countertops (or something to that effect) that are positively awesome. really great job!

wow the concrete looks amazing! wonderful job!

i love concrete, but i've researched the diy-ability of concrete... and i think after all i've read i'd still have to leave it to the professionals. there are so many problems that can occur in making the countertops and i'd hate to spend money and waste lots and lots of time on something that could come out with lackluster results- not to mention you never really know how they will look a year after they were finished due to cracking etc.

Dishes, yes Crate and Barrel. Cafeware II. Still available but the bowls are a different shape now. Look in the outlet.

And then, um, not complicated, not expensive. "Professional" concrete coutntertop fabricators charge from $100 a SQUARE FOOT and up, or at least that was the going rate in 2005-6. I cast approximately 110 sq. ft of countertop for around $1000, about half of which went to carbon fiber reinforcement mesh and the tools. I still have at least half a roll of C-grid left and of course, the tools and pads. So, at the very least, I saved $9000. Yes, I said NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Besides, leaving things to a "professional" is boring, and IMO the contractors worth your dime in any trade are few and far between.
If you can read a book and do a little research, follow a recipe and are willing to get dirty and experiment a bit (and you have the space...bonus for being in a climate where you can work outdoors), this is do-able.

And the assumption you'll actually get it done "quickly and properly" for your 9k... that might actually be a touch optimistic, for me.

Hi SPLT,
Here in MN too in the summers winters in NY, anyway questions:
what was the concrete made of bagged? or hired a truck etc.. What was the mixture?
Were the molds topside up, or topside down? meaning is it more important to get the exposed sides perfect or are they the bottoms of the countertops?

splatgirl has been a steady source of inspiration for me since I discovered her blog (through AT of course). I also love her side site "Creates" where she demonstrates her creative prowess in the food arena--which is right up my alley.

Anyhow, when building my entertainment nook I decided to create a work surface out of poured concrete after getting excited about seeing splatgirl's diy concrete work.

I'll say that if you have a very basic working knowledge of cutting wood and screwing/nailing things together, you can do it. To me, creating the form is the hardest part.

One lesson that I learned is, if possible, pour the forms in place rather than pouring inverted forms. By pouring in place you can trowel the surface to make it smooth, by inverting, you run the risk of getting visible air bubbles--like I did. But, depending on the look, the bubbles are not so bad, they lend character to the piece.

Forgive me if this may have been mentioned in the post but last year, Quikrete was in the process of finishing up a new concrete mix specifically for poured countertops.

Here's the pics of my little countertop:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/829822164/in/set-72157603018898056/

and the countertop in place:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/1874086992/in/set-72157603018898056/

thanks splatgirl!

I poured my own concrete slab for a table i made. When you tent the concrete you should leave some room above it (make an actual tent shape) for the moisture to circulate a little.

Also, if you place the curing slabs on a metal table or something held above the floor and clamp something that vibrates onto it and leave it on overnight it will cause the concrete to settle more and eliminate most of the need for filling. Additionally, you can add *literally* anything (metal flakes, glass, recycled plastic, stainless steel pieces) into the concrete mixture and it will show up in random places on the surface. It makes it more difficult to polish the results, but it can look amazing.

I used bagged quickcrete 5000 with water reducer and microfibers added. Any of the Cheng books are a good resource for designing your mix and everything else concrete counters.

Art is right (yo Art!) in that building and prepping the molds is the hardest part. Not that it's hard, it's just tedious and time consuming compared to the rest of the project. The rest is just messy and heavy.
I disagree, however, about casting the slabs in place vs. moulding them. The molding method has much more flexibility and is the only way to get something beyond just a plain, flat slab, and it doesnt' depend on finishing skill to get a nice usable surface. Even a poorly poured and troweled slab from a melamine mould will be very, very smooth, requiring only minimal polishing, whereas your skill, or lack thereof, with a trowel on a cast-in-place slab can mean hours and hours of wet grinding while trying not to ruin whatever the slab is sitting on...

And yes, if you can form your slabs on an elevated surface that allows them to be vibrated from below, do that (if your goal is a more consistent, uniform look). As my photos show, my slabs ended up with lots of voids that needed filling. I love the look, but it is more work.

Wow, I think it looks AMAZING! My husband and I plant to do this ourselves as well, so this was very exciting to see! I'll be linking to this in the Weekend Roundup.

will trial this for our garage counter's so that when i re-do the kitchen i'm ready. :)