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Concrete Countertops

Started by DWyatt, August 20, 2018, 02:33:20 PM

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DWyatt

Another late night in the garage last night, I got the tops all polished to 200 grit. Just basically taking the cement off from Monday night. They look fantastic and I decided not to put another layer of cement down. 

Here's a couple pictures, mainly focusing on the sink portion as I am so pleased with how the hole for the sink turned out. The "color streaking" that you see is just the water drying that I missed with the squeegee after I cleaned them off for the night.

In the first picture, right side, you can see the corner of the concrete top I made for the bathroom vanity, hopefully getting that installed tonight.



 



 



 


DWyatt

Quote from: ljohnsaw on August 28, 2018, 04:28:37 PM
When you say 50 grit, is that some sort of sandpaper / emery paper or are you using a grit powder?
Here's a picture of the two different kinds of pads, These two are the 1500 (lower) and the 3000 (upper). The 1500 is a wet sanding pad and the 3000 is for dry sanding. All of the wet sanding pads look/feel the same, regardless of the grit, I think it is just different diamond particle sizes. Both are 5" diameter.
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Bill Gaiche

Quote from: DPatton on August 20, 2018, 09:20:43 PM
DWyatt,

This is a great post and it looks as you have done a very nice job with your concrete tops so far. I'm looking forward to seeing the dying process with final color and texture. Please continue to share your progress. Concrete tops can be very beautifully done and I think you have made a great choice that you will be proud of for years to come.

On a side note you said you ruled out Formica or plastic laminate tops because you wanted an undermount sink. Several years back a sink manufacturer called "Karran" started producing undermount sink systems for installation in plastic laminate tops. Their sink system is installed directly under the laminate creating a unique, flush, lipless, drip edge installation. Like you price was a driving factor for me when I remodeled my kitchen five years ago. I chose the Karran undermount sink in a high definition plastic laminate top and have not regretted my decision.
Thanks again for your post and good luck with completing your new tops.
I also did the Karran installation on my kitchen sink. Under mount sink is costly but well worth it. Looks nice and love the smooth transition from counter top right into the sink with no lip. Overall cost was way less than anything else besides concrete. I would do the same thing again if I had it to do over.

DWyatt

Sorry to leave everyone hanging, I finally got the counters installed last night. I had several issues with the finish I used due to the humidity and heat lately that resulted in me having to repolish the finish to remove the roller marks. I was definitely not happy about that and will not be using that product on ventures in the future as I have to do a couple repairs now that the counters are installed. However, the distributor has been very helpful with providing a solution that should be pretty easy to accomplish.

Also, after testing the polishing dye that I had planned to use, I decided against using it. The dye just gave a very fake color look and took away from the richness of the concrete. The dye would be great for decorative finishes where you had a design highlighted with bright colors, but in the end it just wasn't the look I was going for.

I will try to remember to get a couple more pictures tonight, finished up installing around 10 last night and just took one quick picture. Overall I am very happy with them and this winter more will be made 8)
 


 

Crusarius

That looks really good. Are you going to add a backsplash? Is that going to be concrete?

DWyatt

I started off planning to do a concrete backsplash, but I think I'm going to put up some tile. Since I ended up not staining the concrete, I need some color. Also planning on doing a dark stain on the doors/drawer fronts rather than painting them grey.

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