The countertops are done! It was a HUGE challenge and TONS of work. Would I do it again? I really don't know. It was exhausting and stressful, but it saved us tons of money doing it ourselves. We used the brand Surecrete and I am glad we did. They have made working with this type of concrete so much easier! Here's the process...
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| Forming the countertop. |
We used melamine and styrofoam for our forms and poured them upside down. Big C was so precise with the sink hole that it fits perfectly! I was (and am) super impressed. He traced the shape of the sink onto a piece of styrofoam and then spackled the edges and then taped them with clear packing tape to make them ultra smooth. Then caulked the seams everywhere to create a bit of a rounded edge on the corners. After that, I treated all the surfaces with olive oil.
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| Big C mixing the special ingredients. Very important! |
We chose to do hand pressed countertops because of the textural quality of the end result. It was by far my favorite type of concrete countertops when I researched them. Big C mixed the concrete about the thickness of silly putty and then you press handfuls into place.
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| Our island countertop form. The cut out in this form is for our stove. |
After the concrete is dry, Big C mixed up a different colored slurry (in our case, a dark gray), and filled in all the holes and gaps left by the putty-like cement. I creates a beautiful texture! He then wet sanded it and slurried/sanded again 2 more times.
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| He put a piece of plywood on the underneath side so that he could save space on material and weight. |
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| Thank goodness for in-town family! They came over and helped us put in our countertops. They're a little heavy. |
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| My countertop with the undermount sink. I LOVE IT! |
Now we need to seal them and they are ready to go!
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