• HOME
• NEWER
• OLDER

concrete kitchen countertop

2004 - I've been fascinated with concrete ever since high school when I discovered and became enamored by Frank Lloyd Wright's use of the material. Prior to this project my experience with concrete was confined to pouring a number of simple table bases and end tables for myself and a few friends. This countertop was a significant step up in complexity and effort, but as this was would be for my own kitchen I felt comfortable rolling the dice.

After spending a month constructing the curved retaining wall form and triple checking all elements I narrowly managed to avoid catastrophe. My friend Pete and I had just finished shoveling almost a ton of concrete into the form when I inserted a vibrating stinger into the concrete in order to compact it. The form wasn't sturdy enough for the earthquake-like liquification caused by the vibration and it almost immediately blew out at the bottom.

Not wanting to break up and haul away a ton of concrete we quickly attached several wood blocks to the floor to shore up the form, but not before it had already been displaced on one side by several inches. Fortunately I was able to turn lemons into lemonade through the application and sculpting of additional concrete after the form was removed. My family now says the wall has "character."

The countertop itself was poured in situ into a monolithic form that took another week to build. It is 3 inches thick, reinforced with a rebar grid and, because of the weight, required extensive reinforcment of the cabinetry. After the concrete cured I wet-ground it with a series of diamond-impregnated sanding discs to expose the aggregate. Note to all; the process of wet-grinding is very messy work. Anything within 20 feet of a perpendicular line of the surface will be covered in mud. Rolls of plastic and a wet-vac are musts!

Cooking is a hobby of mine and this countertop has been fantastic for rolling out doughs, pastas and pastries directly on the finish. It is impossible to damage with heat from hot pans and normal kitchen use so it looks as good today as it did when it was first completed. Overall, I score this a good first effort, but were I to do it over I would stick with a trowled, rather than ground, finish.