Concrete Countertops

As most of you probably gathered, Jay and I are making our own concrete countertops for our kitchen. We attended a weekend-long workshop at Yestermorrow in Vermont this summer and learned the process. Well, the time has come! I'm tired of washing our dishes in the bathroom sink, and am very much looking forward to a countertop in the kitchen as well as a dishwasher. Last weekend we did our first piece of countertop-- photos to follow.

The prep for the whole process is quite time-consuming. We decided to start with a free-standing piece (a stand-alone countertop that is the espresso/coffee bar). The process: measure cubic inches of the space (we did 1.5" thick countertops), figure out cubic feet, and figure out how much weight (in lbs) the concrete mixture needs to be to adequately fill that space. Once total weight is figured, the total has to be divided into 4 parts: aggregate, sand, concrete (including the weight of the dye-- we used jet black), and water... All those parts need to be weighed out and, once the mold is ready, mixed.

Getting the mold ready was mostly Jay's department, as I'm the calculations guru (apparently). The mold needs to be made on the plexiglass surface, so the whole thing is kind of sandwiched down. The edges of the mold are measured and screwed down into the table to keep the whole thing in place. The table needs to be sturdy enough to hold all of the weight (our first piece was close to 200 lbs, and that's a fairly small piece), and level so that when the piece sets it too is level... The photos help give a better idea. As I mentioned, Jay could give pages of detail about making the mold...