Concrete countertops
I'm giddy just thinking that I will have real countertops
installed in the next couple of weeks.
Nick and his dad have made great progress. I'm sure Nick will explain
the process in more detail when he's recovered from all the work this week.
After measuring and making templates, they built the molds. To create the
bullnose on the edge, they used pvc pipes that they cut. Here they are putting together
the last of the molds.
Nick ended up buying a grinder for this, but we rented a
concrete mixer and concrete vibrator the day they poured the concrete. Here is
one of the molds with the rebar ready to go, and then the concrete being put
in.
While they cured for a few days, Nick and his dad worked on
the cabinet trim in the kitchen (I'll post about that later in the week).
Today was the big day- the countertops came out of the
molds. They all look great & the only imperfection that needs to be ground
out is on the underside of the overhang of one of the counters. The counter
tops will be ground and then polished using 50 grit, all the way to 800 grit
sandpaper during the process. As they are ground down, the color darkens a bit
and the aggregate is exposed. Right now they look like stone.
They started with the hose on low, and have now shifted to
using a full bucket of water that has a small hole in the bottome to drip water while they are grinding. It seems to be
working well.