Concrete Countertops

Well I finally got around to pouring my concrete countertops for my grills. Brick work has been done for a couple weeks now.

Started with half inch hardie board glued in place. Screwed counter top forms to that, taped all corners, edges, and gaps.

Then cut some left over hog panel to fit the layout.

Poured concrete from mixer into bucket, smashed into edges and corners. Leveled and first of many workings with the magnesium trowel.

Pure greatness.

More magnesium trowel work.



And the back side. Will have a Japanese maple planted there and some hydrangeas.

Japanese maple will root and bust the slab if too close. They are drought tolerant for a reason.

It will be about 5 feet from any foundation. I’ve never had one get large enough to concern me. It will have to go down 2 feet to get under the slab.

Looks great , should last a lifetime

Nice work

Well done sir! Looks great!

A few dumb questions.

Are the forms metal or plastic?
If plastic, Do you break away the forms when set?
If metal, Are they the finished edge or? how do you prevent rapid rusting?

Did you use an expansion joint where the countertop meets the wall & pillar brick?

Plastic. After about 24-48 hours you can snap off the edges.

No expansion joint other than a few layers of duct tape to cover minor gaps.

After 48 hours I will sand and polish the top and sides, then in a few days I will seal it.

following

I need a foundation poured. Do you travel?

Looks dang good.

Yes I travel, however my concrete work stops at about 200 sq ft slabs and sidewalks. Anything much bigger than that and you need a crew and I’m a horrible director when it comes to telling somebody what to do.

A job well done.

Are you going to stain it ? or leave natural color?

After sanding and polishing, I will evaluate. More than likely leave it natural and seal it.

I almost ran the edge tool around the perimeter and the hand groover in a diagonal tile pattern, but decided to keep it simple.

Looks professional. Mine looks like crap compared to yours.

Looks great. You got skills.

Hardly.

Here’s the results after popping the trim loose. I was slightly aggravated at the company I bought the forms from. The guy I dealt with was apparently not well versed in this product and didn’t sell me the correct stuff. The outer edges popped off just as expected, however the cutouts had to be cut with a Dremel tool because they were designed to be left in place. I will finish the cutouts with a grinder, and once the grills are inserted you will never see it. The outer edges are super smooth, while the top has a very concrete rough finish. I’m particularly thrilled about this and this is what I generally pour them upside down in a mold to achieve the same finish on all surfaces. Thursday I will be sanding everything to match.

In this photo you will see a little notch on the leading corners, that is to allow the grill to sit flush against the face of the brick. That was achieved by cutting foam blocks and wrapping in duct tape, they popped right out after curing.

Looking good....

What do you plan to seal it with?

Looks good

X2

Irony know what it’s called. I bought it at Lowes, opened my truck door and it fell out, landed on the lid and it broke, poured all over my driveway. I really liked the end result of it, so I’ll buy more and use that.

The first concrete countertop I saw was at my grandpas place in the 1950's. it was in an old ranch house, nothing fancy just smoother over concrete. The next one was in a ranch house in Kansas that was the hunter's bunkhouse, about the mid 1980's. Last one was a patio setup in New Mexico, it was stamped to lpok like flagstone. andit was .stained to mimic flagstone. The others impressed me, even as a kid, but the last one a knockout.

I’ve done them stamped to look like flagstone and put the powdered die in the mold before pouring the concrete, it looked good, although not as natural as we had hoped as the color reacted with the concrete differently than expected.

We also poured over crushed colored glass. Had to do some sanding after popping the mold loose but it looked cool.

Also poured one for outdoor use that was 4 inches thick 3x5. Laid foam in the middle like a river. Poked about 200 strands of fiber optics through it. Once cured, the owner had a glass blower form the river with blue and green colored glass and at night the fiber optics would make the river come to life.

Still working on this. Between a shift change, bad weather, a sick kid, I find myself as usual falling behind schedule.

Worked the surface with 80, 220, and 320 grit sand paper on a DA sander. Came out very smooth and nice. Tomorrow, if everything goes as planned, I will seal it.

Here you can see the sanded part on the left.



Added a plug for the grill lights.

thats going to finish nice and last longer than you . I would like to do something like that in the future. Like the updates

Looks great

Grill is in and working great.

Top sealed....