“Shades of Gray” – How to make a countertop out of concrete
Some of you may think the home in this project looks a lot like the one in a previous project and you would be completely right! Our Glen Rose, TX homeowners loved what we did with their floors and wanted us to show them we knew how to make countertops.
Of course, concrete was the material of choice. They loved the neutral look of a natural gray countertop, so after a little hiccup at the start (see below), we went right to work building a mold on the cabinets they had installed after we had finished acid staining their floors.
The first day of our “how to make a countertop out of concrete” project started off on the wrong foot as they got a short spell of rain the day before we arrived. Usually, this is no big deal, but the only access to the house was over a long and narrow dirt trail. I tried to get my little station wagon up there but didn’t get too far; it went in axle deep after the first four feet and almost didn’t come out (Thank goodness we had the Ford F350 around). Even that one was a nail bitter, as it was loaded with two thousand pounds of cement.
My guy pointed the nose down the trail, gunned it, and painted my car from bumper to bumper with a thick, smelly, goopy layer of mud. In the end, it was worth it. He got all the way up the hill and saved us having to unload and hump a ton of cement about a quarter mile to the job site.
After that, things went smoother, and we got down to business. We started by creating a sturdy base for our molds using cement board. We cut it to size and screwed it into place. Next step in our how to make a countertop out of concrete project was to install the edges around the perimeter of the mold. We wrapped up the mold build by dropping the undermount sink back into place, caulking everything so that the wet cement wouldn’t get out, and doing a quick pass with a vacuum cleaner. Of course, it wasn’t quite this easy—it took us about three days to get there, as we had six separate countertops to build out.
The final steps in our “how to make a countertop out of concrete” project was to mix up the cement, pour it in, pack it along the edges, level it, trowel it to smooth it out, and seal it with a water based polyurethane sealer. Voila! The countertops came out spectacularly. Concrete countertops with their richly varied finishes create a beautiful and truly unique centerpiece for any kitchen, bathroom, or exterior area.
