Concrete countertops sound kind of far-fetched. Imagine a large mass of concrete sitting on your kitchen cupboards looking like a garage floor. Actually, concrete countertop are quite beautiful in their own right if properly done and installed. In the kitchen? Indeed, in the kitchen, for a most unusual focus for the heart of your home.
Your kitchen needs to be a highly functional space with lots of room to work your culinary magic and a concrete countertop is becoming an increasingly popular choice for countertop materials.
Let’s face it, these days the kitchen is the true center of the home, not the family room or dining room. More and more activities are taking place in the kitchen – from cooking to entertaining, and even playtime or a place for hobbies. A concrete countertop is far more functional than you may be giving it credit for, and far more beautiful than you might think. If you are using concrete kitchen countertops, consider putting raised strips of metal cast in the countertop to support pots and pans near the sink and cooking area.
Concrete kitchen countertops with metal strips help protect against abrasion. With concrete, you can also integrate a drain board into your kitchen countertop to maximize food preparation and create a beautiful one-piece seamless look.
Now you might be wondering how to make concrete countertops, a sort of do it yourself concrete countertops project. You have a couple of choices to make if this is something you are going to do on your own. For typical concrete counter DIY, the top is either pre-cast or built right on site. So, if learning how to make concrete countertops is on your list of home renovations, then now’s the time to start some research.
If you want to pre-cast, you’ll need to do this under controlled conditions, cure it properly and make sure it is adequately sealed. Although you can opt to do this on site, you may find it to be a bit more challenging. A few other things you’ll find out when you go to build concrete countertops are: they’re made of cement, lightweight aggregates and a combination of additives such as fiber reinforcement or even acrylic. Another tip about how to build concrete countertops is to use more than one further reinforcement, such as structural steel, wire mesh or fiberglass. Then, remember to cure it, grind it and seal it.
Concrete countertops how-to instructions also advise that when properly colored and finished, a concrete countertop should look like natural stone or a solid-surface material – not a sidewalk or garage floor. If you’re serious about the business of concrete countertops making your home a unique place to be, then you’ll enjoy working out the details of what to do to enhance your kitchen’s appeal.
If by chance you already have a concrete countertop in your kitchen and you want to spiff it up, you can quite easily by resurfacing it. How? By using a concrete countertops modified overlay – or to be more precise, resurface with a polymer-modified overlay system. It can make the concrete look like new again and is relatively inexpensive to boot.
