Finishing Cast In Place Concrete Countertops

Concrete mix produced with northern california aggregate.

Finishing cast in place concrete countertops.

This was fairly easy to do. Then i snapped off the plastic edge forms. Tools i used dur. Smith has some in stainless and some made of fiberglass.

This does require some skill troweling concrete for a flawless finish. Snap the edge forms off of the concrete countertops. The concrete pieces in this guide are made from a 5000 psi. After screeding floating and troweling the countertops i let it sit and harden for about 24 hours.

Tip finishing or polishing concrete countertops using these techniques is done the next day and in some cases 3 7 days after the concrete countertop was poured. This project features a cast in place countertop with an optional terrazzo finish flecked with bits of white marble mother of pearl and cobalt blue glass. Standard mortar mixers wood floats standard trowels etc. This technique of building concrete countertops has some advantages over a precast concrete countertop that is built in a shop and installed after it is completed.

Finishing concrete countertops if you are pouring a concrete countertop in place then troweling the surface smooth by hand is the easiest way to finish the surface. Steps to finish my diy concrete countertops. Normally when casting concrete the cement paste forms a uniform layer on the surfaces of the piece producing a piece that is one solid color with minor variations. I am in the process of building my outdoor bbq island.

Smoothing the concrete mix with a hand trowel is the only technique you will use on the day the countertop is poured. Poured in place concrete countertops also called cast in place concrete countertops are built poured and finished right on top of the cabinets at the jobsite or in your kitchen. This is referred to as a cast finish. This update includes great information on concrete counter tops and concrete forming.

Casting the countertop in place lets you skip both the heavy lifting and the upside down and backward thinking involved in precasting into a mirror image mold. But you ll find a variety of custom made tools as well.