Here is the next step in making the concrete countertops.
DDH Ranch supply list:
- Water trough or
- Concrete mixer
- Bagged Concrete
- Fiberglass shavings
- Concrete color
- Concrete vibrator or
- Reciprocating saw
So after the forms are made the next step is to mix the concrete and pour it in the forms, I suggest having people to help you especially if you have a large amount to do. Since I was doing all of the concrete countertops at once there was a lot of concrete to mix. What I decided to do was to mix my concrete by hand, this was a bad idea I suggest renting a mixer if you have a lot to do. What I needed was a container that would hold 100 gallons, so I went and got a water trough which I thought was pretty clever. Then I ended up mixing everything by hand with a shovel I tried a mortar mixer but the concrete is too heavy for that.
First I mixed my dry materials together, this included the bagged concrete, fiberglass pieces for strength, and a concrete color so that it looks nicer than concrete grey. After this is mixed evenly then I started to add water, at this point you need to be ready to pour because you don’t want your concrete to start to set up as you are pouring.
On a side note make sure as well that you have done your calculating correctly for how much concrete you need, I underestimated because I kept forgetting to add my raised bar measurements into the mix. (Probably because it is a different shape) I had to have someone run to the store to get more concrete which led to a little bit of a different color then what I hoped for. So learn from my mistakes and don’t do that.
As you can see above not all of the forms are filled with concrete, some have a filler which is a one-inch piece of foam, these pieces don’t go all the way to the edge of the form and in my case leave 2 inches all around the edge. The reason behind the filler pieces is to cut down on the weight of the counters and it doesn’t hinder the strength of the concrete countertop. Although I chose to do straight concrete in the sink form because of the small amount of concrete on either side of the sink, and it spans over a space for my dishwasher, and my raised bar piece since it will be suspended.
After everything is poured and it is still wet it is very important to vibrate the forms to let the air bubbles out so that you don’t have pin holes in the top of your concrete countertops. This process is very time consuming unless you have a commercial form vibrator but they are expensive or hard to come by to rent. So used a reciprocating saw without a blade on it, if you can get a vibrator it will help a ton.
At this point, you have to just wait for a few days to let the concrete countertops set up and cure before removing the forms and taking them out.
Make sure to read the next step here.
If you have any questions on anything that I did here or if I missed explaining something please post your question in the comments at the bottom of this page and I will do my best to answer them for you!
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