Concrete Countertops

From crushed liquor bottles to melted bits and jelly beans, aggregate made from recycled glass is making artisans see green.

For as long as he can remember, Joshua Thiel has had a passion for creating and building while also finding innovative solutions to problems. After going to school for mechanical engineering and spending years fabricating and learning how to work with different materials, it seemed like a natural fit to dive into concrete.

Of the Concrete Decor Show’s top 35 most-attended courses, some topics emerged that were more popular than all the others. First on the list are countertops, followed by polymer overlays and coatings, and polishing concrete.

As for Hileman’s original vision of using actual coco logs in construction, remember “termites” and realize it is nice to fool Mother Nature — and human guests — in the name of maintenance.

Forms serve many functions beyond simply containing the concrete. The formwork defines the precision and, to some extent, the quality of the casting. Well-made forms create straight lines, fair curves and right angles and lead to easy, effortless installation.

Summertime brings challenges to almost everyone in the concrete industry. Heat and humidity can turn an ordinary job into a frantic scramble.

To sample just a few of the flavors of decorative concrete that can be found in the newest restaurants, follow us to Modesto, Calif., San Diego, Calif., Covington, La., and St. Louis, Mo.

With a specific look in mind, the client approached us to create a singular look out of concrete for his kitchen island and tops, powder room sink, master bath vanities, floor and shower base, as well as vanities in the second bath, laundry and lower level wine bar.

When asked how Gore Design Co.'s two (and soon to be three) integral sink molds set themselves apart in the marketplace, Gore Design principal Brandon J. Gore says it's a matter of timeliness.

Imagine homeowners having the choice of covering their walls with paint, wallpaper, tile - or concrete panels 1/4 inch thin. Or new homes built with precast modular exterior walls up to 20 feet high that can be manufactured off-site and snapped in place in a few hours.

Take a look at a few pictures from the winners of the 2010 Concrete Countertop Design Competition.

Every concrete countertop fabricator is after a smooth, clean finish on his or her work, be it a kitchen island, fireplace mantle or sink basin. Achieving a flat, shiny surface often comes down to the type of grinder that's used, and with so many machines on the market, many fabricators can feel overwhelmed by the choices.

The acceptance of glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) has inspired a current trend toward light, thin and delicate concrete furniture.

To illustrate what GFRC can do in furniture form, Jeffrey Girard of The Concrete Countertop Institute describes three projects — a table, a lounge chair and an S chair — that show off the strengths of the material.

Move over marble, granite and engineered composites. With the popularity of concrete countertops on the rise, the time has come for mass-produced precast concrete slabs to enter into the fray.

Concrete-making uses water. Cleaning concrete-covered mixers, tools and buckets uses even more water. Add to that the sludge that’s rinsed out and you’re often left with a big mess. Everyone who makes concrete faces this dilemma: what to do with all that dirty water and gritty sludge.

Counter-Flo Concrete Countertop Admixture, an admixture from Fritz-Pak Corp., is intended to solve that problem. It’s a water reducer designed for use when creating concrete countertops and statuary. It helps concrete maintain an adequate flow rate with less water, allowing a contractor to lower the amount added to a mix.

From day one, we put a lot of thought into the covers for each issue of Concrete Decor magazine. Because it isn’t available on newsstands, we don’t have to try to appeal to the average grocery shopper standing in line, but we definitely want our cover images to be attention-grabbing.

Think of your concrete countertop business as a bucket you fill with water. You try to make as many sales as possible (in other words, put in lots of cups of water). You try to keep your price as high as possible and do large projects (use large cups). But if the bucket is leaky, all of your efforts are in vain.

The historical structure that now houses the Nashville Dinner Theatre has always attracted attention. During Prohibition times, people slyly used a tunnel in the building to transport alcohol to area nightclubs. Today, it attracts crowds for its dinner shows and performances by local vocalists.

One of the biggest innovations in the concrete countertop grinding and polishing industry has been planetary technology - machines that have multiple grinding heads, allowing fabricators to cover a large radius of material at a time and achieve an extra-flat result.

At first glance, you’d think you were looking at a distinguished upholstered bar done in a style that many attribute to a sofa designed for the fourth earl of Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope (1694-1773), that featured the now iconic buttoned leather look.

We usually don’t post photos of people just goofing around with samples of decorative concrete, but these pieces are wild.

The craftsman responsible is Richard DiGiacomo, owner of Europa Artisans Academy, in Phoenix, Ariz. He’s currently living and working in Wailuku, Maui.

Pennsylvania artist Robert Stadnycki has excelled in a number of media: textiles, painting, furniture. Last year, he tried decorative concrete for the first time, collaborating with SunWorks, Etc. LLC to craft three countertops in his distinctive style for a kitchen.