“The Dark Side” – Black countertops for exteriors
Black is in! These beautiful black countertops project was for a Dallas home undergoing extensive remodeling. At first all they had wanted us to do was apply a microfinish overlay to some of the flooring inside the house but once they realized that we also build concrete countertops they wanted us on board right away!
Our Dallas homeowner was looking for something striking that would really jump out at you and black countertops was just what they wanted. After we wrapped up the floor project we immediately went to work on building molds on top of the grill area and around the fireplace hearth. It was our standard, cast in place concrete countertops and the work went smoothly in spite of the hive of remodeling activity going on all around us.
Normally working with other subcontractors at the same time isn’t a problem because everyone knows that we are all trying to get our work done in a timely fashion and that we need to respect each other’s work. Sometimes, however, this doesn’t end up being the case.
We poured our black countertops and stayed late in the evening trowelling the surface to make it as smooth as possible then hung up plastic sheeting all over to make sure nobody would put anything on them because some contractors get in very early in the morning. They looked great when we left that night.
Imagine our surprise when we returned to our Dallas worksite the next day to find the plastic torn down, pieces of drywall just sitting on the countertops, and masonry mortar splattered all about. It was not a pretty scene, especially when everybody denied any involvement. Fortunately our black countertops were not damaged, they had dried and hardened sufficiently so the abuse didn’t leave any marks.
After some minor touchups, which weren’t out of the ordinary, we applied a polyurethane sealer to the black countertops to protect them from staining. This may or may not be your thing depending on your tastes. Polyurethane sealers are excellent for stain resistance. Almost nothing will penetrate them and stain the normally porous concrete but it comes at the cost of a creating a high gloss surface. Normally, especially in an outdoor situation, the gloss will matte out a little after a while but usually at the start it will have a high shine on it as you can see in these pictures.
Our Dallas homeowner loved them! Black countertops can really dress up an area and between the cabinets and the thicker fireplace hearth countertops the final effect was pretty stunning. It was a pretty exciting project for us too, especially with what the other subcontractors had dumped on our countertops, but the final effect was well worth it.
