We do have other sealer types available depending on what our clients want. The project pictured above was done at a “Chuy’s” Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth, TX. We first poured a bar countertop and then sealed it with a clear epoxy.
These countertops are in a very tough environment. They have everything from spilled beer to searing hot fajita plates on them, so we used one of the toughest concrete sealers there is to protect them — an epoxy based sealer.
Epoxy sealers will deepen the color of the countertop and usually leave it with a high gloss finish. They are very tough and really protect the concrete from staining and general abuse but they’re the hardest to touchup of all the sealer options.
They normally have two components, a part A and part B, that are mixed together in a specific ratio and through a chemical reaction begin to harden. The trick is to get it all down, smoothed out, bubble free, and looking good before it hardens too much.
Epoxy sealers also have “build,” i.e., they go down much thicker than other types of sealers. It’s this thickness that gives them the really “wet look”. We often apply these in restaurants since they want that deep, spilled water look for their countertops.
A downside to this type of sealer is cost, the material is much more expensive than other options and requires a high level of expertise to put down properly. It can also take a long time to dry between coats.