Usually, concrete countertops have plenty of personality on their own when they are troweled, a process we always do when they are cast in place. The troweling action, which smooths the surface of the concrete, creates lighter and darker areas. It creates these variations in the appearance of the surface as it’s a manual, artisan process.
Where we trowel more, the surface tends to get darker, less, it’s lighter; it’s completely random and just beautiful. This doesn’t happen with precast countertops because they are normally cast upside down with the top of the countertop face molded against a very smooth mold. There is no mechanical agitation of the surface. When we open the mold, we flip the countertop around so that it’s face up. However as this face was not troweled, it’s very smooth and doesn’t have much variation in color or texture.