Concrete Bathroom Countertops
What about concrete bathroom countertops? Yep, we get a lot of calls for these. Here’s a project we did in Dallas, TX. This actually turned into two projects in the same home.
The homeowner liked the first one we installed so much that she called us a few months later to put another one in her daughter’s bathroom. She wanted both to be the same color. I always tell my customers that if we don’t do them all at the same time it’s impossible to get the exact color; we can get close, but not exactly the same. These came out pretty darn close, as you can see in the pictures.
Though these concrete bathroom countertops were built at different times, both were fabricated as precast countertops. A plus with precast countertops is that we can create a template from the existing bathroom countertops and use it to build the molds at our shop. What this means is that you can still use your bathroom during the construction phase unlike cast in place countertops where we have to tear out the existing countertops, build a mold, pour, allow to cure, then seal them, all on site.
Usually we can install precast countertops in one day where as most cast in place projects last at least seven days from start to finish when you throw in all those steps. With precast, there is a lot less disruption to your schedule.
We poured these concrete bathroom countertops after mixing a little pigment into the cement mix to move it from a gray to a softer brown color. We let it cure, and before sealing it, we did a light acid staining of the countertop because our customer wanted it to have some personality and the acid staining creates a mottling effect. That’s the nature of acid staining. It’s a reactive, translucent process that still allows for the countertop’s original appearance to come through.
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.
We then sealed and trucked them over to the customer’s home for installation. In one bathroom, it was a single level countertop, while in the other, it was a two level. Our homeowner was very pleased with her concrete bathroom countertops and we think they came out looking very nice.
