I have often joked that the highway to hell is paved with good intentions and I am the GC. But today that may ring very true as I may not may paving a highway but my wife thinks the new counter tops are exactly that, “Highways” ! I started the “BLACK” concrete counter tops today and are they Black!!! I must confess, all they are missing are some yellow lines and a crosswalk! So what happened?
Take 1 part desk bound home remodeling contractor and add a few parts of design envy and delusions of grandeur with a splash of leftover Cheng Design concrete counter top mix that has been sitting under my deck for the past 10 years and vwallah! I may have just paved my own domestic hell for the next decade.
Long story short is I got my way and I poured the concrete counters. Granite is so “Yesterday” and I had to be different in my own castle so I forged ahead. We were oh so close to dropping the wad at Sudbury Granite on the Black leather and exotic Brazilian for the island, but $100 a SF…. Really? (That’s alot of of Venti Sumatras!) So 14 bags of Quickcrete sand/topping mix and a witches brew of 10 different Cheng colors along with LiquiCrete admix and a $100 concrete mixer from Craigslist and 50 cubic feet of poured in place, with integral black concrete color counter tops are pored and troweled.
I do fear that my alchemy has produced a less than perfect and by that I mean “not crack resistant” counter. Which brings me to point number 2 of my 1 star “wife rating” on Angies List. “But concrete is going to crack!” she says. Ok, here is the plan when and if it does (it will, I already see them) I am going to fill them with a white Buddy Rhodes slurry mix that will give it a cool veining affect! All part of my master plan.
Bottom line is this: I hope it works!
Question? What color do you get when you mix 10 random bottles of Cheng Design concrete color???? Black!
using Z Countertop forms and mesh
black- poured in place counters resting
Integral black stained concrete counters setting up
final trowel 7 hours after pour
