Concrete countertops

Decorative concrete is attracting a lot of attention as evidenced by the growing number of decorative concrete related manufacturers

Concrete countertops are responsible for a surprisingly large part of this interest and excitement. Surprising, in part because even a large countertop project takes less than a cubic yard of concrete, hardly worth considering in the more than 100 million metric tonnes of cement used annually in the United States. The notion that we can take the same basic "workhorse" material used for highways and basement footings and refine it enough to be alongside our kitchen sinks and stoves seems to intrigue people. The idea goes a long way toward demonstrating the unique and versatile qualities of concrete.

The thought of doing concrete countertops caught me entirely off guard one day in 1995 when my neighbor, knowing that I was a decorative concrete contractor, asked me to build the tops for her new kitchen-remodeling project. I had been doing decorative concrete since 1980 in varying degrees, and by the mid- 1990s we were doing only decorative work. She came across the street one evening with an article from a magazine.The work of Buddy Rhodes was featured. I have to admit that I had a pretty high opinion of my skills in those days, but I backpedaled away from her project so fast it was as if she had just poked me with a sharp stick.