Concrete Countertops

By Katherine Salant

Suggest a concrete countertop for a new kitchen, and most people think sidewalks, driveways, and bridge abutments and say yuck. But when this wonderfully versatile material is used to make a countertop, the result could not be more different.

A concrete countertop is thin and graceful, not thick and clunky. It's pigmented, and the finish surface is smooth to the touch and polished to a low sheen. What a concrete countertop would look like in your kitchen, however, will depend on who makes it. Unlike other countertop materials such as plastic laminate or solid surface, which are manufactured by only three or four companies, concrete countertops are made by many small fabricators scattered all over the country. There are no industry-wide standards to which a fabricator must conform, and no two fabricators make it in the same way.

Certain properties of the material must be taken into account: the concrete mix must have just the right amount of water, it must be cured in an environment that is neither too hot nor too cold, and it must be reinforced. But many, if not most countertop fabricators, including the five that I interviewed, are artists and designers who segued into concrete because of its astounding plasticity and creative potential. Like a winemaker, each one has developed his own closely held technique and formulas to produce a signature style that is unique. Of the five, only one - Gerald Santora of Soupcan in Chicago - makes only conventional countertops and sinks (but he also makes unusual countertops out of other materials such as zinc). The others also make concrete furniture, fireplace surrounds, tiles, and sculpture.

Once a potter, Buddy Rhodes of Buddy Rhodes Studio in San Francisco has been working with concrete for twenty years and offers the most varied portfolio. Fu-Tung Cheng of Cheng Design Berkeley, California, has been making things out of concrete since he was five years old, and his mother enlisted the entire family to build a concrete driveway. He makes concrete sculptures with counter-like elements and countertops that look like sculptures as well as conventional countertops. David Jensen of Sonoma Cast Stone in Glen Ellen, California, also specializes in unusual wave and trough sinks, and Kelly Carr apprenticed with Rhodes before starting his own firm, Concrete Jungle, in Silver Spring, Md.

Compare the earth tone samples of these five, and you'll begin to get an idea of the enormous variety available. Cheng's Geocrete has a highly polished surface, and his earth tone colors are darker and more saturated because he uses a gray cement. Rhodes has three standard finishes: troweled, veined (the surface is veined in a contrasting color) and ground-tiny specs from sand particles are faintly visible. Santora grew up in New Mexico surrounded by adobe architecture, and his palette is reminiscent of the haunting colors of the desert. Jensen uses white cement for his lighter earth tones, and this gives them a distinct brightness. Carr's standard countertops are troweled or flecked with miniscule exposed aggregates and sand grains that give the surface a distinct texture, and his earth tones are more brilliant than the others.

If you could see a large piece by each of theses fabricators, you would also note another characteristic of this type of countertop - the color and texture will vary within each piece, and no two countertops are identical, even when made by the same person.

This wonderfully versatile material, however, does have a downside. Over time a concrete countertop may develop tiny hairline cracks. These will not affect the structural integrity of the countertop, but many people find them disconcerting. Concrete is porous and stains badly if left unsealed, and no perfect sealer exists. A clear epoxy finish that some fabricators use will make it stain proof, but these master fabricators all said that epoxy makes the countertops look cheesy and plastic. Epoxy also scratches easily, and if you put a hot pan straight from the oven on it, the finish will be damaged.

Instead, these fabricators all use two or three coats of a penetrating sealer, which makes the concrete more stain resistant, followed by two or three coats of wax, which produces a shiny matt finish and the old world look that kitchen designers rave about.

This finish can also be scratched, so a cutting board must always be used, and acidic foods such as lemon juice, mustard and vinegar will etch the surface if not cleaned up promptly. Cooking oil bottles left on the counter next to the stove will invariably leave a ring, so these must be put away. The wax must be reapplied every one to six months depending on how often you use your kitchen and the counter must be resealed about every two years.

The fabricators said owners can go crazy trying to catch every spot or accept them as "character marks" that create a "patina" over time. Jensen, who has a countertop in his house said, "After ten years, it looks better than when new."

Then there is the cost to consider. Although the raw ingredients for concrete are relatively inexpensive, creating a countertop with it is a very labor-intensive activity. The cost per running foot of counter from these five fabricators ranges from about $170 to $225. This is comparable to the more expensive granites, and more expensive than a solid surface material such as Corian.

If you're still game, you're asking, Who will make my countertop? Of these five fabricators, Cheng, Jensen and Santora sell their products directly or through authorized dealers, and Rhodes and Carr sell directly. Each has a sample kit they will send for a fee. You may also use a local fabricator. An advantage of this is that you can see a number of full-size countertops and get a sense of how that fabricator's color and texture may vary within one piece. You can also see one or two pieces that are five to 10 years old and judge for yourself what that fabricator's "patina" and "character marks" really look like.

When you start to look for a local fabricator, however, bear in mind that it is very easy to set up shop in a garage. Many contractors who have made sidewalks or driveways and know the cost of the raw materials look at the prices of the countertops and see easy profit. But making one is harder than it looks.

"At the end of a year, you're still at the novice stage," Carr said. "It takes at least two years before you know what you're doing, and you get consistent results - countertops without unsightly cracks, warping, chipping and color inconsistency." And, Carr added, this assumes that over the two years the fabricator is getting lots of practice by making a lot of countertops - at least five a week.

One way to determine the bona fides of a fabricator is to visit his shop. You'll quickly learn if he's working out of his garage and winging it or has an established firm with several employees and five to ten countertops in progress. Besides his ability to make a gorgeous countertop, a fabricator also has to know cabinetry basics and mundane details such as the standard sizes for sinks and faucets.

You can ask some technical questions, but it will be hard to make any inferences because markedly different "recipes" can still produce excellent results. Unless you're willing to bone up on the subject, you're better off to assess his technical ability by asking for references and checking them out.