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Casting our concrete countertops

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Casting our concrete countertops

Posted Aug 13th, 08 at 11:15 pm by weschilders
I'll let the photos do most of the talking in this post... (all our remodel photos are on flickr)























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Old
Super cool - and you made it look easy.
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Posted Aug 27th, 08 at 4:48 pm by cbracerx cbracerx is offline
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GardenOfDarwin's Avatar
OMG, I love it! Great job. Love the look and your corner is so...neat! Congrats!
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Posted Aug 31st, 08 at 11:47 am by GardenOfDarwin GardenOfDarwin is offline
Old
Hey weschilders any more pics? Would love to see how around the sink came out. Did you guys do it in one piece? Hopefully mine comes out half as good.
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Posted Sep 1st, 08 at 8:31 pm by Thain Thain is offline
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weschilders's Avatar
More pics soon I hope. We finally poured, polished and sealed the island slab this past week but I need some help getting it inside (it's over 300 lbs.)

@Thain We actually poured 4 slabs in all. One for the island. A 30" one on one side of the range and two on the other side with a seam along one edge of the sink.
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Posted Sep 3rd, 08 at 10:48 pm by weschilders weschilders is offline
Old
Does the small amount of "ghosting" bother you? Anyway to eliminate that?
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Posted Sep 6th, 08 at 2:53 pm by dece9410 dece9410 is offline
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weschilders's Avatar
@ dece9410
I think its quite a bit more visible in this photo than it is now (it was taken just a couple of days after that slab was poured.) I don't know if grinding (rather than just polishing) would help or not.
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Posted Sep 6th, 08 at 11:45 pm by weschilders weschilders is offline
Old
I wonder what causes it? Would raising the enforcement material up another 1/4 inch during pouring have helped?
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Posted Sep 7th, 08 at 12:47 pm by dece9410 dece9410 is offline
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weschilders's Avatar
From what I've read it has very little to do with the rebar's position in the mold and more to do with how the concrete mix separates and has less aggrigate in places. See this article for more information: Concrete Connections Website - Avoiding Ghosting - Nuts & Bolts > Troubleshooting - Articles

Like I wrote before... I think the previous photo enhances the contrast quite a bit (see this newer photo for reference) There is a certain raw or imperfect element I think you have to be willing to live with when pouring concrete yourself.
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Posted Sep 7th, 08 at 5:24 pm by weschilders weschilders is offline
Old
Looks really great. Congratulations!
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Posted Sep 8th, 08 at 6:57 pm by TribalDancer TribalDancer is offline
Old
Looks great weschilders Hate to bug you but was wondering if you had a chance to snap a few more pics yet? About to pour some test panels during the next week or so. But I would really like to see more pics of yours as the concrete cures competely.

thxs
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Posted Oct 14th, 08 at 12:11 pm by Thain Thain is offline
 
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