Sinks! Glorious sinks!

So I've embarked on a new avenue of concrete work - sinks. Yes, you can make sinks out of concrete. And yes, they kick butt, just like their countertop brethren. There's not really popular yet, at least in the midwest, but I'm bound to change that, one bathroom and kitchen at a time. For now, I'm focusing on two - my own main-floor bathroom, and my friend Mark's master bathroom.

Ours will be a simple wedge-shaped pedestal-like sink. Below is the mold, including my little helper.

Mark's will be a wave-like shape and integrated into a countertop. He'll actually have two (mirror images), but we're making them one at a time. You can't see it very well, but the front and right sides have a rock-face mold thing so that the concrete looks like a rough rock edge. Very cool. Good choice, Mark.

Here's Cole helping us get ready to pour. And yes, he's wearing a respirator. Safety first, kids. 

Mark graciously helped pour them. Talk about a conversation starter for future company. "Hey, come check out the sink I made." Everyone knows that chicks dig concrete, right? 

Pouring went well. It was the next part that caused problems. The molds would NOT, for the love of everything holy, come out. I tried everything - blowing air down the sides, attacking them with putty knives, and pouring ice water inside so that they'd (theoretically) shrink. I even tried suspending them from the ceiling and jumping on them. I actually ended up breaking both molds in the process. Very sad. Thankfully, they're under warranty.

FINALLY, I was somehow able to pull them out. I was elated! Unfortunately, I realized that somehow the faucet knockout shifted about 1" off center during the pour - just enough to make it look wrong. As such, I'm preparing to re-pour it. Sad.

The concrete next to the sink mold actually took on a very cool glass-smooth black and gray rippled look. I'm not sure why, but I really like the effect.

Mark's sink turned out really cool, despite the mold issues. Notice the rock face.

The next step is to sand it smooth. Then we'll be ready for staining and sealing! Yippee!

Oh yeah, we're done!

So I forgot to make it blog-official... we've completed the Peterson's kitchen! By "we," I mean the small army of guys two sacrificed their Saturday morning (and some blood) to help me move the 8 pieces from my garage to their house.

It turned out really well. Sure, Justin gashed open his hand moving in the first piece and I ended up going to the doc to see if my foot was broken by placing one of the pieces on top, but I'm sure those are normal countertop installation activities.

Thanks again to everyone for the help. And a special thanks to the Petersons for giving me a chance and letting me broaden my skills.

Loaded on the trailer...

Unloading the "small" ones

Taking a break. Well deserved.

Done and done.

Brown & Blue & Awesome

I was a little worried at first. Granted, I'm not a very visually-inclined person, so you understand my initial hesitation with the idea of a brown & blue countertop. But let me tell you, I think it looks really cool! I hope the clients agree:) If nothing else, the kitchen will definitely become a conversation starter - hopefully in a good way.
 

I've gone through about 3 rounds of slurrying the blue in then sanding it down, just to make sure the voids are completely filled in. Next, I'll go over them with finer sanding pads just to make sure it's as smooth as possible. After that will be time for sealant then finally wax. They'll probably be slightly lighter than in the pictures (they're drenched in water), but hopefully not too much.

And lesson learned. Wear face protection, unless you want to look like a this:

My wife made me shower before getting in bed. I don't understand why.

Peterson Update

Here's some updates on the Peterson job. A while back, we finalized the color scheme - a brown base color with blue marbling. Below are the colors. The right blue is the one we're going with - more of a blue/gray than a true blue.

A couple of weeks ago, some buddies and I actually poured everything. It only took a couple of hours of work and some large pizzas, but it was totally worth it for as good of a job as they did.

It took about 7 batches. Yes, 7, but the guys did a great job, especially since I forgot to have them add the diamond lathe until the first piece was already filled. Whoops.

A couple of days layer, we flipped everything over. Two of the pieces are noticably heavier than the others, but with some help, they went right over.

After some sanding and grinding, it was time to slurry with the blue. Yes, it's supposed to be that blue. Next, I'll get the grinder out and sand down the blue, which will leave a really cool brown base with blue marbling effect. I've done it for two of the pieces since this picture, and it looks really really cool. I'll get some more pictures up once soon.

So far, everything's going really well. Hopefully it continues that way.

I'm back!

It's been a while since we last talked, so I wanted to let you know of my latest endeavors.

First, I'm going to build my first bathroom sink. Yes, a sink. I doubt you're as excited about this as me, but I'm used to that. Below is the computer rendering of what I will be building for our 1st floor bathroom. It'll be 3 inches thick on the edges and have 5 angled facets that lead to the drain. Should be fun.

Second, I'm starting work on my second job. This time it's a complete kitchen - 80 sq ft! Below is the initial rendering. It'll be a gray/blue base color with a slightly darker gray marbling. The edging will be a demi-bullnose on all but the front-most skinny island thing with the post, which will have an ogee edge to better tie it into the style of the adjacent room. Due to the sheer size, it'll be comprise of 6 pieces. I made the templates last week, meaning that next week I can start building the mold and making some sample slabs to test the color. I can't wait! Happy 4th of July!

Previous Jobs

I just wanted to post a couple pictures of my previous countertop projects, just to give a better idea of what else I've done.

The first is the island from my last house. It was diamond shaped with a 20-degree beveled edge. We had a pull-out trash can on the right side, so I created a "trash hole" (aka basketball practice) right above it. Strangely, it never smelled. Perhaps odor absorbency is an undiscovered property of concrete. Also, we inlayed three copper pipes on the left for a trivet.

Next was the outdoor kitchen. I took a regular Weber grill and built the countertop to form to its shape. I also wanted a built-in smoker (right on the other side of me in the picture), so I inlayed a baffled duct-work piece into the countertop that lined up exactly with the smoke exhaust from the smoker so that I could control how much smoke escaped. It was pretty slick. Also, I integrated 3 landscaping lights for nighttime grilling and to help us getting to and from the hot tub. Finally, I added an orange circular bar seating area off the end and suspended it with some metal supports. All-in-all, I was very pleased. I miss this part of my old house the most. We wanted some fun colors, hence the blue and orange.

Done and done

This weekend we moved and installed the countertop. It went surprisingly smoothly, though I was worried after the client tore off half of the crate trying to put it in the truck! I guess he's stronger than I thought after all!

Once we got to the house, we solicited the help of a neighborhood strongman, which rounded out the total to 5 guys - a good number for a ~450 lb countertop. And they all proved necessary, especially when going through the doorway. We caulked the cabinets and dropped her on. The cabinet reinforcement looked and worked great, and they never felt uneasy from the weight.

The clients seemed pleased. Always a good sign. And while I think it turned out pretty cool, it definitely stands out in the kitchen. Not in a bad way. It's just pretty different from what they currently have. All the more reason to replace the rest of the countertops:)

Anyways, thanks to Jason, Mark, Nick, John, Ryan, and Patrick (random neighborhood guy) for your help with the flipping and moving. It *literally* would not have been possible without your help. And I especially want to thank Adam and Lizzie for their willingness to take a chance on me and letting me practice with their island. I had a great time and hope that they're pleased with the final product.

On to the next kitchen...

Order up

Sealed and waxed, here's the final product. It's so smooth, you can slide a glass across it like a hockey puck (trust me, that was one of my tests). All that's left is packing it back up, moving it, then installation. I think we're targeting next week sometime.

Copper - functional and beautiful

Sorry for the hiatas. I had some bad experiences that I needed to remedy before posting more pictures. You remember how the middle gray (aka "the river") was supposed to be dyed red? Well, you know how sometimes when you test out a color by painting a small sample on a wall, only to hate it when you paint the rest of the wall? Well, I fell victim to that, only with the red dye for the river. After some cursing, I did some sanding and eventually ended up with what I consider kind of a cool effect. The river is still gray, but it has a slight red undertone. Without any other red colors in my portfolio, I called up the client to get their opinion.

So after meeting with them this week and getting the all clear to procede (they liked the effect too), I polished the copper pipes that had been laying on my workbench for, oh, several months now an mixed up some epoxy. What do I need copper pipes and exopy for, you might ask? Well, trivets, of course, you silly reader. See, with concrete (and most other solid-surface countertops), if you were to place something really hot, like a dish straight from the oven, onto the counter, you risk hurting the sealant and, consequencly, discoloring the countertop. No one wants this. Luckly, concrete lends itself perfectly to beautiful and functional solutions. Since copper is such a beautiful, heat friendly, and inexpensive material, it makes for perfect inlayed trivets.  

My "weights" holding down the trivets while the epoxy dries

So I epoxied them in Friday night. The next morning, I checked out the result.

Don't mind the shadow on the bottom

 I happen to think they look really sharp with the gray colors. Definitely adds a nice accent piece.

So pretty...

Now that they're in, all that's left is sealing (and boxing it up, moving it, and installing it, blah blah blah). This morning I put the first coat of sealant on, and tonight, I added a second (pictures to follow).

I'm very pleased and think it'll look very nice in the client's kitchen. Hopefully they agree.

Slurry, part 1 - complete

So last night I slurried the light gray. Slurry (a mixture of cement, water and dye) is used to fill any holes. Since there are always some holes in every pour, this isn't a new process for me; you just smear the stuff on (looks like yogurt), rub it into the holes, then scrape it smooth with a putty knife. The next day, you just sand it smooth and voila- bye bye holes!

However, this pour has two colors, requiring me to slurry twice. Last night was the first, and man, did it make a big improvement, especially on the edges where the majority of the holes are. I'm hoping to slurry the darker parts tomorrow. Then it'll be on to staining. Yay!

1, 2, 3, LIFT!

So how does one flip a 450 lb countertop such that it doesn't crumble the stair-stepped edge under its own weight? Why, by encasing the it in foam and plywood then lifting it with a cabled winch system and 4 guys, that's how, of course.

During the week, I accomplished the first task - basically building a crate around the countertop capable of protecting it while being flipped and later moved to the Countryman's house. 8 2x4s, 3 sheets of plywood, and 3 sheets of foam later, it was done. Oh, and a 2-ton winch and 1/4" steel cabling (which I already had). The idea being that the winch would do the main lifting while I would simply maneuver it where I needed it to go. Seemed reasonable at the time.

I eventually came to my senses (after a test run that bent the 5/16" eye loops!), realized that some manpower would be useful, and asked some friends to waste some of their Saturday morning to help (thanks Jason, Mark, and Nick!).

We four men stood against the concrete bohemoth and were victorious, without the help of that silly and overengineered (albeit cool) winch system. We then attacked the case with our army of drills and soon freed the countertop. And what do you know, it wasn't complete crap. The whole thing was sturdy and well-formed, even with a "river" through the middle of it. The edges were caked in clay, but some water and a wire brush made quick work of that.

I spent a couple of hours going over it with the first sanding pad and cleaning up the edge (check out that sheen!). I'll come back tomorrow or Monday and fill in the gaps on the edges with a slurry, then it'll be onto the next challenge of staining the river.

And now we wait...

My lack of posts over the last few months would make it appear as though I've been slacking. Oh contraire. As this countertop is both my first one for a client, as well as the most technically challenging, I've been experimenting with different colors, acid stains, and finishes to get an idea of how to do what I'm wanting to do. With this said, this weekend was the culmination of that practicing.

It started Thursday and Friday nights, during which time I got the form ready (glued down the knockouts for the built-in trivets, formed the edging, bent rebar, and vacuumed) and picked up the materials (in the ghetto of Omaha). That all went pretty smoothly, once I realized that fresh clay is *way* easier to scrape than somewhat older clay.

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Scraping the edge

Saturday was game day. My good friends Jason and Ashlee (and baby Kali) came over in the morning, and Ashlee and Maia played with the kids while Jason and I poured. It too went well - messy and tiring, but well. We both managed to get fairly dirty, however; Jason got a face/hair/shirt full of acrylic fortifier (that's a kind of stank that won't wash out), and my pants and shirt got a nice splash of black concrete dye. I doubt it'll come out.


To get the "river" look that we were going for, we actually poured two batches - one untinted and another tinted deep gray. The reason for this is that the colors I'm planning to use on the river show up much stronger on the untinted concrete than the gray. The untinted mix was placed somewhat flowing through the middle from corner to corner, while the gray filled in the sides. Pouring this wasn't difficult, per se, but the timing was tricky. I think the end result will be great, though. I hope.

Soon, though, the pouring was complete. We washed everything (drenching myself in the process), and headed inside for some well-deserved lunch. Now all I can do is wait, occasionally spray it with water, and hope that it turns out the way I want.

 

Concrete at rest