The world's foremost resource on decorative concrete
Do you know the single-most important ingredient in a concrete countertop that can make or break a business? If you thought concrete, think again. It might surprise you to know that it is actually countertop sealers. You can make the most beautiful concrete countertop in the world, but in the […]
Bars and countertops are “anticlimactic” to this month’s artisans in concrete, Justin Burd and Nathan Smith. “We’ve been trying to push the limits of what concrete can do as a medium by creating good design and shapes that are not often seen within our industry,” says Smith. Burd, 36, who […]
Cheng Concrete has reinvented its annual concrete design challenge with the first contest of a new series — the Kitchen & Bath Concrete Maker Challenge. The company announced the 2013 winners in November.
Concrete countertops have been around for decades now, and more and more magazines and TV shows are featuring them. So you wold think misconceptions such as “concrete countertops are cheap” or “concrete countertops are high-maintenance” would be a thing of the past.
Two months before graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, Eric Boyd and two other students opened their own design-build firm. One of the first jobs they landed was a kitchen remodel where the client asked for concrete countertops, somewhat of a novelty back then.
Fiberglass has been used in the precast industry for many years. The use of resin-and-glass mats to make master-mold plugs, keeper molds to hold the shape of rubber molds, and good old-fashioned production molds is standard in the industry.
Installing concrete in often-wet areas such as baths and showers demands more of a concrete contractor. It requires a different type of preparation and construction from counters and even sinks, so contractors would do well to understand the specifics.
Desperate to get away from the corporate rat race, Greg Hyde Hryniewicz started a concrete coatings company, and in the seven intervening years, he’s turned it into a decorative concrete firm that’s garnered numerous awards.
We usually don’t post photos of people just goofing around with samples of decorative concrete, but these pieces are wild.
The craftsman responsible is Richard DiGiacomo, owner of Europa Artisans Academy, in Phoenix, Ariz. He’s currently living and working in Wailuku, Maui.
One thing I noticed is that it seemed like a lot of the wet-cast apron-front sinks I cast had developed very fine hairline cracks in the corners. The cracks never opened up but would show up when the sinks got wet. I don’t know if the sinks cracked during striping and handling or from concrete shrinkage later — all I knew was I had to stop them.
