Choosing concrete as a material for a countertop

When choosing a material for a concrete countertop, bar top, vanity or tabletop it is becoming more popular to choose concrete. Not the rough, cold drab concrete found outside on highway overpasses but the refined, polished new age concrete. With new products and techniques available the customer can use concrete as a base material but add color, pattern, design and style to the point that it hardly looks like concrete at all.

Of course concrete in its natural state has many features and benefits that should be desired when choosing it as a finish material.

Concrete offers subtle color hues and changes, watermarking and variation, and earthy natural appearance, possibly tiny accent fractures, and a natural custom artisan/craftsman type of look.

Concrete as a material can be made to look classic and traditional or ultra modern and contemporary and every type of design in between.

By starting off with either a white or gray base colored cement the concrete's color then has the unique ability to be modified and altered in many ways. Concrete can have additional color added into the mix called integral color, which tends to give a thorough consistent color, while surface stains and dyes can be topically applied to the cured decorative concrete surface. A combination of these coloring techniques is also very commonly used.

Some manufacturers like Buddy Rhodes offer a unique way of coloring the concrete by using a stiff mix of concrete purposefully entrapping air pockets later to be filled with additional highlight color

The surface of the concrete can be manipulated by stamping, insetting items, grinding polishing and anything else that may come to mind.

The beauty of a material like concrete is its ability to be contoured and formed it doesn't necessarily need to be left in a square or rectangular shape. It truly allows you to have say on how it will turn out and what design elements you want to have.