So you want to pour concrete . . .

There were a few things I picked up from the concrete counter top book and DVD . . . and a few instructions that were made up on the fly. First thing you need, once you form is ready, the rebar is in place, and you are ready to pour, is a good crew.


We have . . . Pinkerton as crew physician.


Koach Kendall manning the shovel, notice the cyclist muscles.


JD as chief of safety and whatnot (also crew photographer), I believe the PBR "helmet" is OSHA approved.


And your truely doing everything possible to make a 240 lb counter top that will likely end up a stepping stone in the backyard.



All the ingredients got measured once and added twice. The best discovery is that Google is going to make us all more dumberer . . . . I'm sure to my dad chagrin, you can enter something simple in a search like "2 5/6 gallons in quarts" and you don't even have to hit enter when using the Firefox Google bar, the result comes up as a "suggestion". I will soon forget all math involving any sort of conversion and go straight to the internet.

But, first the dry ingredients:


JD proved to be the only one who has hit the gym and actually has upper body strength and endurance. If it came down to a kicking fight, Pinkerton, Kendall and I would be fine . . . JD provided the majority of the muscle on the shovel (the camera was in his pocket during stirring and nobody was going in there). We mixed the 240 lbs of Quikrete 5000 and the Cheng NeoMix Admix containing the fibers and other stuff to keep the counter top from developing micro cracks.

We measured the wet ingredients including the NeoMix Water Reducer. I'm sure all this stuff could be had at any Redimix batch plant for far less than the $30 I paid, but I wanted to keep the "user" as the variable in the equation, not the mix.



Mixing provided good cross training for all of us, three bags of Quikrete was about all the wheelbarrow could take. Once the mix was where we wanted it, just like lumpy oatmeal, we humped it down to the basement in buckets, added it to the form, and started vibrating.


Then we got to screeding to level out what will be the bottom of the counter top. It has to be somewhat level so it can be set on the subtop with minimal adjustment.



And after it was all done, we have a top and some samples for playing with stain if necessary and for practice with the grinder when the time comes.


I think we did alright, but only time will tell. In about 4-6 days we will be able to turn out the top and samples to see what the counter top surface will look like. There are a couple exit strategies:
- if the final surface is pitted we can mix up a slurry of Portland Cement and water to fill holes and make it all smooth prior to grinding.
- if the final surface shows a lot of aggregate we can grind more than planned to make the surface smooth, but with character.
- if the final surface looks like crap, we can use the piece as a stepping stone in the yard when we landscape in the spring . . .

All in all, it was a good time and for about $75 and some heavy lifting I won't feel like it was all for naught if the counter top is unusable in the butler pantry.