Simple Elegant Concrete Counter | Step-by-Step Photos

Sakrete makes a huge assortment of products! For this project, the 5000 Plus was perfect.

BEFORE

AFTER

The day started with this sketch. If you look closely you can see that I originally planned to use a sheet of melamine plywood for everything. That would have saved some money but they only had one destroyed sheet when I went to Home Depot, so I made some on-the-fly changes. The end result, as you’ll see, meant far fewer cuts and a much simpler project.

Here’s a cross-section of the form we built. Don’t miss the safety note regarding your support structure! I’ll say it again later in this post but the design we used was particular to this use case, which had a perfectly level floor and the counter is between two solid walls, preventing the potential for any lateral motion. With a heavy concrete top, stability is important!

Loaded up and ready. – 1×10 for the bottom of the form – 1×3 and 1×4 Cellular PVC for the removable sides of the form – 2×10 Southern Yellow Pine for the legs – WD-40 to use as a releasing agent – Shims to make sure the counter was level when pouring – Screws and Lag Bolts for assembly – Stain for the legs – Caulk to create a smoothed over rounded bottom corner (ended up not doing this) – A concrete edger tool – And BARELY enough SAKRETE 5000 Plus (we used exactly three bags)

The first step was to cut the 1×10 bottom form to length so the counter would fit snugly between my two walls. Then we applied the 1×3 bottom removable form, set the edges 1.5″ in from the edge of the 1×10 which will allow for 1″ of concrete on the outer bottom edge of the finished top. See cross section.

This is what the form looks like (upside down) with the permanent 1×10 and the removable 1×3’s in place.

With the form upside down we test fitted and marked the placement for the legs.

I used Lags to securely connect the 2×10 legs to the form. Even though my counter was going firmly between two walls, I felt like we needed the additional strength and stiffness of the lags for temporary stability during the pouring and finishing phase. We predrilled in order to prevent splitting the Pine 2x10s

Here is the form upright with the legs installed. It’s really important so I’ll say it again… this leg design would not be safe in an application that wasn’t firmly between two walls. 2×10’s only without any lateral bracing could easily collapse if pushed hard from the side once the top is installed. If you were building this for an application with exposed sides, you would want to add lateral bracing such as X-braces, angle brackets, or a shelf all the way across halfway down the legs. It’s also important that these legs be cut very square and are on a perfectly flat and level surface.

We installed the PVC side forms with screws and moved the entire thing indoors. We couldn’t put it exactly in place because we needed room to walk around it while finishing, but it will be heavy so we don’t want to move it far. We’ll also be moving it while “green” and don’t want to crack it. The early strength of the Sakrete 5000 Plus was a big help here.

We applied a very liberal coat of WD-40 to all of the removable sections of the forms to act as a releasing agent and help prevent the concrete from bonding with the forms. After this, we’re ready to pour!

We mixed up the Sakrete 5000 Plus Concrete in a bucket outside. Its very easy… just add water as indicated and mix well. Then we brought the concrete in and poured inside. The next step here is a new floor so we didn’t cover the floor, but you would want to cover any good flooring with plastic… it will get wet and get concrete on it.

Using a large trowel to screed the concrete and work it down the form. Notice how Donnie uses the trowel much like a reversed plow to move the concrete down the form

As the form begins to fill up he’s using the trowel like a screed board to span across the two forms and level out the surface of the concrete. Also notice that the floor is getting concrete and water on it, that’s just the beginning so if you like your floor, don’t do this. We’re tiling over this floor soon.

At this point the concrete counter form is almost full. You can see that Donnie has leveled off the surface as he’s gone along, working the concrete from one end to the other.

Once the concrete is all in, we went back around and cleaned the edges with a sponge to make sure we had a nice clean level form to trowel to.

Using an orbital sander we essentially sanded the outside of the form. The forms are removable and of course don’t need to be sanded… the purpose of this is to vibrate the concrete behind the form to minimize voids. The Sakrete 5000 Plus mixture is great for filling solid with few voids anyway, but the sanding really makes a difference. The more smooth you want your edges, the more time I’d spend sanding. I didn’t want my edges too perfect so we just made one pass with the sander.

After working the wet pour a bit with the trowel to get it full and flat, we let it sit. This picture shows the “flashing” that occurs and indicates that it’t time to start working the surface again. It’s not easy to see and Donnie, who is much more experienced with concrete than I am, saw it before I did. But if you look at the picture you can see that some areas of the concrete are wet and glossy, while some are getting dull. That point in time when you start seeing some dull areas is when it’s time to start working the surface again with the trowel and working your edges.

After the concrete was hardened past the point of any additional troweling or finishing, it had to be left to harden. In the meantime I was able to put a coat of stain on the wooden legs. I used an Ebony color to keep with the black and grey theme of the wall wrap and the room overall.

After drying overnight the concrete is hardened and removing the forms was effortless. Just unscrew them and they pretty much pop right off. On top of the counter you can see the honing wheel Donnie is using by hand in the next photo to ease any rough edges or corners.

Donnie brought his honing wheel, which is normally attached to a grinder and used to finish the edges of natural stone like granite. He used it by hand to knock down any rough edges and ease the edges along the bottom corner. This is often called “stoning” or “blocking” and you can use a chunk of concrete block to achieve the same effect.

Here is the finished product in-place. As you can see I designed the height of the counter to align with the waterline in the photo so it wouldn’t interfere with the image at all. I love the way it came out! In this photo, I’ve used water to wet the entire surface in order to get a feel for what it would look like with a clear sealer. In the other pictures you can see the natural grey. A sealer also protects from stains. I’m not sure yet if I’ll do that. What do you think?

After a little decorating, things are looking awesome!

I love the edge profile we created using the concrete edger. It’s very similar to a popular edge profile on granite tops. I also love the exact level of voids and roughness in my edges. I could take the whole thing further by filling the edges with portland cement and polishing everything to be smooth as silk… but I’m a construction guy and I kind of like the structural nature of concrete. For me it’s perfect.

Another view of the edge and the top surface. Donnie is very good with a trowel and was able to get the surface almost perfect. My advice if you’re looking to do the same is just to be patient. Don’t think it’s done before it’s done. Keep working it as it flashes. And don’t forget, you can always polish it down with a grinder.