CONCRETE COUNTERTOPS: ARE THEY THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOUR KITCHEN?
- By Southport Concrete Corp.
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- 20 Jul, 2018
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If you're hoping to replace your tired old countertops with something more modern and durable, you've likely considered popular options like quartz, granite, marble, or solid surface. However, many homeowners do not realize that concrete makes an excellent countertop and has plenty of advantages.
Just like any other countertop surface, there are specific advantages that concrete offers. How do you know if concrete is the right choice for your new or remodeled kitchen?
DESIGN
As soon as you hear the word "concrete", you mind may jump to visions of industrial warehouses, dirty sidewalks, and unfinished basements. However, concrete can actually be quite decorative if poured, stained, and finished properly. Don't pass over concrete counters because you're worried about your kitchen looking too industrial. Concrete can be made to look like:
- Wood. If you've always admired butcher block countertops but have been worried about the wear and tear, concrete is the answer. With stamps, special molds, and stain, the final finish of a wood-look concrete top will closely mimic the rich natural warmth of wood. You might not even be able to tell the difference without close inspection.
- Natural stone. With a mixtures of added dyes, aggregates, and polishing, your countertop can mimic the beauty of marble, the intensity of granite, or even the rounded roughness of worn slate. With the right sealer and polish, concrete tops can even look like glossy composite quartz.
- Recycled glass. You can order countertops made from crushed glass set into acrylic. Concrete countertops mimic this look by folding the glass pieces into the concrete. When sanded and polished, the result is very similar. You can even create patterns and control how much glass is added for a dense or sparse look.
Don't worry about concrete countertops looking too industrial. While you can choose a countertop that keeps the natural appearance of concrete, you can also go more refined with different acid washes, stains, and additions.
CUSTOMIZATION
No other countertop is as customizable as concrete, making it a great option for oddly-shaped kitchens or those who truly want a unique finish to their kitchen. You can completely control the shape of the curves, the design of the edges, the finishing textures, and the final colors. Even natural stone countertops require some conformity to availability and natural color and texture variations.
Your professional concrete contractor can help you choose custom stains and aggregates for the look you want.
DURABILITY
When properly sealed, a concrete countertop is durable. But how does it stand up to scratches, heat, stains, and spills?
Concrete does not scratch easily. Think of a concrete floor or patio—it weathers elements easily. That being said, you still always use a cutting board with concrete. You can mar the finish of your countertop, and cutting on concrete will ruin your knives.
Think of your concrete countertops as indestructible, but remember that the sealer is not as strong. Generally, concrete countertops are sealed with epoxy, polyurethane, acrylic, or wax. Each sealer has pros and cons, but no sealer is perfect. Sealers will perform poorly with exposure to acid, like lemon juice. You'll need to wipe up spills quickly to protect the finish.
Heat will not harm your concrete, so you won't have to worry so much about hot pans. However, some sealers can weaken with exposure to heat, so refraining from using a pot holder could reduce the life or change the color of your sealer, requiring you to seal your countertops more often.
Finally, you should remember that while durable, concrete is porous. Sealers slow stains, but you should not allow grape juice, wine, or tea spills to sit on the counter without wiping them up. It can lead to blemishes in the concrete.
Generally, concrete countertops are simple to maintain—any countertop material (even granite) requires care of ownership and attention to detail to stay looking fresh and beautiful.
For more information on choosing and pouring a concrete countertop, contact us at Southport Concrete Corp.
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When completing any construction project that involves a foundation, the use of concrete pilings is essential. These columns that have been pre-cast and cured before installation provide needed support and reinforcement to the foundations used by your home or business. They have many qualities that make them beneficial to a variety of projects:
- Cost effective: When anything is manufactured on a massive scale, your costs decrease substantially from having something custom poured.
- Superior quality: Being pre-cast, pilings are checked for every sort of defect before being installed, giving them an additional safety advantage.
- Underwater usage: There are several instances in which the pouring of concrete in certain types of subsoil or other environments won’t set. The use of formed piles easily takes care of that issue.
- Convenience: With a wide selection of piles all ready to go, you are able to select what you need and install them at your convenience.
- Adaptability: Trying to pour the exact shape you need is a thing of the past with concrete pilings available in square, round, octagonal and other shapes.
- Incredible strength: Because of the nature of the piles, the reinforcement used inside is more likely to stay put without getting disturbed or moving its place. They also have high bending and lateral resistance to hold their strength in adverse conditions.
- Eco friendly: With no leftover materials to clean up at the installation site, piles are the most environmentally friendly option when supporting your foundation and in other applications, such as retaining walls, embankments and cofferdams.
Southport Concrete Corp is a leading builder of seawalls
in the Southport area. A seawall is a barrier that prevents waves from inundating property and land. These concrete walls are ideal for areas that are susceptible to hurricanes and frequent flooding. During storms, the sea level, as well as lake and river levels, can rise dangerously high and threaten communities and natural areas. The wall stops the water in its tracks and keeps communities from sustaining millions of dollars' worth of damages. Despite their name, our walls can be built near any large body of water, and our company can construct the following types:
- Curved
- Vertical
- Mound
You have a lot of options when it comes to building materials in Southport, but there are some that are more high-quality than others. At Southport Concrete Corp., we offer ready-mix concrete. As a product that is made in a factory, it offers the highest quality possible, as it is regulated under specific conditions. Being carefully monitored while it is mixed, it allows maximum economy at every turn. It is a convenience for contractors because it can be delivered to most jobsites. If a truck can get there, the ready mix can get there. It can also be poured directly from the truck into handling equipment or formwork, minimizing loss and mistakes.
Although the terms cement and concrete are often used interchangeably, cement is actually an ingredient in concrete.
Concrete is basically a mixture of paste and aggregates. The aggregates are crushed stone or sand and gravel; the paste is made of water and Portland cement. Concrete material happens to get stronger as it gets older. Portland cement is not the name of a particular brand of cement; it’s the generic term for the type of cement utilized in almost all concrete (ex: stainless is a type of steel and sterling is a type of silver).
Pervious concrete, also known as "green concrete," is a choice that helps combat building code issues with storm water run-off.
Cement is composed of 10 to 15 percent of the concrete mix, by volume. Then through a process called hydration, the cement and water harden and bring together the aggregates into a rocklike form. This developing and hardening process continues for years, again meaning that concrete gets stronger as it gets older.
There are many residences that need to use a septic tank. If you find yourself in such an area, consider what Southport Concrete Corp. can do for you. We can cast septic systems
for you, and we have been operating in Southport for almost 20 years. We can inspect your location to design a septic system that is perfect for your expected needs, bringing you long-term plumbing solutions.
Concrete driveways are durable and attractive, and they provide a solid, reliable parking surface for vehicles. However, maximizing the lifespan and appearance of your concrete driveway depends upon making the right choices both before the concrete is poured and for many years after that, too.
Below, we’ve listed some important things to keep in mind in order to prevent premature concrete driveway failure.
Concrete is an ideal construction material for countless numbers of applications due to the substance’s strength, reasonable cost, and ease of installation. Paving surfaces is one of the many uses for this flexible medium. However, concrete is prone to crack, and it is normal for even the best-laid concrete surface to develop hairline crevices.
While these tiny cracks are often insignificant, they are unsightly and detract from the overall appearance of the paved surface. You can preventing these cracks by installing contraction joints; below is more information about these important features and their installation.
Concrete is one of the most versatile construction materials currently available. You'll find concrete used for everything from seawalls to countertops.
But not all concrete is exactly the same. When you choose concrete for a building project, you may have several options for the mixture contents and the laying process.
In this blog, we compare two common laying processes: precast concrete and onsite ready-mix pouring.
Though concrete is incredibly strong and resilient, untreated concrete can be stained in some circumstances. This is primarily due to the internal crystalline structure of concrete at the microscopic level.
Concrete consists of tiny cement particles locked together with sand and other crushed materials. In between these particles lie tiny air gaps that can be filled with just about any liquid that comes their way. That includes water, paint, oil, and other fluids dropped on the surface of unsealed concrete.
As a consequence, you can’t merely wipe concrete stains away. Instead, you have to treat the stains with the right methods, chemicals, and tools.
Below is a brief guide to removing two common but tough stains that affect concrete.