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Length - 03:16

Award-winning designer Fu-Tung Cheng discusses how to make polished concrete countertops using a wet-grinder. He shows the tools that are used during the polishing process and discusses how to properly use each tool.

When making concrete countertops, it is often necessary to polish the surface of the concrete like granite or marble to expose aggregate, inlays, or glass. During the concrete polishing process quite a bit of sediments and water are created as layers of concrete are removed from the surface of the concrete countertop. The sediments are suspended in the water you are using to lubricate the concrete polishing pads.

Rather than letting this polluted water run off into the environment, the responsible precaution to take is to set up a water filtration system. One of the key ways of doing this is combining the polishing table with the water filtration system. Make sure the table you build or buy is mobile as it is often moved around the fabrication shop.

The water recycling system Cheng uses in his fabrication shop is self-contained. This means the water is cleaned while it is in use. New water is not constantly being added. This is a great environmentally friendly solution to polluted water runoff into drains which eventually ends up in rivers and coastal waters.

The specific features that are useful in a polishing table are as follows: it must be rigid, mobile, it needs a rack for holding the countertop and it should have a splash guard. Used water from the concrete polishing drains into a reservoir. The water, that contains the sediments and affluence, is pumped into a centrifugal force filter chamber that separates the water from the material particles.

The system used by Cheng filters out particles down to 10 microns. Whatever water is leftover can be left outside where the remaining water is allowed to evaporate. This water recycling system is a responsible way to conserve water during concrete countertop fabrication and it also keeps public waterways and drains clean.