My Favorite Concrete Products

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Cattle Panel Reinforcement

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Greg Bright, owner of Ancient Art Concrete Countertops, told us about a unique concrete bathroom countertop remodel, and in doing so, shared three of his favorite products and techniques that he "can't live without" when installing concrete countertops. Here's what he recommends:

Buddy Rhodes Concrete Mix:
Bright prefers this mix because "it's so forgiving compared to using standard concrete mix with various admixtures," he says. "By forgiving, I mean that the Buddy Rhodes mix has a larger margin for error. It's easier to use from the placement - to the troweling - to the polishing." Bright also favors the mix because of its consistency "from the color choices to the finished textures."

Cattle Panel Reinforcement:
When it comes to reinforcing concrete countertops, Bright doesn't like to take any chances. "More is better, in my opinion, as long as it does not show or cause shadows, and it really does not cost that much." Bright says he likes to stick with a galvanized product and has found that Cattle Panel fits the bill in slabs 2 inches and greater.

"It provides a stiff framework to which we attach a galvanized 2" x 4" welded wire fencing material. We find it is also easy to attach standard rebar, when we need to make large spans, as in the 5 foot span (see picture below) from an apartment pool cabana we just did. In fact, I sandwiched 2 pieces of cattle panel on top of one another on this project—one in the top third and one in the bottom third to handle both compressive and tension forces that the 4 foot x 12 foot slab would encounter," says Bright.

Vibrating Darby

The cattle panel, available at most local home center stores, comes in two varieties based on wire thickness. "The kind available at our local home center is 4 gauge and works for most projects. It also comes in ¼" which is slightly heavier. This is only available at a specialty fencing distributor in our area," explains Bright.

Vibrating Darby (www.keynamics.com):
Finding unique solutions to life's challenges is something Bright has a knack for. (He currently has a patent for an ergonomic laptop stand at www.keynamics.com). So when the solution wasn't readily apparent in the industry, Bright got creative and created his own vibrating darby.

Bright says, "I haven't seen anything else like it out in the industry, but it takes the vibrating screed to the countertop level. I simply mounted an in-line air sander to the top of my wooden darby, but there could be several methods for making the darby vibrate," he says.

"It proves very useful, when you can't get much "stroke" on a cast in place countertop which has a wall on the backside, using a board mounted on the wall as a screed support. I even use it when we add aggregate to the mix. It seems to help push down the aggregate and bring the cream to the top,' he explains.

Ancient Art Concrete Countertops
Time: 00:35
Greg Bright
900 RR 620 S C101-230 Austin, TX 78734
512-971-7017
info@ancient-art-concrete-countertops.com
www.ancient-art-concrete-countertops.com

The video at right shows Bright's first attempt at using the vibrating darby, using a 2 x 6 piece of lumber as the screed.