Cast Away - Slide Show

It's a Cast-A-Thon! Here's a look at the challenges and rewards of a project involving more than a dozen cast-in-place concrete countertops
By Bob Harris, The Decorative Concrete Institute, Temple, Ga.


The two laundry room counters were pretty basic -- a warm-up for the challenges that lied ahead of us.


The forming detail for the candy display knockout.


To form the counter around the column, we doweled into the column with rebar and wrapped the countertop around it.


My wife, Lee Ann, uses her engraving skills to create the river.


The island in the upstairs kitchen sits all alone, until we can get to the main event.


It's finally time to go to work on the large horseshoe-shaped countertop in the upstairs kitchen. The two circular knockouts are for custom kitchen sinks.


A close-up of a stainless steel trivet, which we secured to the subbase with screws before pouring the concrete. We custom fabricated special trowels that were narrow enough to finish between the trivet slats.


Finishing this countertop was quite a challenge because of the size, shape, and all the edgework.


We cured the countertop for 5 days with wet curing blankets.


Here's a custom, metallic-finished concrete bowl we made for the client to show our appreciation.

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