Last of the Prep Work

The last of the prep work has taken place over the last few weeks on & off with much help from Tom’s extended family.  Merry Christmas - now get to work!

We had some help from Kyle fastening the sides of the forms.  Every hole had to be predrilled & countersunk so we didn’t split the melamine.  We had no less than 4 drills with various bits going.

Once the sides were installed, then we had to tape off all the joints and seal them with a bead of silicone.  This gives the concrete a nice, soft rounded edge and keeps it from bleeding through the formwork.

The joints between sections of counter are connected with a piece of plexiglass which is also held in place by silicone.  Plexiglass is used so that if the joint ends up all wobbly, at least the pieces will line up with each other.  FYI, black silicone is used so that you can see where you need to clean up on the white melamine.

The form work is held in place by melamine buttresses.  These are screwed down into the pour table and also into the side wall of the form.  Using the right length of screw here is critical.

Ten year old Daniel got a quick lesson on using the drill press to pre-drill the side rails & buttresses.  Child labor laws, what?

Cameron (17, pictured) and AJ (12) were in charge of cutting and marking the pieces of #3 rebar.

Here are the sink & faucet knockouts installed.  Making the sink knockout SUCKED.  We tried to buy 2” foam, but there wasn’t any at multiple stores, so we thought, “no problem, we’ll buy 1” foam and glues pieces together.”  Sounds easy, no?  Except that 1” foam is really 1 & 1/16” and 2 different types of adhesive I used dissolved the foam.  Then the band saw I was using to make the cardboard template and to cut the foam was having problems so we had to stop to fix it.  THEN, the clear tape I put around the outside to make a smooth edge kept coming off.  Anyways, a lot of effort went into the sink knockout.  I’m still a little concerned that the edge will be a little bumpy in spots and will require a lot of grinding.  Tom had some better luck with the faucet knockouts, but not much.

Here you can see my purdy black silicone lines.  There is also a grouted tile that we are casting in place to be a hot plate (there will be one on each side of the stove).  The concrete sealer can delaminate if hot things are put on it, so this is a protective measure.  Plus, it will look cool.  The little white aggregates were ordered from a concrete place and are held in place with spray adhesive.  When the surface is polished, we should see this aggregate come through.

Another nice, custom feature that we have in the counter is a fixed glass cutting board and a slopey section to wipe food waste directly to the garbage disposal.  The cutting board caused quite a delay when FedEx lost the package (it’s been in Hagerstown, MD since 12/29) so we gave up on the original and ordered a different one which just got here yesterday.  We had to build the slopey section twice because we scribed it wrong the first time (Damn it!  We forgot that everything is upside down.  Our first major error due to forgotten upside down-ness).

Then we plopped down some foam blocks to support the rebar cages and held them in place with some wire.  The wire gets cuts after the concrete is placed.

And voila!  The fully prepped counter, just begging to be drowned in concrete.  Just outside the frame are three sacrificed chickens for the Gods of Cement, Aggregate, and Water.  On the morrow is judgment day.

-Jessie