Concrete seems to be everywhere in home design from kitchen counter-tops to bathtubs, even living room floors. Joe and I are fans partly because it’s not granite and because concrete can be surprisingly beautiful. It seems to wear well over time and it comes in a multitude of subtle colors. We’re thinking of using it in the kitchen and/or bathrooms. We would likely try to pour it ourselves but that is time consuming and I’m sure there’s a bit of a learning curve. That said, there are some alternatives to concrete such as Syndecrete.
Syndecrete claims to be half the weight of concrete and twice as strong. It is sold in pre-cast pieces and shipped directly to you. I have heard the latter can cause this otherwise affordable alternative to become quite pricey - although you’ve lucked out if you live in southern California, where it’s produced.
If anyone has used Syndecrete before, please give us your feedback. Learn more about Syndecrete here.
I love patina… What’s cool is when materials really build up a cool patina of their own.
When my wedding ring started to scratch, I complained about it to my Dad and told him I was going to take it in to get buffed… He said “no, no, that’s cool, that’s PATINA!” I asked my dad what the word patina was and he said “it’s the wear of life”.
I love concrete too! We use it a lot in our designs at work and I’ve been blown away by how well it takes color and texturizing. I never knew concrete could look so good. Dees & I are going to try to pour some ourselves for square, earth-colored stepping stones in our front yard (which will probably be a bad idea). But I think it sounds fun to experiment with the color. And how hard would it be to make a square, right?
I too really liked the idea of concrete countertops in our kitchen until my co-worker told me he has a lot of cracks showing up in his. I’m gonna check out that Syndecrete place you mentioned? How are you finding out about all of these things Sarah????
Thanks for the comments biggestphan and Tara Jean!
Tara, I have to confess that Joe, almost always, is my informant for any of the resources I mention. It’s kind of annoying actually. :-)
Why don’t we pour some concrete squares next week!
I actually think Joe IS the “internet”. That guy knows a lot’a'links!
Wouldn’t it be nice, brownbear, if he actually did a blog post?!
tara - do you think the cracks in your co-worker’s countertops may be related to this?
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/ci14333528.php#details
oh - did sarah tell you about her earthquake pizza order?
I think i would like to see a video blog post of joe snapping together some saw horses and then riding them around the yard. giddy’up uber!
I’m not [yet] convinced that this is a realistic alternative for our house. I think one of the things that I like about the idea of a concrete countertop, for example, is that it is fabricated on site (or at least near site).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of prefabrication, but the economics and eco-considerations of prefab begin to fall apart when the production location is far removed from the installation site. In my opinion, one of the largest inhibitors for prefab home proliferation is the lack of consistent, reliable regional manufacturing facilities. I imagine it is both cost and eco- prohibitive to ship a Michelle Kaufmann home to Pennsylvania when the factory is near Seattle. (http://www.mkd-arc.com//homes/costs/).
Items like prefab concrete panels begin to make a lot of sense when you are manufacturing the same form repeatedly. For one-off applications like a custom kitchen or bathroom countertop, I have to believe that it’s more economical and environmentally friendly to fabricate on site with the raw materials [that can almost certainly be packed and delivered more compactly] than the finished product.
With this in mind, the Syndecrete products may be relevant if we decide to incorporate some of the “off-the-shelf” slabs into our designs.
The Syndecrete site also contains great information about the benefits of using fly ash in the concrete formulation. This is an idea that can certainly be adapted for DIY applications. In fact, author Thomas J. Elpel states that “The biggest departure we made from Cheng’s work was that we added fly ash to our mix. Fly ash is scrubbed from the exhaust flues of coal-fired power plants and has some of the properties of cement. It also has a buff, sandstone-like color we liked, but more than anything, it improved the quality of our concrete, making it both denser and easier to trowel.” (http://www.grannysstore.com/Do-It-Yourself/Concrete_Countertops.htm)
Wow! Where did you come from? Doesn’t everyone agree we should hear from Joe more often?