Concrete Countertops Made Simple: A Step-by-step Guide

very informative cant wait to make my first top

Made myself a concrete countertop following reading this book and watching the dvd - beware the yanks use different terminology and types of material. Made shuttering added gfr and steel, loads of black dye, some pretty stones and some glitter. It was beautiful and I was proper smug. It cracked after 3 months and I nearly cried. Now I have no concrete countertop :(

Also get the other Fu-Tung Cheng book, Concrete Countertops: Design, Form, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bath (copy/paste, see what I did for you there?) for more advanced design ideas. Get the videos get the videos get the videos. Watch several times, watch the video included with this one, THEN go start building it using this book as a reference at the build site and you'll have this book covered in slurry, dye, and dusty fingerprints in no time.Built 4 countertops (one was about 650lbs) with the Fu-Tung system, bought their mixes, dyes, slurry, etc. and saved about $35k doing it myself. They look great, too.Oh, and go to toolocity (google it) for diamond grinding stuff (yes, with the extra o). Wet grinding pads from them and a $30 Harbor Freight variable speed polisher did the trick for us. We hooked up a GFI to it in case it got wet (and it was only $30 if it did)and used a garden hose for the wet grind. Worked just as well as a $500 wet polisher.

We still have yet to make a concrete countertop but my husband loved this book and would still like to make a countertop. If only we would stop moving so he could...

I have two of Cheng's books and they have some overlap, but also new information. This book is very good and gives a good explanation and photos to describe the steps. I think it could use a few more, but if you re-read and pay attention, it eliminates most/all the earlier confusion. He also included a very well-done DVD that shows short clips of the various steps and these also helped to visualize some of the text descriptions. The book and DVD are Taunton Press and I've always found them to be very high quality.It does show a substantial portion of his own work, which can seem a overly-commercial turn-off in some cases, but it also is instructive and gives ideas of what can be done. I've noticed that other similar genre authors do the same thing and it is good supplemental information if they don't saturate you with it. Overall I think this is a very good instuctional reference that would give me enough confidence to start on my own project.