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Pour, Reinforce, and Level Concrete

4:35
11:06
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At 4:35 in

DIY Concrete Countertops For DUMMIES

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What happens here

Pour approximately the first inch of mixed concrete into the prepared mold, spreading it evenly across the bottom. Gently push the concrete into all the corners and edges to fill any nooks and crannies. This initial layer ensures a good base and helps prevent voids. Next, carefully lay the pre-cut wire mesh reinforcement on top of this first concrete layer. Then, add the remaining concrete mix, covering the wire mesh completely and filling the mold to the desired thickness (around 2 to 2.25 inches). Push the concrete into the mesh and corners again to ensure full encapsulation and minimize air pockets. Use a long 2x4 or a 1x3 board to screed the concrete by moving it back and forth in a sawing motion across the mold's edges. This levels the surface, removes excess concrete, and pushes high spots into low spots. Once the surface is roughly level, gently tap or wobble the table the mold is resting on to help bring air bubbles to the surface.

Goal: Pour concrete, embed reinforcement, level the surface, and release air bubbles.

Tools and materials

  • 2x4 or 1x3 Board — Screeding and leveling the concrete surface
  • Gloves — Hand protection
  • Melamine Mold — Holding the concrete
  • Mixed Concrete Quikrete — Forming the countertop slab
  • Sawhorses — Supporting the mold
  • Trowel — Spreading the concrete
  • Wire Mesh Reinforcement — Strengthening the concrete

What they say

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lot easier to work with then apply the first inch throw the entire mold pushing it on the little nooks look crannies little edges it's gonna make it so much easier to fill in some of the voids ahead of time so I'm gonna give you guys the bullet points when it comes to reinforcing the concrete the whole idea is for concrete countertops you don't want to make them any less than two inches so in our situation we did about two and a quarter of an inch that's number one number two the whole thing is not if your concrete cracks the story is when your concrete cracks it just does it's like part of this natural cycle now the only you can control is the type of fracture or the crack it has it could be either the sidewalk or sub-disciplines break away or it could be a nice hairline fracture that actually adds to the character of the slab that's totally up to you now because we're working with 2-inch thick material they say do not put the or steel reinforcement the rebar in it because you won't have enough of the concrete to actually cover the surface area to be as strong so in our situation I went down to my local hardware store and I picked up this four by eight sheet of eighth inch wire great and now they sell for about ten bucks a sheet really cheap just use any kind of shears or anything you have to break it apart my advice to you is this when you install it make sure it covers the edges of your mold at least an inch around the closer you gets to the edges the better keep in mind the closer you get to the edges the more chances that you'll actually see the reinforcement we don't want to do that all right once the first inch of concrete layer is laid down bring your enforcement slap it on top and then fill in with the rest of the concrete pushing it in all to little nooks crannies in the sides then once that's done take a long two by four a one by three anything like that they'll reach from one side of the mold to the other and shimmy it from side to side like sawing it back and forth pushing the high spots into the low spots adding more concrete to fill in the low spots and then once you're ready now we're gonna focus on getting the air bubbles out you can use different tools you can use anything you want but I found that just moving a thing and wobbling the thing for a longer period of time tends to do a pretty good job about it so what I'm doing right now is

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