Last year just before Easter I finished most of my kitchen remodel. So we’ve been living with the feather-finish concrete countertop island for almost a year. I still love it because it was sooooo inexpensive. I would prefer a faux carrera marble solid surface material…but that wasn’t in the budget and still isn’t.
I used the Ardex feather finish treatment that’s all over the web.
We’ve put this concrete to the test. I should say we put the sealer to the test. My first attempt to seal the concrete I tried wax. It had a matte, velvety sheen that made you want to put your cheek to it. It was perfect until the heat of the stove melted it and caused greasy looking spots next to the stove.
Not long after Easter I sanded the countertop, applied another coat of concrete, and re-sealed. This time with poly-acrylic(water based polyurethane). The finish on the concrete is less than desirable. The poly seamed to sit on top of the concrete like a film and made it too shiny(even in a satin finish, which I love on furniture). The concrete didn’t look like it’s natural rugged self.
Then, after the poly sealer, the oil spots started to seep up from the wood underneath and in around the edges of the stove. Plus, some the concrete started to chip away and stain the surrounding areas. A spotty, greasy mess.
So today I took the countertop outside and scraped, sanded, and primed the countertop to prep for a new layer of concrete and some real concrete sealer.
I gave it two coats of tinted primer so none of the oil stains would come back up from the wood or the old concrete. The concrete I keep referring to is the feather finish sold at Home Depot. Most of the blogs out there talk about the Ardex brand feather finish, but I used the home depot brand. Same thing. It’s sold in a box in the flooring area.
Tomorrow I’ll seal it and install. Then see if the concrete sealer is all it’s cracked up to be.
