I have been toying with the idea of building some concrete countertops for our house, which currently has horrific off white laminate with rounded leading edge and integral backsplash.
What have you done and seen done for backsplashes with concrete? I suppose I could make matching concrete sections, which might be kind of cool, but I will probably be sick of concrete work by that point. Slate? Wood? Anyone have pictures of what they have done? I could go without any, but I suspect once I tear the current counters off, the wall will be pretty banged up back there…and there is nothing I hate more than drywall patching.
Replies
tile?
or maybe stainless if you have a contemporary kitchen
Edited 3/25/2006 5:03 pm ET by CAGIV
I was gonna do stainless, until I found out my 20' of splash was only gonna be $672. Bruce
Between the mountains and the desert ...
It's all relative I guess.
I've had some customers put up Tile backsplash that worked out to around 30 bucks a sqft. But thats installed price.
I just did some honed slate counters in my house (see "what did you do today"), and the honed slate looks not unlike polished concrete. you can get it in several different colors. Any of your ideas could be done well- wood, tile, slate, concrete. it shouldn't be too hard to make a concrete backsplash.
zak
One option that looks great in more contemporary kitchens is 1/2" thick glass that is sand blastered on the back side and painted in the same color as the walls (or any other ofcourse). It gives a very reflective surface and doesn't require any finish behind.
Pick one of those more whitish glasses (Ultra glass) or the glass' greenish color will steal to much from the color of the paint.
back splash out of concrete really isn't too hard.... but the glass is a great idea... maybe some led's behind it and light it?... colored glass tiles are cool... stainless $674 wow... i'd find another sheet metal shop... last time i got a 4x10ft sheet it was like $100... they had some dented sheets for 50% off... that about 90% were good... copper bent over a 1x6 would work... 6 strips 8" x 8ft out of a sheet wouldn't be too bad ... lots of options...
are you plan'n on building a mold or casting in place?
p
Here are some links that may help.
http://www.concretenetwork.com/index.html
http://www.countercast.com/
http://www.concreteexchange.com/index.jsp
I recently made a cast concrete sink surround for my kitchen. A low backsplash is part of the countertop. It makes it a lot easier to keep clean, and the surface slopes to the sink all the way around.
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~claypen
That looks nice. Did u make the cabinets, awesome. . You sure laid out that electrical with not much room too spare.
Yes. I made the cabinets, too. The electrical work was done by a professional.Clay Foster
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~claypen
I have tried concrete countertops with sink cutouts like yours, but without the integral backsplash.
Cast on melamine forms with the show surface to the form, I really didn't have a way of sloping the top to the sink cutout.
How did you do yours? Was your top surface the show surface, the one you screeded and finished?
Gene,
I made a mold out of plywood, wood, and Durham's Rockhard putty. The mold was then coated with several layers of exterior vanish. The mold was a negative, so the concrete surface you see in the picture was the bottom surface of the mold. It's amazing the level of detail concrete will reproduce, right down to 150 grit sanding scratches in the mold. After the concrete had cured in the mold a week, I broke the mold down and wet sanded the concrete, starting with 150 grit and going to 400. I filled in the tiny airbubbles with a slurry of Portland cement. When I poured the concrete, I vibrated the mold with an old orbital sander until the world look level, which kept me from getting any voids.
Clay Foster
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~claypen