Being Mr. Modern and ahead on the trend, I have a brick colored concrete counter top that is now twelve years old. Being Miss old fashioned and behind on the trend, my wife kneads home made bread on the counter top almost daily. This has caused its once smooth surface to become rough and unsightly. How do I restore it to smoothness? Any ideas?
Brother Randor
Replies
i'm more interested in the wife that makes bread everyday....
p
She put sand in the bread??Bruce
Between the mountains and the desert ...
What's the concrete finished with? A thick finish that's wearing off would just call for more finish. If it's a thin penetrating finish, and it's the actual concrete wearing away, I'm very impressed with the amount of bread your wife makes. I make my own 2 or 3 times a week, but I can't imagine wearing away a countertop.
Anyway, wearing away of the concrete would call for re-polishing it. You could rent or buy a 4.5" polisher and get a set of diamond polishing pads from Pearl abrasives or a few other places, and take it back down to 800 grit or more, whatever matches. It would be very, very messy.
You might consider making or buying a nice wood kneading board that attaches over that section of the counter, something that won't shift around too much. Or get her a kitchen-aide.
zak
Most of us have few options other than factory made 'bread' that is chock full of things that have not tradtionally been included in bread. Artisanal bakery bread is a huge improvement, but it often contains preservatives (they don't tell you) which affect the taste in a significant way. I am privileged to have learned that there is a subtle but important quality difference between hand-kneaded bread and machine-kneaded bread. And my wife makes bread because she enjoys it (not because I beat her). We also eat mostly home made jam from berries we pick, mushrooms from the forest and as much as we can directly from the garden. Life is short so it might as well be tasty.The concrete countertop originally had a polished surface which I believe consisted primarily of cement rather than sand. I suspect that something in the bread dough has reacted with the cement and slowly eaten it away leaving a rough, sandy surface.I am worried that if we attack the surface with a sander that it will just loosen the sand underneath rather than polish it. My wife's first solution to the problem was to use a large wooden cutting board to knead her bread, but it raised her work surface about an inch which was a big negative.Further thoughts?
Oh brother ... :)
Just imagine for a moment that whatever is in the bread that is capable of eating away that polished surface is not eating away at your digestive track. Maybe this is why the unbeaten women is baking you bread. Ok, this is helpful.
I understand the height issue. I put a wood countertop in one area of my kitchen, an inch or so lower than the other counters, primarily for making bread.
I did a quick search for "concrete countertop forum" and got this:
http://www.decorative-concrete.net/forum/forum.php?page=1&lastdate=-11200&fid=4I don't know much about it, but you might want to look through it. There may be something like epoxy that you could mix with cement and stain to match and recoat your counter, but I can't imagine it looking exactly the same, and I'm not sure you'd want to prepare food on it daily. The only real solution I can think of is to grind down to solid concrete.It might be possible to carve out a spot for an inset cutting/kneading board in that countertop if it's thick enough, but again, a lot of messy cutting/grinding. Rebar could get in your way too.zakedited to make my paragraphs work
Edited 3/1/2006 12:50 pm by zak
Thanks zak. Lot's of info there to grind my teeth on.Brother Randor
Brother
Sorry I don't have the answer for your question but if my wife made bread on a daily bases I'd make sure I did what ever I had to to correct the problem!
Doug