Concrete Farmhouse Sink Is a Natural Fit with Seamless Concrete Kitchen Countertops

Choosing a countertop is no longer confined to the restrictions of standard colors, standard sizes, or limitations in shape and texture. Limited options with granite, Corian and other surface materials are of no concern when you design and build with concrete. Using these attributes of concrete by molding, shaping and coloring into beautiful and functional kitchen countertops is just what Nobel Concrete in Jenison, MI specializes in.

Recently, David Eerdmans of Nobel Concrete was contacted by Dan and Terry Stephan of Daniel Stephan Builders to create a concrete farmhouse sink, an integral garden sink, and an upper bar that needed to span over 11 feet long. "We had done a stamped patio before for this client," explains Eerdmans, "and they had heard I started doing concrete countertops, plus they'd seen some on the Internet and in Europe, and so they contacted me to see what I had."

Eerdmans started the project by working up color samples for the clients to approve. "They wanted something light in color, so I worked up a sample using two different colors of cream integral color from Bomanite." Eerdmans started with a white base precast concrete mix, and mixed the integral color with the concrete. "It took a little technique to have it blend together correctly," he says, "but it turned out to be a nice color."

Concrete Farmhouse Sink
The clients also wanted to incorporate the look of a farmhouse sink, a popular style where the face of the sink is exposed within a custom cabinet. "I worked with the builder on the size of the cabinets," explains Eerdmans, "then I had to design and build a custom mold."

The farmhouse sink weighs approximately 260 lbs., and has become a design piece of Eerdmans' 'David Benjamin Signature Series,' his personal line of custom concrete sinks and molds. "I cast it upside-down," he explains, "and sanded it after taking it out. It also has a garbage disposal, so I had to leave the right amount of space on the bottom."

Eerdmans poured the sink with the same color as the concrete countertops. "I poured everything at the same time so it all would match," he says. All of the kitchen countertops were precast, along with the farmhouse sink poured as one single piece. "The farm sink sits on the lower cabinet and I connected it with surrounding countertop pieces on the side and back."

Concrete Kitchen Countertops
"The clients didn't want any seams in the long runs of countertop surface," recalls Eerdmans. To achieve this look, Eerdmans pre-cast the countertops full length at 1 ¾ inch thick. The two pieces of the island were precast with the upper bar measuring 11 foot 6 inches long. "We made the upper bar 2 inches thick for extra strength, and reinforced it with #4 rebar," explains Eerdmans.

The lower portion of the island was created with a cookout and integral sink in one piece. "They wanted a garden sink to cut vegetables, so the sink was designed for a garbage disposal to be attached," says Eerdmans. "The clients specified that they wanted the garden sink to be 14" diameter and 5" deep," he says, so he created a custom mold and built it into the single countertop piece. He cast the garden sink with the countertops, and ground it down, filling in voids in the concrete with color which "gives it an old world look," says Eerdmans. "The customers loved it," he adds.

To seal the countertops, Eerdmans used a two-part urethane from Bomanite and the seams were filled with a knife-grade polyester resin from GranQuartz. "It's the same thing used to seam granite countertops," he says. "It's a clear knife-grade resin-like paste, which you can tint to get color to match the countertop."

With a little ingenuity and skill of master craftsmen such as Eerdmans and Nobel Concrete, concrete can be just the right answer for beautiful custom countertops.

Nobel Concrete
1777 DeWent Dr
Jenison, MI 49428
(616) 797-1210 Office
(616) 797-1211 Fax
david@nobelconcrete.com Email
jared@nobelconcrete.com Email

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