Hey Folks!
Slab-Fab-Studio has done it again!
Our friends Kevin and Rachel Mitchell needed a new look for their kitchen.
They were very tired of their faux butcher block formica and decided to go with Slab-Fab-Studio for concrete replacements.
Kevin and Rachel did their own prepping of the kitchen space… Wall painting, trim etc.
Why not have a fresh look all around if you are going to go to the expense of new counters?
They chose a nice “spicy” ochre color for the walls and a suitable off white for their 1927 interior trims.
Kevin and Rachel had existing custom oak cabinets, but were worried that they were tired looking.
I recommended that they replace the hardware (an inexpensive change), and that we gear the concrete colors to compliment the existing cabinets.
We would take a wait and see approach to changes in cabinetry (likely possible painting) after the counters were finished.
Nowadays everyone is wanting to make the most of their living space.
Yet budget is playing a determinant role in spending decisions because the endless housing appreciation funny money of seems to be over for now. (come back!).
In these times, you have to get creative.
Kevin and Rachel had paid handsomely for a Anthracite over mount kitchen sink when they bought the house.
They really were not in the position to replace it… after all they liked it, but they wanted to have their sink undermounted in their new counters.
The sink was too large to fit inside the cabinet cavity as it was… we would need to trim off it’s overmount flanges in order to fit it in.
Anthracite is some cross between a cultured acrylic and marble cast, hard and brittle.
I had to warn Kevin, I could try to cut it down, but may destroy it in the process.
With disclaimers in place, I bought a small carbide circular saw blade, set it up on my table saw and gingerly made the cuts.
I successfully trimmed down the sink…. at the total destruction of the blade.
We were in business for undermounting their sink.

Kevin and Rachel had chosen a darkish charcoal base for their concrete tops.
We opted for cibola granite, amber glass, black glass, mirror glass, and white granite aggregate seedings to accent the charcoal base.
The seeding aggregates are cast (artfully) into the bottom of the concrete molds, which will end up as the top face of the cast.
One of the beauties of concrete is that you can get very refined in your color tones and color matchings.
The aggregates you might choose ( if you are polishing to expose them) all add to the flavor of the slabs.
Think of it like cooking, in that the accent aggregates are the spicings, that give the slabs visual zing you have control of.
These controls can tie into all sorts of other color concerns etc. that you have in your existing environment.
Design control is good!
Concrete color options are almost limitless!
For a new minor esthetic change, Slab-Fab-Studio made 1 inch thick back splashes for the counters (ordinarily 1 1/2 inches like the slabs themselves).
The elegance of their appearance seemed to overcome any structural worries about them being 33% thinnner.
They turned out beautifully (flat,straight, and strong) and will become the new standard back splash issue.
The sink area was a real test of craftsmanship.
The relationship between the countertop and the sink is very focal… the fitment a make or break in terms of quality craftmanship or not.
As the sink was never meant to be undermounted, the cutout, or rather knockout ( a foam template that occupies a space in the cast for some future object… say a sink or faucet) in the concrete had to be traced freehand inside the sink itself (trickier than it sounds) (thank you art school!).
With much head scratching I managed to make a mold knockout that seemed to function, and crossed my fingers that it had remained faithful to the grace of the existing sink interior detail.
I wouldn’t know until we installed the sink… but all turned out well in the end.

Two issues that have been at the top of my concrete countertop craft mind… have been sealer and slurry.
Effective sealing has it’s obvious place, but it’s more important than that… An effective (durable, stain resistant, easy enough to apply) sealer is really the holy grail of finishes… we have been searching for some time now.
All the while “effective” has to include esthetically pleasing to the eyes and touch… that complicates the criteria!
We’ve been experimenting, and have come up with a very good solution…
Wear, tear ,and time will tell if we are onto something.
I will let you know.
Lastly, and I should have known this as a former painting contractor…
Surface preparation really, really, matters….REALLY!
“Slurrying”, the filling of air voids and “bug holes” inherent in the concrete casting process with a portland cement based paste, has been somewhat under exercised at Slab-fab-Studio… I am embarassed to say… we just didn’t get it!
We have recognized the error of our ways and now understand the sublime importance of solid, smooth (as babie’s bottoms) surfaces.
The trees, and the forest! The forest, and the trees.
Perfection… is a road that has no end..
We are enjoying the drive…

As always many thanks to Jim Ojamaa. And a thanks to Robert Rhyndress for hands, back, brains, and spiritual guidance

I was impressed right away with Sallie Crutcher Cowan of Design Source, Forest City, NC.
She has that economical sense of design (throw creativity, not money, at the problem!) and the high energy to get a project done.
Sallie also has the natural artistic curiosity and patience to resolve creative challenges with novel solutions.

We decided to do an unusual concrete mix, where the aggregate content of mix (ordinarily gravel) would be replaced by broken safety glass cubes.
We thought this would create a modern/slick looking set of counters for the showroom she was designing for Cowan Tire’s brand new Rutherfordton, NC location.
Hunt and Sallie Cowan’s new tire store and car service, is a slick, multi-bay, ultra outfitted concern, seemingly more at home pitting Indy cars than changing the oil in Uncle Joe’s clunker.
But Sallie and Hunt are down to earth, with a real interest in recycling, an intense passion for vintage car racing, (and a keen sense of good BBQ!).
They even have a space heater that keeps their entire shop toasty in winter, that runs off used motor oil, with almost no emissions.
The shop may be the slickest thing on highway 221, but I’m sure the service will be very down home friendly.

The concrete counters were going to be big on colored and clear glass, with mirror and stainless steel parts thrown in, all polished to a baby smooth feel.
We were looking for wow factor, to quote Sallie, she wanted “more cowbell” that you can’t often find in straight up polished concrete.
I ended up making 260 pounds of recycled shower and sliding door safety glass for our aggregate content courtesy of Habit for Humanity. I broke the glass windows with a steel petanque ball sometimes having to throw the ball hard, many times before it shattered… safety glass is tough stuff!

We also added 50 pounds of cobalt blue glass made from crushing blue wine bottles with a 8 pound tamper.
No, I did not drink all of this German Liebfraumilch…
We found out that the recycling centers here in Asheville do not recycle blue glass.
Apparently it “poisons” the clear, brown, and green glass colors, and has to be hand separated out.

Sallie and I labored over the seeding process as the call was always “more cowbell”.
We cut cobalt blue glass and canary yellow panes found at a local stained glass supply shop into dramatic larger shards.
We added hidden treasures, coins and surprises.
Hunt provided us with stainless steel bits and bobs from his car spare part inventory, to further spice up the tops, sprockets, washers, and bearing races.
There were twenty four man hours in the mold seeding alone.
Many elements of the seeding had to be glued onto the mold one by one.
Here is what the seeded forms looked like prior to pouring the concrete.

Here is a picture of the molds poured with concrete.
We used white portland cement, white sand, and titanium white colorant to get… white concrete!
The curved leading edge of the mold was a nice challenge.
Multiple laminations of thin plywood provided the flexibility to follow the curve, and the strength to contain several hundred pounds of concrete.
The counters were basically two mirroring “wing” shapes in four sections, all totaling about 750 pounds of concrete.

Here is a picture of a slab section after polishing… aggregate exposed.
I’ve been looking for a way to describe the effect of glass aggregate replacing the stone/gravel.
I guess the assumption is that concrete usually looks heavy and clunky.
The white portland cement base and transparent aggregates, make these slabs have a inorganic/synthetic feel without being fake, cold, or plasticky.
The largeness and drama of the glass shards put distance between this concrete and a “terrazzo” look.
I keep coming back to “modern” in a “space age” kind of way.
The photos do not adequately convey this feel.

Here are pictures of the final product, installed at the construction site.
I will be taking more pictures when the showroom is completed… to give you the full impact of the tops in context.

Please check the Slab-Fab-Studio Flickr gallery to the right of this page for larger images.

Ok, just because you haven’t heard from Slab-Fab-studio for a while… it doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting on our hands.
The remodel of Shuford Rd. is finally set on a back burner, in a nicely livable state… cushy, I think is one appropriate adjective for it.
You may have seen the Shuford remodel slide show on my Billy Sproul Blogsite. I am very proud of the project and my wife, Marie Morris (who’s seen tons of kitchens in her line of work!) is very happy with the outcome too.

But now it is time to get back to REAL work!

I wanted to show you some specific projects that I am particularly proud of, and provide you with some details.

First I’d like to show off the concrete counters that Jim Ojamaa and I created for Shuford Rd.

WC converted to a wetbar off dining room

Polished aggregate exposed kitchen island.

Kitchen sink area perimeter counters

We wanted to make a subtle distinction between the tops, to create further visual interest and impact.
We chose to polish and expose the colored glass aggregates of the island, and leave the perimeter tops a… straight from the cast look.
We have been using a wonderful low VOC waterborne 2 part epoxy primer and clear finish called Eco-Tuff.
It gives the concrete color enhancement we want, yet the durability,ease of application, and eco-friendliness we need.

I will be having Lynne Harty do some professional photos of these new counters and other Slab-Fab-Studio projects.
Lynne can make the counters, etc. look as good as they do in real life… probably even better!
Lynne as recently launched her new website, do check it out, she is very good at whatever she gets involved with.
I will post those photos when we produce them.

Quickly, I’d like to share a couple of other projects with you…
One is the Shuford dinner table.
It is big, and seats more dinner guests than one should invite without having your head examined…
Shane Martin made a exquisite 1 1/2 ” x 36″x 96″ solid cherry slab.
Slab-Fab built a welded steel base in a lofty, industrial type look to contrast the natural perfection of the cherry with cold rustic steel.

With a bench seat on either side of the table, you can comfortably seat 10 people. So… let’s get the cookin started!
(See my scratch green enchilada sauce recipe here!)

Lastly,
My back has been asking for a new mattress for a couple of years.
Marie and I finally broke down and purchased a Sonno Prima mattress from Design Within Reach.
If you’ve seen DWR’s prices, I’d say “within reach” is a bit of a stretch!
The upshot… the mattress was delivered… and Slab-Fab-Studio got a chance to build a platform bed frame for it.

It was a challenging project, partly because of the large dimensions involved, but also the design effort to hide the platform support system.
The firm foam mattress is completely reliant on the platform structure for support.
A combination of a angle steel framework and Advantech engineered flooring solved the structure problems.

And the final outcome… we are ready to blast off to dreamland…. my back is happier!

Ok you guys, if you’ve gotten this far with me!
Slab-Fab-Studio is ready to roll up our sleeves with your pet project!
If you can think it up, and we can get it out our shop doors, we can build it!
Let’s get our our brains on point, pencil’s to paper, and our hands dirty!
Who says America doesn’t make things anymore?
Let’s get this American economy rolling again!
(I know, a bit grandiose… but you get the picture….)

Woody Feffer, wizard of Computer Mechanix Inc. here in a Asheville, is a bit of a Frank Lloyd Wright architecture fan…
Woody was visiting Broad Margin, a FLW house in Greenville,SC.

Living next door to me, Woody is well aware of my new concrete obsession.
He treated me to a few pictures, while at Broad Margin, courtesy of his iPhone camera. The 50 year old concrete kitchen countertops are in fantastic shape says Woody.
And you thought concrete counters were a new decor thing!

Something that is new… David K and Harry Brown’s master bath!

Below are some pictures of the final product courtesy of Mike Queeney of Shadowbend Photography.

Thank you Woody and Mike!

Here is an article from the New York Times regarding possible radon/radioactive contamination of granite countertops. I won’t gloat, don’t you go out and rent a jack hammer for your granite tops! But it does make concrete all that more attractive a choice for your next kitchen!
Here’s the link to the New York Times article.
Perhaps this article is just about selling radon testing to alleviate your fears…
Or perhaps this article is about promoting concrete countertops!

On a lighter note…
I am finally getting around to photographing David K and Harry Brown’s master bath project.
Rather, I would say a friend, Mike Queeney of Shadowbend Photography is doing the shoot for me. Mike does great work, we have a little trade going, so it is win/win for Slab-Fab-Studio and Shadowbend!
You can check out Mike’s Shadowbend Photography site here.

I will post some more pictures as soon as I have them in my filthy little mitts.
And speaking of unfilthy mitts… here’s a touching photo of Mike’s.

Mike’s photos are of course copyrighted…
I of course did not ask for permission to use this Shadow Bend photo on my blog….
So I expect lawyers to be knocking at my door any time now…
And so should you…. for lots of reasons!

I am moving into my new blog location here at Slab-Fab-Studio.
The fabslab blogsite will, as of today, drift off into wherever cyberspace flotsam drifts.
The explanation behind the move is described here.

First item of business… some color sample images.

I actually scanned the 5 square inch concrete samples on the bed of my old Astra scanner!

They came out very good I think.

Shiny surfaces are hard to photograph, without some flash blow out.

We have barely scratched the surface of color possibilities.

Check out the colors… keep in mind that they look different than they appear on your computer monitor.

But you catch the drift!

The last three of the color sample set are my new favorites.

I am still worked on the names… I think “Jaded Elvis” is one of my faves…

Here is the link to the new colors on Flickr.
You can also reach the ongoing color sample page by clicking the Slab Fab’s Concrete Colors under the “Link” sidebar at the right side of this page below the calender.
Each color sample in the set is clickable for a larger view.
Still to come, photos of David and Harry’s master bath!

There was a cloud of dread at Fab-Slab-Studio… that all the colors we would see emanated from a medium gray bagged concrete base.
Even our most fabulous chocolate brownie slabs for David K, in the end… came out looking cocoa gray. Don’t get me wrong… they are elegant and beautiful… as David would say “dressy”, but still in the grays….
After 1000’s of pounds of mixed concrete, it was tough… foreseeing gray forever into our future.
Then came other trouble in paradise!
A lack of control over our color consistancy from bag to bag (and supply problems) forced our hands.
We had to make our own concrete from scratch… nothing too new to mankind.
Here is a short history of concrete from Wikipedia.

Concrete (depending on your information source, and objectives) is make up roughly of 1 part portland cement, 2 parts aggregate (stone, glass, seashells what have you), and 3 parts sand.
The really good news… once you start making your own concrete the color options broaden tremendously.

Jim and I went on a exploratory mission to Harrin’s Sand and Gravel Co. here in Asheville.
What you see here are the scratch ingredients of our new concrete alternatives.

White portland and gray portland cement. White sand, orange sand (white sand combined with red clay), grey sand (crushed granite). White tumbled stone, red river stone, and gray granite gravel.
These are probably only interesting to us, but the possibilities they provide somebody “into” color are huge!
Here are some new samples we quickly brewed up… the imaginations doors are opening back up!
Most of what you see below are simply inherent differences of our cements, gravels, and sands put together in combinations to create different “base” colors. A few of the samples below have added “buff” powdered colorant . To quote from from Wikipedia….Buff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buffalo leather.

Jim and I just finished casting Harry Brown, and David Kanis’s master bath counters and bath tub surround…
Here’s a picture from Slab-Lab (my basement laboratory of Fab-Slab).

The picture does not convey the chocolate brownie look of the concrete…truly… they look tasty!
We brewed up 480 pounds of chocolate fudge brownie concrete!
Good enough to eat!
We also seeded it with a bunch of beautiful stone and glass aggregates…
They should look KILLER after polishing!

We will “turn them out” (Marie’s term for taking the casts out of the mold…much better than “demolding”) late Thursday or Friday morning.

We are excited to see whether they are as scrumptious as they seem!
More pictures after we install!
While I’ve got your taste buds stimulated…. check out this recipe for real “outrageous” brownies… supplied by another WordPress blogger. UMMMMMMMMM Good!

Fab-Slab remodeled our own kitchen with new polished aggregate concrete countertops.
Here are some pictures….

The finishes and fitment are really looking good!
Jim Ojamaa and I are very jazzed about the outcome, and Marie is wild about the new kitchen!

Special thanks to Jeff Dorstan for the assist!
Hopefully ya’ll can see them in person soon!
These counters are perfect for resting an elbow on while wine tasting!
Fab-Slab is off to the next project… David K’s master bath remodel.
Everybody needs concrete!
I’ll keep you posted!

Jim Ojamaa and I delivered our first kitchen countertop suite today.
Both Jim and I were nervous, hoping we had thought of every fabrication detail and finish detail.
The fitment turned out beautifully, the surfaces sumptuous and unusual… we are very pleased with the outcome!
These pictures were been taken prior to artist Toni De Lisa, of the Pampered Wall doing her magic to these kitchen walls as she has to every room in the rentals. We know the the countertop colors will fit in beautifully with her artistic touch, the stainless sink, fridge, and stove.
The apartment will be a short term rental in the Grove Park area of Asheville, for vacationers looking to take in the wonders of Asheville, while nesting in the intimacy of a charmed artistic home base.
Many thanks to David Madera for believing in Fab-Slab enough to sail with us on our maiden voyage.