My husband did black concrete countertops in my Sister-in-Laws house 4 years ago. They still look great, no cracks. She did put a food grade sealer on them, but yours may already have it if they are a precast. Anything that is dropped on them breaks, such as glass, and you will need a cutting board concrete will ruin your knives. Kids certainly wont destroy them. I do know the darker the color the more expensive the countertop, they have to use a larger quanity of dye to achieve the color. If your handy at all you can form them and pour yourself, saving tons of money. I am putting them in my new house. I am going to stain mine and will save a bundle. Husband can do it all for around $200 verses $2000 for granite. Good luck, I think you will like them.

I have concrete on my island and LOVE it. Can put hot pots down from both stove and oven with no fear of burning it. Cleans up well and looks great. Had ours done by the carpenter and paid him for his time, about 1-1/2 days and the concrete, stain and sealer. I say go for it!!!

Thank you for all the help. How hard is this to do for a DIY project? A local contractor told me about $3500 for 75 sq feet of countertops (not bad at all) since granite/quartz are about $5000. My husband said he can do it himself but we are wondering how it is done. We have a large island and don't want seams if possible. What is the best type of sink to go with? I was thinking a farmhouse sink.

Farmhouse sinks work well if you are forming your own concrete counter top. You can find info all over the internet for DIY concrete countertops. A local concrete guy should be able to do it for you, (they frame it right on top of your cabinets) and it shouldnt be anywhere near $3500. Pre cast are what cost you. Concrete is around $110 a yard and you normally have to double that for the concrete guy, if that gives you any idea. Sometimes contractors wont mess with that small amount of money, but times are tough and you may be able to make a good deal. Good Luck. If your anywhere near Chicago there is a class you can take for $500 and they teach you how to DIY. You even do the actual work and build a concrete countertop and sink its a 2 day class, can also learn the staining technique.

That is interesting that you mention that it shouldn't be $3500 since the first company I called told me it is $95/sq foot. Hate to say it but for that price I would get soapstone. So when the 2nd company mentioned about $3500 I was thrilled until my husband said he would just do it himself.

For those of you that have done it yourself were you disappointed with the results or were they just like you expected? Is it better to make them on the ground or on the cabinets? Not too sure if we can find like 6 men to carry it off the floor when it is time.

DIY will need to be on the countertop, if you do it on the ground you will take a change of stress cracking it, and it will weigh a ton. Do some research, you will need to let the concrete cure before you can seal it and use it. A concrete guy who pours driveways will be able to do this for you. Where do you live I may have a contact in your area.

I would not do cast in place. This prevents you from ever removing the countertop if necessary. When I researched concrete, the cost limiting factor was in buying the binders and pigments from people like Buddy Rhodes to guarantee that the product would be the best quality the first time out.

Good luck!

. Any concrete company will mix the design necessary for a countertop, and they all have small squares of concrete with the pigment added to look at and take home, you wont need to buy anything from anywhere else, except the food grade sealer.

Quickrete has a premixed countertop formula available for special order at Lowe's. Just add water and color, which is also available at Lowe's.(the color, not water!) We are going to do our own countertops, and have done sample pieces with this concrete. It flows well, not too air bubbly. I would recommend renting a mixer, concrete is heavy mixing each batch in a wheel barrow!
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Oh, I called Quickrete about a month ago, they are suppose to come out with their own sealer. I am hoping they get it out before we do our counters.

We did our own in a previous house, and will do the ones in our next house when we build. It's kind of a pain, but not technically hard to do. Here are some photos of the finished project. Click the photo for more.

This was our first attempt. If you are interested, get the book from cheng concrete. It's extremely detailed and useful. You do not, however, need to purchase their products to make the counters. Much cheaper to buy local.

Also check out this thread from ikea fans: http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/general-remodeling/10844-bought-cement-mixer.html

(you might have to register to read this)

We really liked them. They do stain, but if you go with a dark color it's minimal. They're gorgeous.

Here is a link that might be useful: concrete help

We are total DIYer;s and are just finishing our final two slabs in a huge kitchen. They are beautiful, durable, inexensive (if you do them yourself) and look like nobody elses!!! We knew nothing when we started and now consider ourselves pretty experienced. I'm so glad we did his but I don't think I would want to do it again-it is alot of work if you want it right but very gratifying. The best thing you can do is take Cheng's book out from the library and read it cover to cover. Then get allthe equipment you will need-rent or purchase a cement mixer, buy a variable speed wet grinder and all the diamond pads (Tool City is cheap). We found a used pencil vibrator but a sawzle (without the blade) or an orbita sander works well. DON'T cast in place-build the moulds with melamine and pour on a LEVEL surface (we built a plywood platform). Do use rebar and mesh, Quickcrete (flowcrete here in Canada), integral pigment purchased locally at a cement supplier (much cheaper, use acrylic rather than water when you "slurry" and if you want a harder than nails penetrating sealer there is a new product in the states that we used and it's fabulous. Hve I turned you off yet LOL!! Seriously though it is worth the effort and once you've raed Chengs book and watched his video you will see that it's not that complicated. You must be patient and be a bi of a perfectionist if you want a professional finish but it is certainly doable. I haven't updated for a long time but there is a thread I started called "bought the cement mixer" over at ikeafans. Ther's lots of pics, ideas, recommendations. Good luck-go for it.

By the way you will need at least 5 strong men when you move them. You wil alos need somewhere to grind and polish - we used our trailor as a portable grinding table. Someone mentioned $200 for a counter-I don;t know how that is possible. I would say we have probably spent about $2500-$3000 (includes purchasing 2nd hand mixer,$200 and other tools) on ours but the same in granite would have been about $10,000. To have them made by someione else would have been far more expensive than granite.