Poured Remaining Countertops and Started Grinding Island

April and I spent last week working on our new concrete counter tops.  On Monday and Tuesday we worked on the kitchen island countertops.  On Wednesday I had to resupply some of my colloring and do some yard work.  Thursday was spent removing the remaining old countertops.  On Friday we installed the Hardee board and built the forms for the remaining kitchen countertops.  I  had hoped to pour the concrete for the remaining countertops on Saturday, but it was all I could do to get the foam inserts and cut-outs made for the countertop stove and the kitchen sink.  I also cut and placed the rebar and wire wire mesh.  Whew.

As I mentioned on the 4th, we removed the old countertops on Thursday.  It was quite challenging because there was hardware holding the old countertops together that I hadn't expected to have to deal with.  Part of the challenge was finding the right tools in addition to finding the hidden things holding the counter tops to where they are/were.

I started trying to remove the old countertops by trying to remove the screws underneath; however, I quickly found there was more than just the screws holding everything together.  

The backsplashes were attached to the countertops via screws, and the backsplashes were also glued  to the walls as shown in the photo above.  I tried to use a putty knife to separate the backsplash from the walls; however, I still ended up pulling some of the dry-wall away.  I'll have to repair this later.

After all the old counters were removed, I installed the Hardee board which is a board made from Portland cement and common sand.  I chose the hardee board because it's super stiff and virtually the same stuff I'm pouring.  A good combination.  

In the photo below I'm leaning against the Hardee board.  Next I'll setup the forms.

I attached the forms directly to the Hardee board with a 1/2 inch gap between the front edge of the Hardee board and the form.  The gap will allow the concrete to flow in front of the hardee board.  By adding this gap you see an countertop that's 1 1/2 inches thick.  It is all concrete, but only an inch of the expensive stuff was actually poured.

Here is my rough sketch showing how I attached the forms to the Hardee board

It took a couple days to setup the forms because I also sealed every gap.  The diagram does not show the foam cut-outs, the rebar, or the wire mesh that I had to install due to making the countertop one giant piece.

The photo below shows the wire mesh, rebar, and foam cut-out for the sink installed and ready for the final pour.

On Monday night, my wife April and I worked together to mix and pour the concrete.  While each new batch was mixing I was using a palm sander (with no sandpaper) to vibrate the air bubbles out of the concrete.

It took a few hours to pour the counter top slabs, and a couple hours to clean up the equipment.  As a rule, never leave cement on the equipment because if you do, it will become a permanent part of the equipment.

It was a long night of hard work but as the photo above shows, we finished pouring the remaining countertops.

Next, we removed the tools from the center island to begin grinding it down.  The photo below shows the rough and un-ground countertop.

Here is a different angle that shows off how uneven the top of the slab is, due to the river of rocks.  Notice though that you can't see the rocks yet, at least not like we will see them after I start grinding off the top 1/8-inch.

You can see some of the rocks in the corner.  There are a lot of pin-holes and voids but they will be covered when I add a slury coat.

After a couple of hours of grinding down the island counter top, we can finally see what the river will look like.  Here is a picture of my wife April inspecting the rough ground river effect.  April is the one who designed and placed all the stones for the river effect.  I really like it and we can't wait to show it off the way we intended it to be seen.