Concrete Countertops: Design, Form, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bath | 
 enlarge | Authors: Fu-tung Cheng, Eric Olsen
Publisher: Taunton
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $13.98
You Save: $15.97 (53%)
New (37) Used (20) Collectible (2) from $13.75
Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 10442
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 9.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1561584843
Dewey Decimal Number: 684.1
EAN: 9781561584840
ASIN: 1561584843
Publication Date: March 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: May have small mark or shelf wear / Legendary independent bookstore online since 1994. Reliable customer service and no-hassle return policy.
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Product Description
This book reinvents the countertop with a single material: concrete. Concrete Countertops is an essential book for architects, homeowners and contractors who want to learn how to design, form, mix, pour, color, trowel, inlay and finish decorative concrete countertops. Homeowners will be inspired by the 350 color photographs that bring this exciting medium to life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Great Start July 31, 2008
This was a helpful book for a beginner. I learned enough to want to tackle a test project.
great info April 7, 2008
This book really goes through all the important steps. And pictures are worth a million words..The were very helpful...I highly suggest purchasing this book.
concrete countertops December 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book only details a start to finish job of a single (albeit fairly complex) kitchen counter. It would be helpful to cover some other methodologies to make it a more diverse compendium. It looks to do a good job of covering many of the pitfalls that a novice like myself may encounter on a first project. Some beautiful pics included of other projects as well.
 o.k. December 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is o.k. for the do it yourself person who has some previous experience, but not for the novice.
 The Perfect Pastime for Obsessive Compulsives Awaits November 26, 2007
4 out of 15 found this review helpful
Those whose need to obsessively clean, clean, clean will find in this volume the very thing that will give order, utility and meaning to their affliction. The many and colourful photos in the book, especially those promoting the author's own business (all of them) show the gleaming and pristine surfaces that a concrete countertop offers to those prepared to perpetually be wiping them down. I will not be surprised to learn that Howard Hughes had these babies installed.
Drinking too much? A concrete countertop may be the answer! Wine, even in relatively small amounts, left on the countertop will rapidly etch and discolour the surface you laboured so long and hard to produce. The proud owner of a concrete countertop soon learns that a hangover is hardly the only thing that remains after the party ends. You'll reminisce about the good times you've had as you survey the rings and semicircles that each glass or bottle leaves, and the imbiber soon learns to moderate his consumption in the interests of maintaining perpetual vigilance.
Fitness, too can be maintained through judicious pursuit of the simple activities described in this slim volume. If your mania for a high fruit diet has left you thin and weedy, and lacking the vigorous physique that gains respect and attention, cease your fretting! The process of creating a set of countertops rewards the devotee who follows the instruction provided with the equivalent of a 6 month strength training regime, within a single 24 hour period in which you will mix, pour the concrete, and then clean up the mess that is produced. My own set weighed an easy half-ton, and after completing and installing it, no-one ever kicked sand in my face again. And, the resulting surface is even more prone to damage from citrus than wine, so that fashionable but fey diet with lots of fruit will soon be a thing of the past, replaced by a healthy preference for beefsteak and blood sausage.
All of this points to another advantage that this book will provide its devoted apostle: a more complete appreciation of modern chemistry, and in particular the many and varied chemical compounds found in the modern kitchen, many of which - certainly more than I suspected - have an acidic nature which the counter will soon reveal.
Even after the process of pouring, the prospect of moving your creation combines all the most challenging aspects of a forced march, a bulgarian weight lifting camp and nineteenth century quarry work. Trust me, there's nothing like it, and it's all in here.
I am surprised that others who bought this did not also buy Bullfinch's Mythology. Through this book I rediscovered the joy of the study of mythology, specificaly the myth of Sysiphus, to say nothing of Prometheus, especially the liver bit.
If you've heard about concrete countertops but thought that no guide existed to introduce you to concrete's magical world; if you thought that you lacked the skills and energy to take on such a job; if you thought that agonizing labour to produce a dated-before-it-is-finished work surface cum impossible-to-dispose-of millstone was beyond you - well, let's hope you're right. For the rest of us, this book is just what the clinical psychiatrist ordered. Next time, I'll use Lithium.
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