Larkspur Concrete Countertops

Kitchens up here get built around windows and woodstoves, not around whatever the slab yard is pushing this season. Heavy timber, stone chimneys, a lot of oak and pine, and an island that ends up being the only real table in the room. Concrete fits those houses because it's the one counter surface you can size, shape, and color to the room instead of buying it in fixed dimensions and cutting to fit.

We cast tops for kitchens, bars, grill counters, vanities, and hearth caps around Larkspur, and honestly the property changes the job more than the color does. A remodel in an older house where the cabinets have settled a quarter inch is a different build than a new island going in where nothing has moved yet. We template what's there, not what the plan says.

What the house tells us before we template

First thing we do is put a level on the cabinet runs and a straightedge across the boxes. Older kitchens around Perry Park and Sage Port have often been through a settling cycle or two, and a top cast dead flat onto a cabinet run that isn't will either rock or telegraph a gap at the backsplash. Both are fixable with shims and scribes if we know about them at template.

Then we look at spans and support. Where the sink cut falls, how much material is left in front of it, whether a dishwasher opening sits under a long run, whether anybody plans to sit at an overhang. Bear Dance kitchens are usually square and well built, so those templates go quick and the decisions are about color and edge profile instead of structure. Older houses take longer up front and come out just as well.

Where a concrete top goes in these houses

Mix, steel, and why a counter is really a beam

Here's the part that separates a top that lasts from one that hairlines in year two. A countertop spans between supports and carries load, which makes it a small beam, and beams need steel in the right place. We run reinforcement low in the section where the tension is, tie it around every cutout, and add extra where the material narrows in front of a sink. Cutout corners get the most attention, because that's where a top wants to crack.

The mix matters as much. Low water content, hard aggregate, enough polymer and fiber to keep the section tight. We cast upside down in a mold so the finished face comes off dense and closed, then wet grind to the exposure you picked, from a smooth cream face to stone showing through. Then it cures in the shop before anything touches it.

Outdoor tops at 6,720 feet, and when we build them

An outdoor concrete counter has to handle everything a patio slab does, on a piece that's an inch and a half thick and cantilevered over an appliance. So we build them differently: air-entrained mix so freezing water has room, exterior sealer instead of the food-safe interior product, a slight pitch so meltwater runs off, and no dead flat seams where ice can sit. Done that way they winter fine without a cover.

Timing is easy on the shop side. We cast, cure, and grind indoors year round, so a January order is no different from a June one. What moves with the season is sealing and install on outdoor work, which wants moderate temperatures and dry weather. If you want a grill counter ready for summer, winter is the right time to order it.

What comes with a top from us

• A template built on your actual cabinets, after they're set and leveled
• Color, edge profile, and exposure chosen from samples we cast, not a catalog photo
• Sink, faucet, and appliance cutouts formed in rather than cut after
• Steel placed for the span, doubled around every opening
• Wet grinding to your chosen exposure, then a full cure before sealing
• Sealer matched to indoor food prep or outdoor exposure, whichever it is
• Delivery, setting, and seam work, plus a care sheet you'll actually read