No! If they are, you should be wary of having a sidewalk on top of your cabinets.

High quality concrete countertops are hand crafted by skilled artisans using ultra high performance concrete mixes and sealers. They are hand made, custom, unique and personalized – and worth the money.

Concrete is mainly sand, cement and water, with some admixtures and fibers added in. Material costs of concrete countertop mixes are not the issue. The issue is knowledge about and skill in concrete and all of the processes involved in creating high quality concrete countertops, sinks, furniture, fire features and more: templating, forming, reinforcing, diamond polishing, sealing, installation. Labor is by far a bigger cost in creating concrete countertops than materials are.

For creative concrete professionals, The Concrete Countertop Institute provides extensive business training and resources, including Starter Kits of tools, equipment and materials, Project Management processes to increase efficiency and reduce labor costs, and Sales & Marketing training including pricing, a contract, architectural specifications and much more.

Yes, when properly made. “Durable” could refer to structural integrity, or to appearance. High quality concrete countertops should have both types of durability.

You may have heard the maxim, “Concrete cracks”. You’ve seen huge cracks in sidewalks. This does not have to be the case with concrete countertops. Tiny hairline cracks are possible, but structural cracks should never occur in properly made concrete countertops with high performance mixes and correct reinforcement.

The durability of the appearance of your concrete countertops depends entirely on how they are sealed. Bare concrete is porous and highly susceptible to staining. Acids literally eat away the cement paste between the sand grains in bare concrete. If a high performance urethane coating sealer such as Omega Concrete Countertop Sealer is applied, acids and staining agents will never touch the concrete. Your concrete will still look very natural, and it will not require maintenance. How often do you have to paint your car?

The answer to this question depends entirely on the sealer used.

Cheap acrylic sealer will need maintenance every few months, maintenance of penetrating treatments will vary, whereas a high performance urethane coating will never need to reapplied.

All sealed concrete surfaces should be cleaned with a non-abrasive cleaner. Coating sealers should never be cut on. Unless your coating is made of diamonds, it will scratch!

For more information about penetrating versus coating sealers, see this article.

There is no need for concrete countertops to be thicker (and heavier!) than typical countertops such as granite and solid surface.

With high performance concrete countertop mixes and proper reinforcing, GFRC concrete countertops are made 3/4″ (19 mm) thick, and the edges are turned down to achieve the desired appearance of thickness.

Traditional steel-reinforced concrete countertops can be made 1.5″ (38 mm) thick.

Concrete is about the same weight of stone of the same thickness. You don’t think twice about putting granite on cabinets without extra reinforcement, so why would you need it with concrete?

GFRC concrete countertops are generally made only 3/4″ thick, half the thickness of traditional countertops, so they weigh about half as much.