Custom concrete offers rock-solid décor (Florida Today)

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Custom concrete offers rock-solid décor

BY CHRIS KRIDLER
FLORIDA TODAY

Mysterious, stony, smooth, dark, light, colorful, complex . . . concrete? The next time you notice an interesting color or texture on a countertop, a floor or a driveway, look twice. It might be engraved, stained or custom-formed concrete.

"It's an awesome material to work with," says Sue Tuttle of Indialantic. The Mud Flats Pottery proprietor and her husband, John, created sleek, charcoal-black kitchen counters out of concrete. "We've done it all ourselves."

More designers and homeowners are discovering the versatility of concrete, which can be custom-colored for pieces like countertops, fireplace mantels and floors, or etched and stained for floors and driveways.

Zac Coletti of Sebastian, owner of Concrete Canvas, used a "wet on wet" technique for the swirly, sea-green concrete floor in the new Squid Lips restaurant on Eau Gallie Boulevard in Melbourne. "We'll almost blend the colors like watercolors," he says.

Coletti is a preferred Buddy Rhodes concrete countertop maker; Buddy Rhodes is a concrete supplier and "the godfather of concrete countertops," Coletti says. For counters, Coletti makes custom melamine-lined molds into which he pours the colored concrete.

Different techniques provide different looks. Hand-pressed concrete creates voids that are filled in with a different color, to give a veined look like stone. Custom holes for sinks, trivets and more can be created for each piece.

The same techniques can be used to make furniture, planters and indoor water features.

The cost of custom concrete
countertops is comparable to granite, at about $80 to $135 per square foot for high-quality work, he says.

"It's comparable with granite as far as durability," he says. "There's a little bit of maintenance involved, as there are with any type of stone." In this case, he suggests coating countertops with bees wax every few months so they retain their shine, but some customers do it less.

Though the Tuttles coated their new counters with bees wax, they anticipate letting their patina develop with use.

"It's colored throughout, so if it chips or anything like that . . . there is no change in color," Sue Tuttle says.

The dark, smooth color of the countertops complements the red wood of their cherry cabinets and their stainless steel appliances, giving the renovated 1962 kitchen a modern, sophisticated feel.

Their next concrete project is a fireplace mantel.

Craftsmen use special techniques and tools to re-create the look of stone on floors, sidewalks and driveways, as well.

Jay Arnold, owner of New Smyrna's Concrete Wizard, does all three. His company repairs driveways, then stains, textures, etches and seals them to get the desired look, from slate to tile to brick. He also does sidewalks, patios, parks, barns and indoor floors.

"It's one of the big things that's going on now, because you can't hurt it," Arnold says. "A lot of people are doing it inside."

A brick look runs about $4.20 per square foot, while the flagstone look costs about $5.50, a lot less than the real thing. Other finishes include cobblestone and river rock. Craftsmen also can engrave patterns, from suns to fish.

"Once we engrave the pattern into the concrete, it's there forever," Arnold says.