Beginners guide, Concrete Tabletop you can build. No special tools, hand finished

hey everybody welcome back to Canadian DIY I really appreciate you coming back so I hope your day is going as good as mine I just finished my last step here on this concrete slab that I made for a cabinet that I built so this is actually gonna be a small little piece of countertop but this method will work for end tables nightstands a coffee table whatever you've got now this is the simplest way that I could put together to make a killer concrete slab that anybody can do there's no expensive fancy tools everything is done by hand or simple hand tools and you can get a great great finish I'm gonna go over all the steps I'm going to go over all the products that I use as well as a couple different ways to make the mold which way I like to do it and why a couple different types of concrete you could and maybe shouldn't use and all the finishing steps it's going to turn out awesome so let's get to to start out on this guy we need a mold to pour concrete into now I'm using 3/4 inch melamine here it's nice as strong and sturdy it's very very smooth it's not gonna bow under the weight of the concrete you're definitely gonna want to make sure you have a method of making long straight cuts like I am here I'm using a circular saw with the track guide you can use a table saw if you don't have any tools get a local wood shop or a home center to cut them for you alright guys I figured I'd take a quick second to explain the two most popular ways to making a concrete mold for your slab now the first way we're going to talk about is taking your side pieces and your base piece and your side piece actually mount it on top of it now there's a pro and a con to this the pro is that however thick you're gonna make your slab you can make your side pieces exactly that because your side pieces are sitting on top of here that will basically give you your exact depth once you pour everything so we're gonna make a 2-inch slab because your side piece is 2 inches problem-solve the conduit and the reason I don't like it is that because your side pieces are mounted on top of your base piece you've got to remember to make sure your base piece is exactly the width that you need plus your side panels so in my case I'm using 3/4 inch melamine and I'm making a 40 by 18 inch slab so if I put it ease inside my slab is actually being have smaller in every direction so I've got to make sure my slab is 41 and a half by nineteen and a half because that will give you my exact inside measurement now that's a confusing way to do it because math is hard so I'm gonna show you the way I like to do it the way I like to do it is mounting my walls on the sides of my base piece now that allows me to make my base piece exactly forty by eighteen like I need keeps it simple and the way I like to do it is take two of my walls doesn't matter if it's the long side of the short side and cut them exact screw them on makes it simple the downside to this method is you've got to account for the thickness of your material in your side so I'm pouring an inch and a half slab I've got 3/4 inch melamine so I have to make sure to make my side panels obviously two and a quarter inches wide that will give me an inch and a half depth inside so it's a little bit easier because I don't have to remember one measurement as opposed to trying to fudge them all now like I said my side panels what also makes this easy I've already measured two of them like I said doesn't matter if it's a long try to the side of the shoreside 18 inches keeps it simple now your other side what you can do is you can come in here and flush it up and then mark it and cut it but you don't have to another reason I like this method is D molding is way easier as opposed to sitting on top of your concrete and you're trying to be gingerly with it not crack it with this method just slide your side pieces over now I've got overhang on each side it's that way when I go to D mold I can actually grab this and pry it off gives me a nice handle the molding is a lot easier measuring is a lot easier because math is hard so this is the way I like to do it choose your weapon once you have everything cut for your mold assembly is really really simple I'm using inch and 1/2 drywall screws because they tend to be a little bit thinner but very coarse they can hold on to the chip board of the melamine and pre-drill your holes about every 6 to 8 inches and add your screws it's as simple as that from there I'm just gonna take a damp shop towel I'm just gonna wipe down the mold real quick get rid of any dust or anything that might be sitting in there and then just dust it off with a dry microfiber after that now as for our mold release I like using a car wax this is a really inexpensive car wax you can buy anywhere apply it very liberally I'm just doing a bunch of little small circles to make sure I've got everywhere on the mold and make sure you do all the size the edges the corners everything get it everywhere allow it to dry and cure for about good ten minutes that allowed to really hardened up then it's just simple buff off with a microfiber towel for reinforcement on our mold here for a concrete I'm just using a wire mesh that you can buy this in the concrete aisle at any home store and I'm just using a very inexpensive pair of bolt cutters trust me when I say this is the easiest way to cut it you're definitely gonna want just a cheap pair of bolt cutters it will go a long way cut your reinforcements to fit about an inch away from all the walls on the inside to seal the mold we're using a hundred percent silicone now I like cutting the tube as small as I possibly can so just under an eighth of an inch cut it at a 45-degree angle and apply the thinnest bead you can possibly get away with in long straight applications try not to stop try not to go too fast just nice long straight beads is all you're going for then to smooth it out I'm just using a dry finger you can use a wet finger a dry finger you can use cake fondant round over tools if you have those you can use a caulking smoothing tool if you have one of those I'm just using my finger here I just want to show you guys how great of a finish you can get with just your finger a lot of people are going to tell you it's the wrong way but trust me when I say it works after giving our silicone a couple hours to dry I'm gonna shim my mold get it all nice level perfect in both directions and now we got to mix our concrete now our concrete here you can buy the countertop specific concrete I don't have that in my area so I'm just using a basic six thousand psi professional-grade concrete you can buy in the concrete and I'm mixing it in a plastic tub you can buy in that exact same concrete aisle I'll have a link to a concrete calculator down below so you can figure out about how much you're going to need for your mold I know this is going to take about two bags I'm mixing one to start and then adding more water and concrete as I go you know I have also added some charcoal dye because it's just what I'm going for but you're going to mix your concrete to about an oatmeal or a cake batter type consistency so go ahead and add it to your mold once it's all mixed up push it around into all the corners with your finger and then go around and give it a first round of vibrating so tap all the sides of the bottom with a hammer once it starts to level out and a bunch of bubbles are gone then you can add your reinforcements you want to get it about 3/4 fold then add your reinforcements then go ahead and finish adding your concrete and smooth it out now I'm going to screed the top of my concrete here this will just level it off and give you a nice consistency right out of the gate so just take this nice straight two-by-four and go back and forth in a sawing motion if you have any low spots take the concrete from in front of the screed add it to the back and vice versa anything else just throw it back in the bucket now this step here I cannot stress how important it is vibrate vibrate vibrate vibrate me and my brother went around and vibrated this mold with hammers for probably about 20 minutes you can also use power tools my favorite is using a reciprocating saw if you have it in a sawzall without a blade in it just use it directly out onto the mold you can see how many bubbles were coming up and popping I went around for about another 10 minutes after this vibrate that mold you guys that's going to get all of our bubbles out once it's fully vibrated go ahead and cover it with a plastic bag a couple hours later are going to come back and I'm just using a trowel now this step is completely optional I'm mostly using it to pop any remaining bubbles that have come to the surface as you can see it's a light light touch you don't have to be a pro to do this don't worry about it we're just popping some bubbles and smoothing out at the bottom once you're done new troweling go ahead and cover it up and give it about 48 hours to cure after 48 hours it's time to deem old this bad boy go ahead take your plastic off take all your screws out of the mold and then we can start using these nice long handles and peel away the sides and get your first look at the slab you can see on the very top of the slab there in this case I guess the bottom it's still got some wet spots that's good that means the concrete's drying slowly and that's what you want the combination of car wax on our mold and these handles make Dee molding a breeze you guys look how easily these sides come off if you do have one that gets a little stuck you can use a screwdriver and pry it off make sure you go wood on wood they'll never pry against the concrete but you can see here we don't have that problem to go ahead and finish out the bottom side I'm gonna use a meeting good sanding sponge and I'm just making a couple passes along the edges just to take off a sharp edge and kind of round it over a bit make sure when you sand though you sand from the corner back into the center the slab don't sand all willy-nilly or you risk blowing out an edge to keep the slab drawing evenly I'm gonna take a water bottle spritzer whatever you want to call it and I'm gonna miss the entire slab the bottom all the sides everything like that now we have to flip the slab over and get the other piece of the mold off if your slab is bigger than mine or awkward make sure to have a second person help you put a towel down stand the slab up on that towel and then flip it over onto a couple of two by fours this way once the mold is removed we can get access to the entire 360 degrees of it with air and let it finish curing evenly you can see straight out of the mold though how good this slab looks you guys this is what a bunch of vibrating will do beforehand so like I said make sure you vibrate because you will get an amazing result right out of the box with slab fully be molded now we have to wait another 48 hours I know it sucks but we got to let the slab come up to full hardness before we do any finishing steps to finish it it's all done by hand no tools so I've got some 800 sandpaper here and we're gonna wet sand the slab so wrap your sandpaper around that sanding block you had before and then wet the slab what your sandpaper and just go around and sand the entire slab I'm using very very light pressure it doesn't take much keep everything good and wet and lubricated and just go back and forth and sand in long straight passes no circles here once you're done one direction turn it 90 degrees and go the opposite direction to itself it doesn't take any pressure once you feel the sandpaper sort of break free you know you're done then just come back and soak the slab again with some water in a dry shop rag and just wipe all the sanding dust off now we've got to flip the slab over so bottom up stand it up again on a couple of shop towels or a rag and then flip the slab now we're going to go ahead and just seal the bottom this part doesn't have to be pretty but it stops any concrete dust from coming up on your fingers so just soak a microfiber towel and just wipe it on give it about an hour to dry and then flip the slab back over give it a quick dusting with a dry rag on the top side and then we're going to apply our sealer now I'm soaking the slab first with water and then soaked a microfiber towel get it good and wet with this concrete sealer and then in long straight passes wipe it in come back about two hours later and wipe another coat in the opposite direction of the first do all the sides of the corners and the edges and then let it dry again a couple hours once the sealers dry and then we can wax it I'll have a link to the sealer and the wax that I used down in the description below but both of them are concrete countertops specific food grade safe sealers and waxes so again get a nice good generous coating of wax in there do small circles of the way and then get a good and thick let it dry for about a half hour once it's dry come back with a dry microfiber towel and just buff it off once the sealer and the wax is removed you can see how great of a finish this leaves no special tools it's all done by hand a little bit of vibrating when it's still wet concrete nice wet sanding and you can see how great this looks it's got a nice satin finish I don't know what more you can say [Music] I just want to show you how hydrophobic that wax is so I'm just pouring water straight onto the slab and you can see you can literally blow it around it's just like a Teflon frying pan or something like that so cleanup is a breeze to anything that's spilled on [Music] well there you guys go like I said great great finish not a whole lot of work just a little bit of time and effort but all in all it turned out awesome now could we take it a step further absolutely we can go back make a slurry mix like I said then we can fill in a couple little pinholes and then go back resend and polish the whole thing but that's not what this is about I wanted to show what type of finish you can get with just a little bit of effort and I think it turned out awesome so like I said I hope you guys liked the video if you do thumbs up and a like would be much appreciated subscribe down below I'm gonna have a lot more stuff coming out here soon everything I used in this video is linked down below as well thanks a lot guys have a good one

Channel: Jesse does DIY

Views: 528,324

Keywords: diy, how to, how, beginner, instruction, furniture, farmhouse, rustic, tutorial, hand, made, maker, design, carpentry, custom, vintage, antique, concrete, cement, concret, counter, top, countertop, table, tabletop, finishing, finish, sealer, wax, anybody, anyone, any, one, simple, complete, easy

Id: 5dkeT6hVdyY

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 09 2020