Wood got too expensive....

record high lumber prices add significantly to the cost of construction as lumber prices reach all-time highs many homeowners are choosing to put off their dream renovations lumber prices are on the move up nearly 200 since this time last year wood shortages cause a massive surge in the cost of construction house prices skyrocket due to pandemic related lumber shortages i need to build something without using any wood [Music] [Applause] [Music] so for the first time in my adult life i actually have a decent amount of outdoor space i've got tons of ideas for outdoor builds the weather's starting to get nice but there's just one problem right now and that's the coast-to-coast lumber shortage that's going on right now depending on the type of wood you're looking for you can expect to pay as much as 300 more than you normally would and that's if you can even find any lumber and stock anywhere so what is somebody like me who loves to build things out of wood do in a situation like this well i started looking for alternative materials so in today's video we're going to try and make something really cool for outside without using any wood at all let's head to the shop before we get started today i want to tell you about the sponsor of today's video concrete countertop solutions they make and sell everything you could ever possibly need to create beautiful custom countertops made out of concrete in your own home and originally that's exactly what they wanted me to do in this build however i just moved into this new place with brand new countertops everywhere and it felt kind of wasteful to rip those out and replace them with new ones so i pitched them on this concept that i already had in my head which is going to be the subject of today's video and to my surprise they went for it so if you're thinking about doing some custom concrete countertops definitely check them out but also check them out if you just want to make something cool out of concrete because they probably also have everything you need all right let's get into this build because we're working with concrete that means we're also working with everybody's favorite low-cost sheet good melamine so we're going to rip this thing down into some pieces and then use it to make a form thankfully melamine sheets are still relatively affordable they've definitely gone up in price but not nearly to the same extent as raw lumber after cutting the sheet up into some smaller pieces i assembled it into a box that was 32 by 48 inches and one and a half inches deep which is approximately the same size as the finished table but as you're about to see it'll end up being a little smaller than that now that we've got the form built we can start playing with this rubbery noodle thing and what this actually is is a form liner so traditionally what you would do is you would put this on the outside of your form and it would texture the outside edge of your concrete slab but i'm going to use it in a slightly different way i want to create the illusion that this concrete slab was dropped and broke right down the middle so i'm going to attach it here and then run it at roughly a 45 degree angle over to the other side so that way it'll look like there's a rough jagged edge where the two halves of the slab crack down the middle it felt a bit wrong to cut a rubbery form liner with a miter saw but honestly i thought about it for a while and i couldn't think of a better tool to use so i just went for it it wasn't perfect the rubber flexed a little bit while being cut but for my purposes it worked just fine now because i wanted the center split to be textured on both sides i cut two lengths of the form liners and then glued them to each other back to back using ca glue then in order to secure the form liners to the form walls i used again you guessed it ca glue i swear i keep finding new ways to use ca glue on every build it's just so handy to have a glue that bonds to basically everything and sets in only a couple seconds you'll see here i'm actually forcing the form liner to twist and contort as i glue it down and that's because i wanted the center split to look organic and natural i figured a straight 45 degree line would have looked too artificial oh and by the way these form liners are available in a whole range of different textures so depending on the look you're going for you can find something to match technically this step is probably unnecessary since the concrete i was using is self-reinforced with acrylic fibers but i decided to play it safe and embed some reinforcing steel mesh a lifetime of working in residential construction has taught me that you should almost always reinforce concrete and that's a hard habit to break no fancy measuring and cutting here i just clamped my mesh in position and zipped off all the parts i didn't need all right i got my mixing station all set up so i think we are ready to start mixing some concrete in this bucket i have a little bit of water and to it i'm going to add some pure white concrete the slab i want to make is gonna be half black and half white so i'm going to do the white stuff first and then in the second batch i'm going to add a little bit of pigment the reason i'm doing the white first is because i assume once i start working with this black pigment it's going to get all over the tools and it could potentially contaminate the white side mixing the concrete turned out to be a little trickier than i initially expected but after doing it a few times i've definitely got some tips to share first off you want to carefully control the amount of water you use each bag is designed to be mixed with no more than three quarts of water anything more than that and you risk comparing the strength of your concrete for my first couple of mixes i started with one quart of water in the bucket and then slowly added the dry mix along with more water until i got the consistency i wanted this was a complete waste of time by the end i was starting with two and a half quarts in the bucket and then just keeping a half cord on the side in case i wanted to loosen the mix let's see how much one bag will fill up of our mold oh heavy it's almost like it's made of concrete or something it's a stupid joke and i'm gonna edit that out the nice thing about this concrete is that it flows really easily it is a purpose made casting concrete after all with just a little bit of agitation it will really quickly find its own level i've seen a lot of other concrete builds on youtube where people had to add all sorts of chemicals and additives to their concrete to get similar results the nice thing here is that all that stuff is baked in from the factory so all i had to do was add some water here's another little mixing tip it became very clear to me that i should have used a smaller mixer based on the temperature of my poor cordless drill the giant paddle i was using created a ton of drag in the concrete not only would a smaller mixture have been easier to spin but it would have been better for digging out the corners of the buckets as well after pouring out my second bucket it was time to start screeding the first half of my table screeds come in many different shapes and forms but for this build i just used an offcut of the malemain from earlier by gently sliding the board back and forth along the form walls i was able to level out the concrete i did this a few times while carefully watching for any low spots and used the excess spillover to fill them in and for all the areas i couldn't reach with the screed i just went in afterwards and touched them up with a diamond trowel cool that's the white side done let's do the black side the procedure for the black side was basically the same except i had the added step of mixing a pigment into the concrete these pattern pigments are used for getting different shades of gray and black you can do actual colors like red green and blue but in order to achieve those you actually have to apply a liquid stain to a partially cured white concrete on this build though i found that a half cup of black pigment got me a really nice looking shade of dark gray for a nice even distribution of pigment it's best to mix it into the water before adding any concrete you can definitely still add it afterwards but it might end up looking a little uneven and marbled which come to think of it sounds pretty cool but that's not what i was going for here after the mixing was done it was back to the same game plan as before i dumped out some concrete took a quick break to add my reinforcing steel mesh and then dumped out some more concrete on top of that before i knew it i was screeding the second half of my table and setting up to do the last and most important step of the casting vibrating the forms concrete has a nasty habit of trapping air bubbles in it while it's still wet once the concrete dries those air bubbles can become weak points that compromise the strength of your slab and they also look kind of ugly so in order to encourage all those air bubbles to float on up to the top of my concrete soup i went around the entire perimeter of the form and gently tapped it with a hammer truthfully i probably could have done a bit of a better job but we'll touch more on that later now that all the concrete casting is done we're gonna leave this secure and start doing all the metal work for this build and before i do that i want to give you guys a quick tip about preparation for your builds one thing that i did on this build that's gonna save me a lot of time is i took the time to do a quick and dirty 3d model of it before i ever hit the shop so when i'm cutting all this metal i'll actually be working to a little cut sheet that i have set up here so i'll be able to batch things out and do things really economically and really quickly now look i can already hear all of your collective groans and protests that you don't know the first thing about 3d modeling but honestly it's not rocket science i taught myself how to use sketchup in just an afternoon by following along with some youtube videos and it's not like i'm creating the 3d model equivalent of the mona lisa either it's just a rough approximation of what i want to build that's good enough to pull some critical measurements off of and plan my material purchases by the way i started making the sketchup models for all of my builds available on my patreon page as another added bonus for patrons as i worked my way down the list i placed each freshly cut piece on the underside of the table in its approximate location this doubled as a quick sanding check on all my measurements and prevented me from accidentally cutting more than i needed once my upside down bizarro world table looked complete i slid out the welding table and fired up the old mig welder all the steel i used for this build is an eighth of an inch thick which is a pretty heavy gauge for furniture but it's also a lot easier to work with thinner gauge steel has the nasty habit of melting away on you while you're trying to weld it and while we're at it i've also got a couple of other tips to share that i've recently learned from more experienced welders one is to push the tip of the welder away from you as you're working this gives you nice even penetration without as much risk of melting through the steel the other tip is to make small circular motions with the tip of your welder that looks something like this it's a bit hard to see in the video because of all the light but that's what i was trying to do here oh and here's one tip that i always forget to do on my bills tube steel usually has a seam on one of its faces which can sometimes even show through paint so a good habit to be in is to just take that seam and face it in a direction where nobody is ever gonna see it unfortunately for me i only ever seem to remember that tip when i'm editing outside behind the shop i set up a little grinding station and went to town on all of my welds this actually reminds me there is one thing that i really wish i changed about the design of this table i used two inch flat bar laid on top of inch and a half tubes and i thought that extra little flange would be a nice detail but in retrospect i wish i had just used inch and a half flat bar as well it would have created a flush look that was a lot easier to grind smooth all those little inside corners created by the flanges were a real pain to smooth out prior to painting the legs i had one last little job to do and that was just drilling some holes where i would later mount the feet but more on that later done with the hole drilling and now we can talk about painting so first off i'm gonna hit it with a light coat of this white primer nothing too exciting to report here but i'm using white because it's a strong contrast to the main show which is going to be this krylon outdoor paint so the can looks like it might be a black although it says it's midnight sky so we'll see there looks to be like there might be a little bit of brown in the top of it it's a little tough to tell so it's gonna be a bit of a surprise what color this goes on but i wanted to use a good outdoor paint because this is going to live outside year round and i don't know if you know this or not but in canada we get some really harsh winters that can be tough on outdoor furniture so this paint is really going to get put to the test i found that this particular primer is really thin so the key to getting good results with it is to spray it on lightly in a few coats otherwise you run the risk of getting some unsightly trips you can even see that i got some decently sized drips here which i had to sand out but that's okay because sanding between coats also helped me to remove some of the grinding marks so i wasn't too mad about it once the primer dried it was time to spray on some midnight sky which as it turns out is just a grandiose way of saying black besides the name though i was pretty impressed with this paint it went on a little thicker than the primer and evened itself out really well i bought two cans and sprayed on more coats than i care to count my theory here was that more layers of paint would enhance the long-term durability but only time will tell if that theory actually pans out once i was done spraying i left the legs to dry and the concrete to cure overnight so it's time that we started popping off these forms and i'm really excited to see particularly how the edge looks and also the face that's against the melamine looks removing the forms was actually a lot easier than i thought it would be after casting the concrete i was kicking myself for not using some sort of release agent on the malamine but as it turns out this concrete and maybe concrete in general don't really stick to melody that was easier than expected the black side was a little trickier but i eventually got it by just ripping off the farmliners look at this this is so cool the bottom is way smoother than i ever expected it to be but honestly i really really like it now that it's here a couple quick notes before we move on to the finishing if you look at this edge here you can see that there's a bunch of little air pockets along it i actually like this look because it kind of gives it the look of rough concrete but if you wanted this to be smooth i would spend more time vibrating the edge of the form in order to work these little air pockets up to the surface similarly there's also a couple of little holes in the surface of the white slab the preventative solution to these is the same just vibrate the form but if you wanted to correct these you could just mix up a little bit of more concrete and just ever so gently fill them in even you could just use your fingertip to do it probably i'm not too heartbroken about these because i think they add to the texture of the table as well so i might just leave them but that's the solution if you do want them one thing we have to do before applying the finish to these tables is give them a quick sand i don't want to do too much because i quite like the texture as is but in order to get proper adhesion we do have to sand them a little bit this might be the first time i've ever actually sanded concrete and surprisingly it sands pretty easily i did both the tops and the sides and then using a soft sanding sponge i very lightly broke all the hard edges at this point i thought i was clear to start applying the finish but just to be safe i decided to double check the instructions and it's a good thing i did my my my where does the time go so i actually almost made a big mistake on this build by sealing these concrete slabs too early you really want to let the concrete fully cure and get all that moisture out of the slab before applying the sealer otherwise it's going to get locked in there so i did a little bit of research after sanding and realized that i hadn't weighted the proper 96 hours before sealing at that point it was just 72 so i went home i waited a day and now i'm back and ready to do the ceiling the sealer i'm using here aquathane m35 is concrete countertop solutions own formulation and it's actually the first two part polyurethane finish that i've ever seen i mixed the a and the b components together at a four to one ratio and then rolled it on using a little mini roller like i always do with any new to me finish i started with the underside of the table to get a bit of a practice run in and then once that dried i flipped the slabs over and did their toss they sent me this particular finish because they knew the table was gonna live outside and aquathane is uv resistant so i don't have to worry about it yellowing over time i did two coats on the top and back rolled each coat perpendicular to the original application to help smooth out any nasty roller marks then it was just a matter of playing the waiting game until the saturn finish dried these guys have both been drying for the last few hours so i think they're ready to be taken home now it's not tacky or anything so i am really not looking forward to this these are going to be so heavy and i have to lift them pretty high to get them in the truck being that each one of these slabs weighed about 100 pounds getting them up and into my truck was a bit of a feat that's a hard one done now let's do the easy one luckily i didn't throw my back out and eventually i managed to get them back home okay so before we get these guys set up outside on the terrace we have one last itsy weensy little job left to do and that's just to attach some of these felt feet to the bottom of the legs i'm doing this for two reasons first off i don't want these steel legs to scratch the pavers out of my terrace and second i don't want the pavers out of my terrace to scratch the paint off of these steel legs and create a spot where rust can start to form makes sense right nice okay give me a couple seconds to set this up outside and then we will shoot some b-roll [Music] please all right so what do you guys think of my first no wood build personally i absolutely love the way this turned out i'm so happy with the look of the concrete and this is something i want to experiment with a lot more in the future i'd really like to attempt staining this white concrete and maybe making it some sort of bright vibrant color i think that would be a lot of fun and i also like to try creating some more complex shapes oh and i'd also really like to create some sort of planter that goes between this table so that plants can grow up through this gap and kind of spill over the sides i think that would look really cool but honestly before i even think about doing any of that stuff i need to create some more seating out here so long term my goal is to have this table in the back corner behind me there and then to create some outdoor couches and two outdoor chairs to go with them so i think i better hit the shop and get started on those right now so make sure you get subscribed so you don't miss those future videos thank you for watching big thank you to the sponsor of this video concrete countertop solutions and an especially big thank you to everybody who likes comments and subscribes on any of my videos because you guys are the whole reason that i get to keep making these videos so thank you so much for that and i will see you in the next video peace [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Zac Builds

Views: 708,348

Keywords: black concrete, build concrete, coffee table, concrete, concrete counter tops, concrete furniture, concrete project, concrete projects that sell, concrete table, diy, diy coffee table, diy concrete, diy outdoor furniture, diy project, hardwood, home decor, lumber prices, metal working, outdoor build, outdoor furniture, outdoor table, patio furniture, real estate, white concrete, wood prices

Id: 0Vly8tGvafI

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021