Concrete Countertop Plant FAQ's

Is this a franchise?

No, all equipment is sold without encumbrance. We believe that the future of the concrete countertop industry lies with small companies that excel in quality and customer service rather then large corporations. There is no front end loading of inventory, no hidden fees, just good proven equipment.

Our equipment allows companies to excel at quality and customer service by eliminating the backbreaking, labor intensive parts of your operation and lowering your cost of doing business.

Our system will give you the competative edge allowing you to take the next step with a minimal investment and a fast return on your investment.

Why invest in a concrete countertop plant?

The US countertop market currently stands at approximately 500 million square feet annually. Concrete countertops currently account for approximately 1% of the market or about 500,000 square feet valued at an estimated 35 million dollars.

Concrete countertops are currently doubling every year (or a growth rate of about 35 million this year and 70 million the following year) with no end in sight. Demand currently outstrips supply.

The time to act is now.

Do you offer training?

We are not a training center. Customers who purchase plants are welcome to visit our operation to see how we do it.

We are available to customers via email or phone to answer questions on plant operations.

We will also assist customers with mix design development including mix design spreadsheets (sample 10,000 PSI mix) with the purchase of a mixer or $4,000 in equipment. We do this because mix design is such a vital part of our system. You simply could not do what we do (strip and grind in 14 hours, eleminate most of the bugholes, cast large thin sections, have an under two week turnaround,etc.) without a high performance mix. We will even design your first mix for you saving you thousands vs. using baged mixes.

We will assist in plant layout and provide plant layout drawings for our customers.

A company that already manufactures concrete countertops and understands the basics could expect a large increase in productivity and quality using our system.

There are links to training centers in the Resources page.

How much room would I need to do 2-3 kitchens per week?

You need about 5,000 sq. ft. of space to produce 2-3 kitchens a week. This would be and average kitchen size of 50 sq. ft. or about 100 to 150 sq. ft. per week or gross billings of 8K to 15K per week.

About 1,500 sq. ft. of forming area, saws, tables, etc..
About 60 ft. of roller space (including 10 ft. vibrating station and a 10 ft. flipping station.)
About 1,000 sq. ft. devoted to casting operations. Including room for mixer, scale, aggregate storage, etc..
You would strip your forms the day after casting, freeing the line for the next day’s pour.
About 1,000 sq. ft. polishing area. Each piece spends 2 days (3 days for acid stained pieces) in the polishing area. Day 1, initial polish and grout. Day 2, finale polish.
About 1,500 sq. ft. sealing area, preferably climate controlled and dust free.
You would be turning you projects around in under 2 weeks from templating.

To produce 25 kitchens per day.

Simply add more conveyer space, more fabrication carts, more PowerBlankets, and a larger shop.
The vibrating table and flipping station capacity is almost unlimited. Consider pouring a piece every 3 minutes for 6 hours, that's 120 pieces or about 25 kitchens a day.

We provide drawings of your shop layout when you purchase our equipment.

Can the vibrating table and roller conveyers be 4’ wide?

Yes. We can design the plant to fit your needs. We used 3’ wide vibrating tables and roller conveyers in our plant because 90% of our projects fit and they save space vs. 4’ wide. We have cast up to 5’ wide pieces; a foot on either side hangs over.

We have supplied plants 36" wide and 48" wide based on customer specifications.

One idea is to purchase a couple of 48" wide conveyers for larger pieces. Vibrate a 5' piece on the 3' vibrating table then roll it to the 4' conveyer for more support.

Let us know your needs and we will quote a custom plant for you.

What kind of production can I expect using this equipment?

A plant with adequate roller space should be able to do an average kitchen a day with two men working full time in the shop. Including striping / grinding yesterday's kitchen, forming and pouring today's kitchen and sealing the kitchens from a few days ago. Obviously complexity such as integral sinks and 3-D shapes all play a role. Keep in mind that everything is mobile, there is no wasted effort lifting things by hand (Think about that the next time you have a workman's comp claim!), no 5 man delivery crews required.

Plants can be designed to do how ever many you need to do, be it 1 a week or 100 a day.

Why invest in equipment to precast countertops when you could just cast them in place?

Efficiency; Concrete countertop production follows the "do a little then wait" principle. We are usually working on multiple kitchens plus a vanity or two at the same time. Form one up, grind and slurry another, finale polish on another, first coat of sealer on another, pour a vanity, all in the same day. I haven't mastered being at two places at the same time but I can get all of this done in one day working in my plant.
Quality Control; You could probably achieve similar results pouring in place vs. precast but could you do it every day; How about in the dead of winter with the high is 20 deg? Can you seal a slab in 95 deg. heat with 90% relative humidity? How long will you tie up the kitchen.
Speed of installation; We have often removed the old countertops and installed new tops (having templated two weeks prior) in under 3hours.
Seams in precast countertop can be minimized with a little ingenuity. We make hybrid integral undermount sinks, minimizing surface seams. By utilizing our patent pending multi-task delivery cart, large slabs, some 1,000 lbs. with sink blockouts, can be cast and delivered by two people without ever actually lifting the entire weight of the piece.
Sinks are alot simpler to precast.

Do you need to use 10,000 PSI concrete?

No. This is a somewhat arbitrary strength threshold we use because we can.

The science and additives necessary to create 10,000 PSI concrete using locally available materials is now readily available.
The cost is about $1.00 / sq. ft. , alot less than bagged mixes. The $5.00 a sq. ft. differance between a bagged mix and a your DIY mix goes right into your pocket.
Cracking, chipping, crazing and warpage are almost eliminated.
Tops can be striped and ground 14 hours after casting (assuming accelerated curing methods were used)
Inventory can be turned in under two weeks.
Larger tops can be cast; we routinely cast and deliver 5 x 9 island tops 1.5" thick with sink openings.

We provide you with mix design spread sheets with sample mixes and will even design your first mix for you.

Does heating concrete countertops with Power Blankets hurt them?

The main thing to do is to not allow moisture loss during the curing of concrete. We cover our countertops with plastic sheeting then the use Power Blanket electric concrete blankets, winter or summer.

This method of curing is accepted by both the American Concrete Society and the Prestressed Concrete Institute. Accelerated curing methods are used by the majority of precasters in the world.

I have personally set up several operations, designed hundreds of different mixes, broken tens of thousands of cylinders and employed accelerated curing methods on hundreds of thousands of yards of high performance concrete all under the watchfull eye of PCI, USACE, local, state, and federal inspectors creating everything from wall caps and building facades to parking garages and patio blocks.

That said, research has found that there can be a minor reduction in ultimate strength using accelerated curing methods (heating concrete to 180 degrees) vs. curing concrete at 70 degrees, there are no long term negative effects. The concrete never losses strenght. Power Blankets heat the concrete to about 115 degrees (with a 70 degree ambient), well under the 180 degree limit.

Our countertops typically reach about 5,000 - 6,000 PSI in 14 hours (or about 60% of ultimate), depending on batch and ambient temperature. We strip and grind them the day after casting.

It is helpfull to think of concrete as a percentage of design strenght rather than days from casting when emplyoing accelerated curing methods.

Power Blankets distribute the heat evenly, unlike electric blankets meant for home use that can leave patterns.

What kind of concrete do you use in your operation?

In our system, we use the same cement, large, and small aggregate that the local ready mix producer would use.

We also use high-reativity Metakalin, a high range water reducer, and a viscosity modifier to produce “flowable” high performance concrete. Once vibrated with our vibration table the off the mold finish is nearly blemish free.

Mix design and vibration become super critical when attempting to cast sinks. It is rare that we have to slurry our tops or sinks more than once using our system.

You can use pre-bagged mixes with our equipment but mixing your own will result in a superior product at about 1/5 of the cost of bagged mixes.

We will provide mix design consuting as a free service when you purchase our equipment.

How do you reinforce your countertops?

2 ways

We use grade 60 #3 rebar as primary reinforcement and fibermesh as secondary reinforcement.

We weld the joints of the #3 rebar rather than overlapping them. This way the reinforcement stays on a single horizontal plain. An 8' x 2' piece would have (4) #3 lengthwise with the outer 2 bent in a 90 at the corners and (2) cross pieces equally spaced.

We support the cage with rebar chairs designed for use with architectural precast products. The chairs come to point and are barely visible in the finished piece. The 1/8” grey dot left by the chair can be color matched to the slab with pantone markers prior to sealing if required.

There is no need to hang the reinforcement, no need to pour in lifts, no need to stop the pour to position reinforcement, no wasted effort.

The chairs keep the rebar ¾” off the face of the panel. When you flip the piece the rebar is located just below the center of the slab (in a 1.5” piece) just where you want it.

It would take a pile of ladder wire to match the cross sectional area you get with rebar. Carbon fiber reinforcement is great stuff but expensive and hard to work with. Rebar works (has for the last 200 years) and at 30 cents or so a pound your cost per square foot of countertop is pennies.

We have performed destructive testing of our tops to confirm our reinforcement methouds work.

We have also used high strength threaded rods to post tension countertops in extreme cases.

*We have developed mix designs and procedures to cast large sheets with no steel reinforcement that can be fabricated using granite fabrication equipment. They fabricated tops are then handled and installed just like granite.

What do you use for form material?

We use 4 x 8 sheets of tile board ($10 / sheet) with a backer of ¾” birch plywood or 5 x 10 sheets of melamine (depending on the size of the piece) for the base.

We use HDO (high density overlay plywood) otherwise known as form plywood for the sides and the hats for sink molds.

What kind of caulk do you use?

We use Dap Seal “N” Peel removable caulk. With this caulk you can pour about 2 hours after caulking (depending on ambient temperature), it leaves no residue on the concrete, and it easily peels off concrete and forms the next day.

How do you make custom sink molds?

For rectangular sink molds:

Start with ¾” MDO plywood (medium density overlay)
Make all angles 5 degrees, side slope bottom cut.
Assemble with glue (waterproof) and screws
Make the bottom out of MDO covered with ¼” plywood, you shim the center of the plywood to give the fall to the drain. (you tack the plywood around all the edges warping it)
Cut a circular ring out of 1/8” plywood to form the recess for the drain.
Use a router to round over all edges ¾”
Sand
Apply fiberglass resin, sand, reapply.
Apply a few coats of wax, buff to a high luster before each use.
You should be able to get a sink formed up in about an hour, another couple hours to finish.

For curved sink molds

Start with ¼” plywood
Cut bend and hot glue the seams
Cover the back of the sink mold with fiberglass resin and fiberglass cloth, this locks everything together.
Coat the front with 2 coats of fiberglass resin.
Wax and buff to a high luster before each use.

Stripping sink molds

Drill a couple of 1/8” holes through the mold
Use compressed air to pop the mold free, be patient you may need to apply the air for a full minute before anything happens.

I’ve gotten 40 of so pours out of some of my hand made sink molds. The curved vanity molds I designed are very popular. Customers are welcome to copy my designs.

How do you finish the inside of a sink?

Strip the form, hose down the inside of the sink, scrub with a green pad (the kind you wash dishes with) washing away any form oil residue or wax.
I use a product designed to clean and etch concrete applied with a rag. It is a mild acid solution. The goal is to break away the surface sheen and a little bit of the matrix. You will feel the surface getting rough and see the color change.
Neutralize the surface by scrubbing with an ammonia solution and rinsing with water.
Hand polish the surface with 100 grit pad. Patch any bug holes. Finale polish with a 200 grit pad the next day.
You should be able to break down, polish, and initial patch a vanity sink in about ½ hour once you get the hang of it.
A 15" by 30" kitchen sink takes about an hour to finish.

What / How do you patch bugholes?

We use a mix of 80% cement, 20% Metakalin and no water just straight bonding agent, we color tint to match the slab. We use a gloved hand to rub the mix into the bugholes. A 2 x 8 slab might take 10 minutes to patch.

The easiest way to patch bugholes is to not have any. Products produced in our plant have very few bugholes so patching is not a hard operation. It is rare that we have to patch bugholes twice. One coat left on overnight is all we do to 98% of our slabs.

Can you make glass embedded terrazzo type tops with this plant?

Yes. Our system is perfect for making glass embedded terrazzo type tops.

Plant customers will be granted permision to produce ScintillaStone™, a new “green” material developed by Pinnacle Cast Concrete. It composed of recycled glass rocks that can be up to 2" in diameter locked in a high performance concrete matrix.

ScintillaStone™ has an unusual, high-tech texture with a 3 dimensional quality turning solid form into liquid magic.

What can you make with this plant?

Countertops for starters; You can make tops with a nearly blemish free off the mold finish. Make tops with drop down edges, integral sinks. We even include mix designs for glass embedded terrazzo type tops.

Vanities with integral sinks; With the right mix design and vibration plus other helpful hints vanities with sinks become a pleasure to do.

Fireplace surrounds, hearths, if you can fit it on the vibrating table and roll it on the conveyers you can make it.

We can design a plant to produce any small to medium size precast item. From lentils to cast stone, let us know your needs and we will work with you.

We can also set you up with a plant to make 5 x 10 slabs that are latter fabricated into countertops using granite fabrication equipment.

I'm already a countertop fabricator why invest in equipment to make concrete countertops when I can buy concrete slabs or tiles and fabricate them?

Why would you want to buy a slab, ship it in, and than spend money shaping it when you can form and pout it yourself for less money (more profit)?
You will be able to make anything: Any color, any thickness, any shape, any edge, glass countertops, acid stained countertops, integral sinks, drain boards etc.
Your cost for raw material will be about $1.00 / sq. ft.

What causes bugholes?

A better question is: Why I’m I getting bugholes?

Mix design
Form material
Form oil
Vibration

Pour a sample on a piece of glass (thick enough not to break the glass during vibration) clean the glass with acetone and do not oil it. Vibrate as you normally would. If you get bugholes it’s you mix or vibration. If you don’t get bugholes, it’s your form material or oil. Inadequate vibration generally leaves larger (1/8” +) bugholes.

Continue adding variables until you identify the cause. You should be able to cast a nearly flawless kitchen sink once you get it worked out.

We have designed our vibrating station and mixes for optimum consolidation of fresh concrete.

How much power does a plant need?

Relatively little when compared to other types precast operations (my last plant had 3,000 AMP 480 volt service). You could easily run a 5,000 sq. ft. plant on a 200 Amp (single phase) or less service, less than a lot of homes have.

A medium sized Imer mixer can be run off of a 220 volt 30 amp circuit.
The vibrating table need a 20 amp circut and 80 psi air (minimal air volume)
You can find 1 ton overhead chain hoists that require a 120 volt 15 amp circuit.
2 Power blankets can run off of a single 120 volt 20 amp circuit.
Grinders, lights, etc. may need additional 100 or so amps.

Concrete Countertop production is a relativly low energy process.

Do you need and overhead crane?

I would definitely recommend and overhead crane in your operation:

Back injuries and workman’s comp claims will become a thing of the past.
Large pieces become a matter of routine.
When combined with our equipment, pieces can be cast, striped, finished, delivered, and installed without every being lifted by humans.
You can use the hoist to charge your mixer, strip your pieces, and load your pieces for delivery.

Recommended type:

Single chain hoist that slides on an I beam.
1 ton capacity.
16 feet per minute speed.
You can find these hoists used on ebay for about $1,200. I beams are available from local metal suppliers.
You can find hoist that require 120V 20Amp service.

You can get by with a modified engine hoist (I actually used our flipping station with an engine hoist at our old shop) but efficiency takes a nose dive.