Sealing That SurfaceĪfter everything was perfectly smooth and I wiped up all the dust, I taped a piece of plastic to the counter as a moisture test. The faucet made it impossible to get the Dremel in there, so I just wedged a sanding sponge behind it and then used regular sand paper to knock down any crazy rough spots. Tight fit behind the faucet and sprayer nozzle. I was pretty nervous while applying these layers because you could still see the grid pattern from the tiles after it was dry. It took about three or four layers until all of the tiles were covered. I didn’t sand between all of these initial “building” layers.
For any tiny areas, like behind the sink, I just smeared the concrete on with my finger. I also used this slightly thicker concrete on the tile backsplash and applied it with a thin putty knife. This worked best because the concrete had set up a little bit, so it was easier to mold and cling to the vertical surface. You want to make sure everything is very dry so it adheres well to the counter and doesn’t crack.Īfter spreading each layer on the top surface of the counters with the taping knife, I pressed the leftover concrete onto the front edge of the counters. If you are attempting this, err on the side of caution to start and give yourself a little extra time between coats. Each layer took between 45 minutes and two hours to dry. I used a hair dryer on the first couple of coats to help dry some stubborn grout lines that were drying slowly. You want to gradually build up a solid surface, so the first couple of layers were lightly skimmed to fill in all the low spots. The first layer will have some bare tile spots showing, so don’t try to put this layer on too thick. In addition to the grout indents, some of the tiles were set up a little higher than the surrounding ones, so there was a lot of space to fill in. The first million layers are just filling in all the grout lines and trying to build up the counter surface to be smooth. This is where using feather finish concrete over tile counters differs from applying it over a smooth surface. Then I slopped a bunch of it onto the counters and got to work spreading it out with a ten-inch flat taping knife. I sliced open my hand carelessly hacking away at the floors, so I was wearing a glove to protect my open wound.įollowing the advice of everyone on the internet, I mixed up my concrete to a pancake batter consistency using wood paint stirrers and cheap buckets from Home Depot.
But if you care about your floors, you should put down a tarp or some plastic to protect them. I was in the process of ripping out all of that green and white plaid flooring, so I wasn’t worried about dripping on that. Then I taped trash bags over the cabinet doors to protect them from any drips. Of course, I had washed them since I moved in, but they never looked truly clean. I tried to wash all the counters to remove all the decades of grime, but this was impossible because the white tile and grout were DISGUSTING. I couldn’t find anything about applying feather finish concrete over tile counters anywhere, so I improvised! A lot of the tutorials online call for Ardex Feather Finish, but I went with Henry’s from Home Depot since they had it in stock (I’m pretty sure it is the same product with a different name) and I was too excited to wait for something to ship. (You know how easily I get obsessed with stuff, right?) I loved the look of the feather finish countertops that John and Sherry did in their temporary kitchen over on YHL, and after reading that I fell into a research spiral soaking up every bit of feather finish concrete knowledge I could find.
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Read more for the full rundown of how to apply feather finish concrete over tile counters. Since I was already working with industrial exposed rafters, going with an industrial look concrete counter felt like a good option here, and I love any reason to DIY something. I truly don’t know why anyone would choose to have mosaic tile countertops the grout is impossible to keep clean and whoever installed mine didn’t do a good job with the transition from the flat surface of the counters to the front edge. I lived with these gross, one-inch white tile countertops for over a year before I got around to attempting a DIY feather finish concrete counter. This is one of those projects that had such a HUGE impact that I wish I had done it right when I moved in.
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