
"Concrete is an ideal medium to express relationships
between art and craft, between architecture and contracting.
There is something powerful-something emotional-about projects
that evolve from actual hands-on experience with the material,
coupled with an understanding of the pattern language
of design principles."
- Fu-Tung Cheng
Most iron-oxide pigments are color-fast, including the reds, yellows, browns, and oranges (as far as black, synthetic black oxide is more colorfast than carbon black). Greens are a bit more unpredictable, and blues (except for very expensive cobalt blue) are especially unpredictable when subject to UV rays.
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Can I put a hot pot directly onto a concrete kitchen counter?
Concrete is heat-resistant but is subject to thermal shock if a red-hot object is placed directly upon it. Like granite, the exposed area may flake or chip away if too much heat is applied. In addition, the heat could damage the sealer and wax applied to the surface. We recommend using trivets for hot cookware.
Can concrete countertops chip, flake, or crack?
As with marble and granite, concrete corners and edges can chip if struck by a hard object. Sealing and rounding the inside corners of the mold with silicone will ease the edges and prevent chipping. Hairline cracks can also develop, but these are not structural failures; rather, they are inherent characteristics of the material.
Do concrete countertops stain?
Concrete has approximately the same porosity as marble. Acids (especially red wine, lemon juice, and vinegar) will etch the surface if not cleaned up right away. CHENG Sealer and CHENG Finishing Wax will help resist stains, but they aren't acid-proof and won't make your counter impervious to stains. Luckily, like aged butcher block or marble, a patina on concrete countertops can actually enhance the character of the surface, so a spill is not necessarily a disaster.
Note, however, that while Concrete Countertops states that we use penetrating sealers (and at the time of its printing we were), we now use a "hybrid" topical sealer that also has penetrating qualities. We now use CHENG Sealer in our fabrication shop and is the best all-around sealer we have found for use with the concrete countertops we produce.