Epoxy Countertops Journal – What’s What?
July 1, 2023
Epoxy Countertops Journal – Countertop Fabrication
August 13, 2023
Epoxy Countertop Journal | Wood grain epoxy look
This past week has been extremely crazy however epic at the same time. I've been going through a bit of health concerns but during this time I slowed down where I needed to and played things very safe but also created this amazing single piece wood grained looking epoxy countertop. The customer is extremely excited about it and honestly we are very proud of it.
After working hard to make the woodwork part of it and taking it into our pour room, we poured it with the original color-schema that the customer had wanted however when the colors finished curing the copper had a red tint due to the colors it was touching so the customer asked if I could tone down the red a bit. So in my eyes I said "I'll re-pour it with more of a wood grain look", so I did.
When we arrived to install it, the plumber had not yet showed up and was unreachable so I disconnected all of the plumbing for the customer so we could get this done and help her stay on schedule with the kitchen remodel. When we originally estimated the job we mentioned as big as the countertop was gonna be that we would have to come through the back yard and in the back door, the customer agreed yes that would be best and pointed out her lovely backyard. We started taking out the old countertops and immediately found concerns. The cabinets weren't actually full cabinets they were put together with small pieces of 1 by pieces and some paneling with no actual support and taking the old countertop off that had about 25 flathead screws every 2 foot section along with the entire thing was silicone on. It was a true nightmare removing the old countertop but we did it and still made the best of the day.
After getting the old countertop off, we cleaned the area, re-enforced the structures so that we felt safe that it would actually support the weight of the new double thick 1 and 1/2 inch thick epoxy countertop that we had made, all 5 of us went to get the massive custom creation out of the trailer. As we started to do so I grabbed the tape measure and checked the width of the back door and then real issues came into play. The back door only opened 18 inches wide as a modified glass sliding door. The homeowner says no it isn't possible to come through the back door, whelp it was plan B time.
Plan B was all we had left, how to get this big huge 45 square foot custom epoxy countertop into this home? One side stretched 8 foot 1 inch by almost 4 foot wide, the long section was 10 foot 5 inches by 17 inches, and then there's the other L at the other side. It was 119 degrees and we were exhausted from the heat but we figured out the proper rotation to take the huge almost 350 pound single piece with no seams epoxy countertop into the small entryway. Once got it inside, we had to stay leaned due to the ceiling height was just over 7 foot to the top. This was a crazy feat and we had made it that far when we realized we had to figure out how to flip sides as we were inside the opposite direction to slide it on due to we could stand it straight up. Once again we found a way around this issue and within a few minutes we had re-maneuvered and were back in business. We sat the new countertop on top of the cabinets and immediately began preparing for the stove cut out and the sink cut out.
We had done it, the customer was so excited and we were worn out to say it lightly.
Every job is different, you cannot prepare for it, cause there's always something that sneaks up on ya at every install. The upside, we learn something every time, and of course we try to add more items to our "get er' done" bag. Another job done, and another very happy customer.
Thanks for reading.
