Thread: A Cement Table... Questions

Are you wanting to use bagged premix concrete or mix the raw materials yourself?

If mixing yourself any brand of type A or Builders cement will be fine in grey or off white. You can also get pure white cement but is not carried in stock in general hardware stores.
I would also use a 6 or 10mm aggregate and a washed Sydney or river sand. Use a ratio to achieve a 25 or 32mpa mix. You could also up the cement content in the premixed bags if you wanted to go that way.

You might get some type of result if you use hardware store concrete.

These people, as far as I know, are the only ones in Sydney who retail concrete mixes specifically designed for countertops
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Arron

Originally Posted by Dibbers

So I've been wanting to make a table with a cement top for quite some time... but i've not had the time or the know how... but that has changed...

So i figured i'd make an outdoor table first to see how the top comes out, that way i can make some tweaks to the process before going for the showpiece dining table...

My main question is what type of cement to use? Preferably something i can buy at a big box store (i.e. Bunnings/Mitre 10 or the like). At this stage i'm not too fussed on the colour etc, just a general type of cement to look out for before i go down the line of deciding if i want to add colour, finish etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

an alternate option is to use 20 mm fibre cement sheets for the top -- had a friend who used same for their kitchen reno about 15 years ago.

But if working from scratch, my tips would be
1. cast the top UPSIDE down onto a float glass form.
2. place triangular beads (say 3mm x 3 mm) into the form to ease the edges of the top.
3. use enough cement (and fly ash) to get a 35 MPa mix.
4. water (affects the slump of the concrete) -- here I'm torn between having a wet mix or one with a water cement ratio as low as 0.4. If you are casting multiple "trial tops" perhaps experiment with this ratio more so than the colour.
5. aim for the outdoor table to be the same size as the proposed internal table -- if you get the prototype right there's no need to replace the form or cast multiple tops.
6. weight (and preventing bending) will be major issues when it cones to turning the top right-side up.
7. curing will be critical to prevent cracking.
8. assuming that the top will be around 20 mm thick, don't use a coarse aggregate any bigger than 6 mm.
9. unless using a "white" cement, expect to pay as much for the bags of coloured oxide as you do for the concrete.
10. polishing the top is an option but if you elect to do so, please use a proper dust mask and dust collection and be prepared for the sticker shock when purchasing the surface grinder

Hi Dibbers don't forget to use steel mesh for strength I have made tops for a pro who is a stone mason and he is big on using mesh for strength. He also has a large steel roller to make sure no air is trapped in the finished product, just roll over the bottom of the table top when almost dry.

This is a build of a workbench by a clever bloke who likes to try things. He has done several videos of the bench and the ideas he put into it.

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll take it all on board and post on here when i start

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