They now have a smooth, satiny finish that will stand up to almost anything. They were dry to the touch the next day and we were able to cover them with rosin paper after day 3 to install our sconces above them, but we waited to install our faucet and really go to town with them until after the 6 days. It’s a generous amount of time to get the job done, but you can’t really save any to use again if that makes sense.Īfter sealing, the countertops have to cure 6 days before they can get any water on them. Because both the E3 and 2k systems are AB (meaning you mix two bottles together, a lot like you would hair dye) to create the solution, there is a window of time they must be used in. Preston rolled the tops (of course) and all the sides making sure there were no harsh roller marks as he went. Preston came over the following day, taped everything off again and started mixing the “2K” which is a polyurethane resin.Īlthough there is a lot of wait time in between, the actual rolling doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. You have to wait at least 12 hours before applying the second step. Once the first step was rolled on, we removed all the tape which is very important or that will get sealed on too. The sealer did darken the countertops very slightly (you can barely see the line between sealed and unsealed in the photo above) but Chris and I both actually prefer the more peppered look–photos of that at the end of the post. We picked up a “mirror finish” Purdy roller to apply both steps so we could get the smoothest finish possible. Preston assured us that only the final coat, the “2K”, would really matter and as much as I worried–he was right. The first step in the sealer process “E3” was an epoxy resin and they sent us a high gloss even though we ordered a low gloss finish. We taped off the backsplash and around the sink and mixed the first solution following instructions that came with it–lots of shaking for x amount of minutes, waiting x amount of minutes, shaking again and then finally rolling it on. While they were smooth, they were chalky to the touch. To begin the sealing process, we waited a full week for the poured countertops to cure. This didn’t deter us because cutting on any sort of stone dulls your knives (Chris and his knives forever!) so we’ve always used cutting boards in our home. In the video you can see them taking a utility knife to it and it leaving scratches. One thing it doesn’t necessarily protect against is sharp knives cutting into it. It has the highest chemical and abrasion resistance of any topical coating system, is food safe, has unmatched stain resistance against coffee, wine, soda, vinegar, citrus, Tabasco, acetone, gasoline, Clorox (and more), unbeaten abrasion resistance, and 400 degree heat resistance–they said a lit cigarette wouldn’t even harm it! Here’s a video that we found on Youtube the demonstrates its durability: But the protection it provides is really unmatchable. We purchased Stonelok’s E3-2k Countertop Kit in Low Gloss from VSeal Concrete Sealer for just over $200. After going through a dozen options, we felt confident going through with Preston’s top recommendation, even though it was the most expensive. The sealer can truly make or break concrete countertops and we were looking for something food safe and virtually indestructible. These countertops staining or not holding up has been a concern for a lot of you (which we so appreciate!), but rest assured we researched the heck out of sealers before we even settled on this countertop idea. There was one final, very important step after that post and that was sealing the counters. You can read the whole post here (if you scroll down to the bottom of that post, Z Counterform has even offered up a discount code to our readers after the post went live). Definitely one of the most popular projects of our kitchen renovation so far has been our DIY white concrete countertops.
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