Creating Natural Veins in Concrete Countertops – Xtreme Series Veining

Concrete Countertops have become a popular fabrication choice to many owners. With advancements in textures and colors which allow for endless design opportunities, applicators have chosen to bring natural looking veins into concrete countertops. SureCrete Design has created a concrete countertop veining material with 30 available colors.

Xtreme Veining is a cement based, dry broadcast medium used to create natural looking veins in the Concrete Countertops. Xtreme Veining is designed to be placed into the wet edge of concrete during the pouring process of precast applications. Here are the steps for creating natural looking veins in concrete countertops:

• Place Xtreme Countertop mix in the bottom of the mold where you intend the vein to go.
• Once the location of the vein is determined throw, Xtreme Veining material into the wet edge of the concrete covering the entire area intended to have a vein.
• Sometimes a small chip brush will help to push excess material into the vein.
• Vacuum out excess veining material and clean up with a rag any excess color pigment left behind.
• You are now ready to pour the balance of the mold with concrete.

NOTE:

• Depending on the width of the desired vein, your pouring of the Xtreme Countertop mix will vary.
• For a tight close vein, pour Xtreme Countertop about 1 inch away and lightly hand vibrate the material up to the Xtreme Veining. This will collapse the size of the vein and create a tight vein.
• For a larger vein, pour Xtreme Countertop onto the Xtreme Veining material. This will let gravity push the concrete countertop mix onto the dry material and expand the coverage creating a larger or wider vein effect.

TIPS:

1. Although not necessary, using a spray bottle with water, lightly mist the vein after vacuuming the mold. This will help to activate the cement in the vein.
2. In most cases the Xtreme Countertop mix can be demolded in 4 hours, this rapid set is not found in the veining material. As a result demolding your piece sooner than 24 hours may cause some parts of the vein to fall out. If this happens use SureCrete Precast slurry to fix those areas.

Click on the links below to watch a video of this process being done.

SureCrete.TV – Click Here

YouTube.com – Click Here