Concrete countertop longevity

November 2, 2022 5:22 AM

Have you had concrete countertops for a number of years, put only minor effort into maintaining them, and do they still look great?

About a year after we moved in, I posted a question about our concrete countertops that were starting to show wear. Now a couple of years later, they're much, much worse. I was fine with considering a little weathering to be character, but now we have large, dark, unsightly blotches. We haven't maintained the countertops as we should have, but we haven't abused them either. (Well, before my last post, I had wiped them a couple/few times with diluted vinegar, but the wear wasn't any worse where I'd done so, and I stopped doing that.) They're in bad enough shape that I'm wondering whether they might not have ever been sealed correctly to begin with.

We either need to get them resurfaced, resealed, and start maintaining them appropriately, or we need to replace them with something that will last better (e.g. quartz). The former costs somewhat less, and it might be possible to tint them dark if that's what it'd take for them to stay nice-looking. But if they're realistically not going to stay good-looking for many, many years, that makes the decision easy -- we'd put what we'd otherwise spend on restoring them towards replacing them, instead.

So if you've had your concrete countertops for many years, do they still look nice? What maintenance has it taken to keep them that way?

posted by daisyace to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

I don't have concrete countertops, but do a lot of concrete work, and there is no way I'd ever put them in because concrete is extremely porous, and who wants an expensive solid surface countertop that is more maintenance than something super cheap like plywood? If you can't appreciate the 'personalization' of the staining, I'd replace them. That's the point of solid surface countertops for the middle class - that you don't have to babysit them!

They do require regular sealing and there is probably a service you can purchase to clean them back to new and then seal them where they look new, but it's a countertop. Do you really want to do that much work?
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:16 AM on November 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think you haven't had any answers yet (as of when I started writing this) because your hoped-for respondents don't exist. Concrete is porous, and if the seal is not maintained meticulously it will take up whatever is spilled on it. If it's dirty water you get a mild discolouration you might be able to scrub out; but if it's oil/grease you will get a darker stain, and if it has set/polymerized it is essentially impossible to remove. Concrete -- really, all stone -- is a living surface; if you want pristine and no maintenance you'll need something like porcelain tile or a synthetic.

We went with 12x24 porcelain tiles and a dark grout and it's about as effortless as one could hope.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:21 AM on November 2, 2022

I can’t recommend dark soapstone highly enough. It feels amazing, is pretty bombproof and is gorgeous. We are messy and careless and have had ours three years and they look like new. They can scratch but you just rub it out. We sometimes treat with a mix of wax and mineral oil made for cutting boards and they get dark and shiny but they are lovely untreated.
posted by purenitrous at 9:37 AM on November 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've had concrete counters for about 15 years. They're pretty and we designed the color to be mottled and variable to hide imperfections & stains. It's sealed with some sort of a wax thing that we're supposed to strip & re-apply every few years. We've never done it.

As a result there are rings and spots and stains here and there. It doesn't bother me much, the counters are clean and they're counters ... a surface to put things.

My next counters will not be concrete if I have a choice though, I don't care for darker colored counters, I've now found, and will opt for some other durable solid surface.
posted by typetive at 10:07 AM on November 2, 2022

We have had concrete countertops for almost 5 years now and they still look good. Ours are white concrete (well, more off-white but not the typical grey concrete) and I've always been careful about wiping up stains but surprisingly enough nothing has stained them.

I suspect the choice of sealant is key. My husband did ours and put a ton of work into polishing and sealing them at the beginning. We are noticing the seal is wearing where we sit at the counter and rest our arms, so it's almost time to re-seal them, but we've done nothing to them in the past 5 years.
posted by Shal at 10:08 AM on November 2, 2022

I have solid live edge slab pine counters sealed with Waterlox, and they have held up quite well, except that the pine will darken if exposed to ammonia or a few other things. You could give them a call to see if it would work on concrete.
posted by theora55 at 11:25 AM on November 2, 2022

Friends put concrete countertops in their cottage 30 years ago. Still look great. I don't know how,they sealed them, but I've never heard them talk about upkeep or anything over all that time.
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:30 AM on November 2, 2022

I had concrete countertops custom-made about 20 years ago for the kitchen in my first condo. They were done in a bottle green color and poured off-site by a commercial producer (the same guy that makes all the J. Jill counters!).

I had them for seven years and I, uh, keep tabs on the condo every time it has sold to a new owner - three times now - and the counters are still there. They look great with no problems. The only maintenance I was instructed to do (and I did pass this along to the people who bought from us) was to rub the counters down once a year or so with bowling alley wax.

I have dark Uba Tuba granite countertops in my current kitchen and absolutely hate them. They show everything and are impossible to keep clean. Never again. +1 for soapstone!
posted by dancinglamb at 10:12 AM on November 3, 2022

Response by poster: Thank you! This is all helpful input as we decide what to do. I appreciate it!
posted by daisyace at 3:58 PM on November 3, 2022