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Over the years Cardone has perfected his own countertop mix design that contains, along with your usual concrete ingredients, water reducers and polypropylene fibers for reinforcement. This bar top has an avocado shade, which he achieved by using a three-part integral color mixing yellow, green and a bit of blue. He also used #3 steel rebar in grids for reinforcement. "My system might seem antiquated, but I like to have complete control over the mix design," he says. "I know there are other types of state-of-the-art reinforcement, but the rebar works for me so if it's not broke, don't fix it."

Cardone says on this project he randomly plotted out the fiber optic points on the bottom of the bar top mold with a felt-tip pen and drilled the points with a 1⁄32-in. drill bit. Then he placed the CK60 (1.5 mm) fiber optic tips in the holes and tied the cords along the rebar. When Cardone pours his first layer of the mix at ¾ in. thick, he carefully works the mix through the wires with his fingers and consolidates this first layer with table vibrators. Then the rest of the concrete is laid in the mold and consolidation continues, adding the use of a 1-in. vibrator for internal consolidation.

The bar top was grinded out to a 3,000 grit with diamond disks. Because the fiber optic points are composed of PMA, a form of acrylic, and jacketed with a denser form of acrylic, the grinding process doesn't harm them.

The owner wanted a personalized touch to the project so Cardone sandblasted the bar's logo - three swirls - into the bar's drop edge in two places. Normally, Cardone seals his counter and sink tops with a solvent-based penetration sealer and buffs them out with beeswax, but on commercial projects such as this one, he uses a water-based sealer with a water-based epoxy and urethane because this combination has better stain-resisting qualities.

HARMONY FUNCTIONAL ART
Moorestown, N.J.

Brad Winkler and his partner John Clancy of Harmony Functional Art in New Jersey started working in concrete countertops about two years ago. Both had backgrounds in carpentry, which turned out to be a great start for their new venture. "When creating a concrete countertop, there's a high potential for flaws in the formwork," Winkler says. "We had a strong background in carpentry to keep us going, and we had also put together a lot of kitchens over the years so knew how cook tops and sinks fit with countertops."