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BECKER ARCHITECTURAL CONCRETE
South St. Paul, Minn.
www.beckerconcrete.com

Chris Becker of Becker Architectural Concrete has been working in the concrete industry for more than 20 years. Becker employs a variety of mixes and products from various manufacturers in order to offer customers a wide variety of finishes and techniques. Becker recently completed a bathroom project for a homeowner in Scottsdale, Ariz., which won him the "best bathroom" award from the Cheng Concrete Exchange.

The interior designer who envisioned the sink stand project called the style a fusion of zen and cowboy. He handed Becker a hand-sketched idea on a piece of paper and Becker turned it into the finished product.

The entire sink piece includes a precast vertical leg fabricated on-site, along with the cast-in-place sink top. Careful construction makes the two pieces appear to be integrated, but the sink top actually wraps around the leg. Skirts around the sink top measure 6½ in. thick, while the center part of the slab is only 2½ in. thick. Becker used an integral color in a Cheng Design mix for the slab. He reinforced the sink top with ½-in. rebar and carbon fiber mesh and continued that reinforcement around the skirt of the sink. For consolidation, Becker ran a palm sander along the face of the edge forms. He finished off the project by polishing the sink top to 5,000 grit, applying an impregnator sealer and buffing it out with beeswax.

Becker says he creates his countertop and sink surrounds using both cast-in-place and precast techniques. Some people have opinions favoring one technique over another, but not Becker. He sees a place for both techniques, saying a cast-in-place slab can give you a more unique, hand-created look while a precast slab offers a more manufactured-looking product. He also says the various techniques call upon a contractor's skills differently.

"Pouring in place is more about concrete finishing skills, whereas precast is more about molding and finishing," he says.