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Ignore these weirdos with their ashtrays with ashtrays molded into them.
The countertops look boss. You gotta figure out how to make them lighter though. I bet you can embed some surfboard foam in them in sections to make it light and strong too.
I'm mostly in Maine about 5 hours from you, but still in CT a lot for business and family stuff. I have more important house stuff to do first, but when I'm ready for the kitchen I will definitely contact you.
Figuring about 1.5" thick for a countertop. Would like to be able to estimate weight - I have a 2500HD and could maybe handle transport with that even if it takes a couple trips.
Edit - never mind - saw the weight est above.
Keep in mind, that estimated weight is for 2" thick solid slabs with rebar. There's a few options we've been experimenting with to reduce weight without compromising strength. Just let me know when you get to that stage and I'd be happy to take care of it for you. Hopefully by then I'll have more of a system in place with products ready to go!
Originally Posted by Girz0r
Pretty 'slick' counter tops
You think you could do a skull with 1/4th of it's top chopped off with an indention of a ash tray?
As of right now we have 3-4 different variations of the skull, when I have some more finished pieces I'll post what we have. Ashtray is unlikely though, the skull looks larger in the photos than it really is. Think palm of your hand, bottle opener or shift **** sized.
Originally Posted by y8s
Nice Vash.
Ignore these weirdos with their ashtrays with ashtrays molded into them.
The countertops look boss. You gotta figure out how to make them lighter though. I bet you can embed some surfboard foam in them in sections to make it light and strong too.
Thanks Y8S! You know, for a minute they had me thinking about making an ashtray, that's inside another 7 ashtrays, that in the end isn't even an ashtray. Then I went back to doing payroll.
We've experimented a bit with foam, but part of the issue we saw was wherever we took away thickness from the concrete by using foam, it would crack. The foam actually works amazing for making voids or texture to the concrete, but IMO cant be used to stay in place, but others on youtube would probably disagree. Its crazy man, there's so many different ways to make things and people are already out there doing it, proving a market. I'd like to think that by using our expertise in the industry and applying real world structural processes, we can do better. Here's a photo of one of our most recent ones (walls averaging 12'-17' high and over 60 beam pockets for steel).
Originally Posted by DNMakinson
Fiberglass Reinforced Concrete can be made thinner and weigh considerably less, I understand.
(you have me doing research as I think they look great and we have been needing to replace our crappy Formica for some time now).
GFRC is 100% the way to go. Everything we pour, whether its skulls or table tops, it gets fiber mesh mixed in. The difference in strength and durability of the piece is 10x that of one without it. There's also a method of using compressed air and a hopper to spray on face coats with backing coats. This is primarily used in fabricating countertops, statues, etc. Eventually if I can get the other 4000sqft of building when it becomes available, I'll be looking into getting the equipment for sure. Just running out of space now and that's after taking on an additional 1000sqft this last year!!
Lava rocks (pumice stones) are structurally strong yet lightweight. They are also inexpensive. Just throwing that out there.
Being successful in business is all about finding your niche where you can make money and have an edge over competitors. You are doing the right thing by continuing to brainstorm and innovate. You never know which product is going to absolutely take off until you start marketing it or test marketing it like you're doing here. Best of luck.
Lava rocks (pumice stones) are structurally strong yet lightweight. They are also inexpensive. Just throwing that out there.
Being successful in business is all about finding your niche where you can make money and have an edge over competitors. You are doing the right thing by continuing to brainstorm and innovate. You never know which product is going to absolutely take off until you start marketing it or test marketing it like you're doing here. Best of luck.
When we first started experimenting with mix designs we used the lightweight stones, but we ran into a problem. Once I starting polishing, everywhere I hit a lightweight stone it blew it apart, leaving a void in the top. So long as it doesn't need to be polished, lightweight stones will definitely help cut down on the weight. This is why I'm leaning toward glass as an aggregate. Not only can it be polished, but because the glass doesn't retain any water it raises the cure strength and durability of the product. And with glass bottles being one of the most undesirable items to recycle, this will essentially be an "upcycled" end product. Everybody loves going green right?
Thanks for the feedback as well Six! I posted here first before putting it out to any social media or advertising and I'm really glad I did. In just 2 days you guys have helped steer me in the right direction, based off all your comments. In my mind the smaller items were my first go to market, but looks like table tops might be a better first start. So I guess my next question would be, how much would one expect to pay for a polished coffee table? I already have bases ready to go (reusing another item that would otherwise become scrap metal) or I can sell just slabs for DIY installs. Not to mention I have other things in the works, incorporating some tech into the tables as well.
People always say "when you find something that doesn't feel like work because you truly enjoy it, that's what you should be doing". For me, concrete is in my blood and I'll do foundations for the rest of my life if that's what I need to do. Unfortunately, its just a rough industry to be in, from all aspects of owning/operating a business. If this can work it'll not only help me sleep at night, but keep people working and my family more secure. So thanks again to all you guys for the valuable feedback!!
I like the innovation in what I imagine is a pretty mature industry that lacks this kind of thinking for the most part. I also think this is a great time to market concrete for in-home design as the industrial look is getting more and more popular. Weight is definitely a consideration though. I know you have to build cabinets differently to support the weight of concrete counter-tops.
I'm going to suggest a different direction may be more lucrative than direct sales. Consider finding a kitchen and bathroom renovator in your area that does modern style remodels, or commercial spaces. Show them some samples of the varieties you can make and see if you can get some steady work out of it. The real money is in steady B2B with someone who is already buying granite or synthetic tops from other sources.
Have you tried adding concrete pigment to yield base colors other than grey? I have customers who make concrete paver bricks so I know there are many hues, but I've not seen any polished colored products. It really opens up the customer base when they have choices other than grey.
Adding crushed oyster shells or other sea shells produces a cool effect when polished.
I'm going to suggest a different direction may be more lucrative than direct sales. Consider finding a kitchen and bathroom renovator in your area that does modern style remodels, or commercial spaces.
This is good advice.
My brother-in-law is a carpenter. He mostly specializes in high-end custom stuff (closets, bookshelves, media centers, repairing antique furniture), but wasn't doing a lot of business. No visibility. He took a side gig with Lowes, doing standard kitchen installs to pay the bills when he wasn't otherwise occupied. This led to two things:
1: Lowes now accounts for more than half his business. He's hired several additional employees and bought two more trucks just to deal with the Lowes stuff.
2: Through Lowes, he made some connections in the home construction business. Now, instead of just doing renovations and little stuff, most of his custom jobs come directly from homebuilders whose clients want big, high-end kitchen / bathroom / closet / living room pieces built to their spec, not assembled from off-the-shelf components. This is the kind of stuff he makes:
I myself try and stay away from google images, as I don't like putting other people's ideas in my head. We have some great stuff in the works that's similar to all the pics you'll find on there, just none of them are 100% finished. I've been toying with lighting in the concrete for over 2 years now, everything from sketching it on paper to making the actual prototype. Pigments, sink molds, fiber optics, you name it.
Six, your idea to pair up with a local kitchen & bath is such a simple idea, but I never even thought about it until you said it! This idea makes perfect sense though. Rather than spending time and money on marketing to homeowners, I should be taking samples to local business that already spend that time and money to get the homeowners! Not to mention, we work with so many kitchen & bath guys on the homes we do that getting in would be easy. Now you have me thinking that I should also approach the 100+ architects we work with as well. Sometimes its hard to think outside the box when I'm pulled between the 2 businesses, but outside feedback definitely helps get me there.
Later today I'll be making a mock up for a particular product everyone's been really excited about. I'll take some pictures and share it with you guys to see what you think!
Well rather than do a mockup, I decided to redo our parking area in front of the office instead. I pulled out the front concrete step and started laying the pavers, just as a small test area. To do the entire spot we need to make 700 more, but we're currently able to pour 120 a week. Next week I'll be able to do 300+ a week, so it shouldn't take too long to have them done. These are set just as normal pavers are, but these ones can be filled with either stone dust or grass, depending on what they'll be used for. Anything from parking areas and driveways to patios, sidewalks and pool decks. Not to mention they look awesome compared to what's available. Keep in mind that the picture with the pavers down isn't the finished product. Once we have enough made to lay the first half, we'll redo them and fill in the gaps with stone dust. I'm just too impatient to wait until then!
Also, after doing a ton of research it seems that crowdfunding campaigns do best with $25-$50 items. That's not to say I wouldn't have $3000 tables offered as well, but I want to make sure I can offer plenty of items throughout that range. So we've been testing a bunch of ideas, trying to see which ones come out best. For now, the planters have been coming out great and I have enough inventory already made to start with them. Still doing my homework on copyright infringement and looking into official licensing as an option, but ultimately any known design is just a test for now. Plus these are great conversation pieces when I use them as paperweights in the office!
I wanted to share a new step in all of this with you guys. This is far from done, but I've been playing around with the idea for awhile now and needed to see what I could do. The concept is a custom concrete house, using the llama logo as a footprint. I'd like to keep it one level, so I will more than likely have to redo dimensions to get more living space and move most of what I've already done inside. The garage was the first room I did, but I'll just shift it and the driveway to the right so it makes more sense with the rest of the layout.
I'm not an architect, but that's ok. I know we can build this.
In order to save the file and continue working, I decided to buy the program (ouch!) in hopes it'll benefit the business in some way.
Now that I have the newest version installed, its saying my graphics card is **** and wont allow me to do any 3d views. I have a brand new desktop for the office that's been sitting in the box since last November/December, so now this gives me a reason to finally set it up.
After some more experimenting, this is where I'm currently at with the floor plan. Time to go back to work and stop getting distracted!!
06-21-2017, 02:52 PM
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