Good material for outdoor countertop

Heads off to Craigslist to search for granite remnants...

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

waiting with anticip.....

Aaaaand BAM.

$28 worth of garden edging hung upside down and some cast iron shelf brackets and I'm already hearing Zydeco and smelling the crawfish boil.

Can't wait to stain the wood, but I'm supposed to wait a while until the PT stabilizes.

Dan83 said:

You can use Quartz or laminated countertops for your materials, both are highly durable and low maintenance. The gray palette fits more to the outdoor theme of your house because black might ruin the accent of the place. If you're interested in looking for a selection of different countertops materials you can visit [the Granite River site]. They have a great catalog that covers a lot of design which might be fit to the outdoor countertop that you had in mind.

If I carved the quartz into a canoe hull shape, would it float?

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Keith Tanner said:

Can we expand the discussion to building the cabinets for an outdoor kitchen? This is relevant to my interests :) Tips, tricks, lessons learned the hard way?

Lotusseven7, where did you source the doors for yours?

I did one in TX.  I used some reclaimed barn cedar.  I figured it lasted for 100 years in the elements, it would be fine under an awning.  IIRC, I used PT for the framework and skinned it with cedar.  But that was a completely custom build including the doors.

Since this has popped back up, I'll toss in an "after" photo of that outdoor kitchen for closure in case anyone finds this in the future. I ended up building it completely from cedar using an Eastwood workbench kit - I took rough cedar from Lowes and planed it down. Countertop is quartz left over from a kitchen remodel. The heads of the stainless carriage bolts were painted black after these first two pictures were taken so it would match the pergola better and a 2" "sidesplash" got added against the wall to finish the counter. Doors are just a wooden frame faced with tongue in groove cedar siding and latched with magnets because I couldn't find an off-the-shelf option that worked well for me.

That caramel colored wood with the black corners is sexy.  Nice work.

Since Keith bumped this back up, I tried my hand at a "poured in-place" concrete countertop. Not bad for a first attempt, but there are a few small voids in the face that I will have to address once the weather cooperates and stops dropping the white stuff.

Interesting stuff and from what I've seen on the interwebs, it can be polished and sealed to a high gloss finish like granite. Time will tell.......

I'll be very interested to see how that turns out. Are you going to finish the blocks with a skim coat or something, or leave it as-is?

Curtis

Here is mine (scroll down). Bought as left over. $38 paid for the granite. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/outdoor-countertop-idea/181291/page1/

Keith Tanner said:

I'll be very interested to see how that turns out. Are you going to finish the blocks with a skim coat or something, or leave it as-is?

As soon as it quits snowing here in northeast PA, I plan to do lath, a scratch coat and fieldstone veneer so it matches the house. Hoping to get started in a week or two.

It's the base for my pizza oven build. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/anyone-with-an-outdoor-wood-fired-pizza-oven/177147/page1/

How it looks currently.