Can I pour-in-place for a hand-troweled finish?
We prefer pouring our countertops into a mold for better control of the surface, absolute flatness, and therefore less need for labor-intensive polishing. Hand-troweling the surface of a poured-in-place mold is an art unto itself. Troweling causes the concrete to settle differently than it would if left alone. Specifically, troweling can bring the micro-reinforcement fibers (also known as “stealth” fibers because they are meant to lie beneath the surface) to the top of the countertop becoming visible, whereby requiring them to then be picked out or burned off. For more information on hand-troweling, refer to Appendix 3, “Pouring A Countertop In Place”, in Concrete Countertops.
