Cheng Food-Safe Concrete Countertop Sealer - 500 mL

Overall, the look is excellent and I am very satisfied with this sealer. There are a few things to know though:For one, it drove my crazy how I couldn’t find consistent instructions. The directions on the bottle were far too simple, directions from the Cheng site differed from those on the bottle, then everyone on Amazon had their own way of doing things. I finally got the concept down though and started with only water (you have to DRENCH your surface because it sucks water in very fast). While wet, cover surface with 50/50 water and solution. After 5 minutes of working that around, without wiping off any of the 50/50 coat, add 25/75 water to solution mix. Spread around for 5 minutes and then wipe off all excess. Now from here, a “coat” is only using 25/75 water to solution. I did three more coats of this, wiping off the excess each time. Then for the last two coats (five and six) I used 100% sealer.This easily passed the water drop test, however, due to the nature of wiping with a terry towel, it was not streak-less. NOT HAPPY. You could feel small ridges across the counter because the solution is not self-leveling. So what do we do?? Wet sand.I saw that a few other people tried this so I gave it a shot. It sounds complicated but it’s not, even if you have never tried before. After 48 hours of curing, wet the entire surface with water and begin with 1200 grit sandpaper (do not go lower, I tried 800 grit and it began taking the sealer off so it no longer passed the water drop test). Fun times, got to re-seal that portion later. Make at least 5 full passes sanding and then move onto 1500 grit. (It helps to add soap to the water and spray with spray bottle to make it more slick while sanding, but don’t add too much or you’ll get to enjoy wiping off dried soap residue later). Finish with 2000 grit and your streaks will have disappeared and your countertop will feel like a baby’s bottom.Even after all the sanding, it will still pass the water drop test. I hung on to a little solution and did a final wipe down with 100%, rubbing it in hard in buffing motion so that I wouldn’t create new streaks.

This creates a high sheen polymeric coating quicker than any other sealer I’ve used. It’s expensive but worth it especially for smaller projects like countertops or feature walls.

Refinished our concrete counters before selling the house this summer. I was pretty pleased with the result for about 4 days. After that, they didn’t look as shiny anymore and little pits were revealing themselves (I’ve not discounted user error, but it seems unlikely since it took 6 coats). But whatever, the house was under contract.Not too long before we were set to close, my husband set down a silicone rimmed mixing bowl. One we’ve had several years and never had a problem with. Well, it stuck. And it stuck so well that when he was finally able to twist it off, it actually brought a chunk of the concrete with it! I was able to fill in the spot with what I had left of this sealant, but really?Take away from that what you will. It either seals so well that it’ll damage the under lying concrete, or it sticks to silicone-rimmed mixing bowls.

** 6 Month Update **So now that I have had the counters in for 6 months with daily heavy use I feel just as confident about my 5 star review. We have 4 kids that daily abuse out counters and with proper care they have maintained well. I have been waxing the counters every month or two which helps to prolong the life of the finish and the protection. I have had only two stains. The worst area is where we keep our spoon rest and it is constantly getting grease and tomato sauce spilled there. It wipes up well without leaving a stain as long as you don't let it sit long. The one stain that didn't was from tomato sauce that was left overnight by a "Guest"... Its not even bad. Just a darker spot which doesn't look bad with our natural concrete look. It might be different if i had white counters but its not bad. In 6 months when I re-apply the sealer I'll just sand down the finish and remove the stain and re-seal.I know this works because of my second stain. This one would have stained anything. A unidentified child decided to draw with a heavy sharpie which bled wight through the paper and stained a few spots on the island. Most came out with acetone but i did wet sand with 320 grit paper to take the last bit off. I polished it back up with 600 grit and resealed the whole island. Total time was about 2 hours for the repair. And since its low voc I didn't have to take the counter out in the garage to seal it.Used this to seal my newly made concrete kitchen counters. They have only been installed for 2 days so this will just be an initial review not a long term or durability review.I purchased this because I wanted a 100% food safe sealer that was also Low VOC. It is on the more expensive end but ultimately I think this is worth the price. I sealed approximately 40 sq feet of counters 3 times with one 500ml bottle. I ended up doing 6 sealer coats which took just over 1-1/2 bottles since each subsequent coat used less and less since it wasn't soaking in (because the sealer is sealing!)There are many different ways to apply the sealer but I chose a 3 part water to 1 part sealer ratio which made it very easy to apply and left no visible streaking. It took about 2-1/2 hours to seal the counters 6 times and after they dried 24 hours I water drop tested and after 5 minutes none had soaked in. I proceeded to wax the counters and buff with my 7" variable speed polisher and a lambswool cover. They are beautiful and have a mirror shine without using a harsh sealer (which is important with 4 little kids in the house).One note on application. Do the sealing somewhere that you can get wet and messy. You have to work fast and wet and it drips all over the place when you use this method. That being said a garage is a great thing if you have access! We will see how the sealer holds up over time and I will try and update my review in a few months.

Purchased and doing what it was designed to do