Glass Fiber Rein­forced Con­crete, also known as GRC and GFRC, is a cement-based com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al rein­forced with aggre­gates, poly­mers and alka­li-resis­tant fibers. GFRC can be formed into thin sec­tioned light­weight ele­ments and pro­vides design­ers, archi­tects and engi­neers with sub­stan­tial advan­tages when com­pared to oth­er tra­di­tion­al con­crete materials.

GFRC is used world­wide to man­u­fac­ture a vast range of pre­cast prod­ucts for the build­ing and civ­il engi­neer­ing indus­tries. A leader in the design, man­u­fac­tur­ing and instal­la­tion of GFRC in the pro­duc­tion of pre­cast mold­ings is Petra Design. GFRC pan­els are Light­weight, durable, and pro­vide unlim­it­ed diver­si­ty in col­or and form. Petra Design’s ver­sa­tile GFRC pan­els GFRC pan­els have supe­ri­or flex­i­bil­i­ty and light­ness to sim­pli­fy struc­tur­al fram­ing needs, all the while reduc­ing foun­da­tion costs.

The History of the Glass Fiber Concrete/Cement:

The use of fiber­glass in archi­tec­tur­al design is rel­a­tive­ly new and ulti­mate­ly the result of an evo­lu­tion in tech­nol­o­gy. Indeed, despite its hypoth­e­sized appli­ca­tion in the late 1940’s as an addi­tive to rein­force con­crete, the first fiber­glass was inef­fec­tive, defec­tive, and ulti­mate­ly unsuc­cess­ful due to the alka­line nature of the cement attack­ing and break­ing down the fibres. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the prob­lem was solved with the devel­op­ment of alka­li resis­tant Fibre­glass that con­tains a high lev­el of zir­co­ni­um diox­ide. Ever since, the appli­ca­tion of Fibre­glass has grown wide­spread through­out the rein­force­ment of con­crete prod­ucts and espe­cial­ly in the pro­duc­tion of thin archi­tec­tur­al cladding pan­els and orna­men­tal con­crete such as ceil­ing domes, stat­ues, planters, and foun­tains. Dec­o­ra­tive con­crete arti­sans, sim­i­lar to those at Petra Design uti­lize the ben­e­fits of GFRC to cre­ate hand­craft­ed and exquis­ite dec­o­ra­tive pan­els such as fire­place mantels.

Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete Applications

• GFRC Columns and Col­umn Covers
• GFRC cor­nices
• GFRC Mould­ing
• GFRC Balustrade system
• GFRC por­ti­coes
• GFRC Foun­tains
• GFRC Planters
• GFRC Quoins
• GFRC Signs
• GFRC Wall Panel
• GFRC Domes

Advantages of GFRC:

Light weight: With GFRC, con­crete can be cast in thin­ner sec­tions and is there­fore as much as 75% lighter than sim­i­lar pieces cast with tra­di­tion­al con­crete allow­ing for lighter foun­da­tions and reduced ship­ping costs.

Increased strength: GFRC is a very strong mate­r­i­al for archi­tec­tur­al ele­ments, this means it will last longer with less maintenance.

Rein­force­ment: Since GFRC is rein­forced inter­nal­ly, there is no need for oth­er kinds of rein­force­ment, which can be dif­fi­cult to place into com­plex shapes.

Con­sol­i­da­tion: For sprayed GFRC, no vibra­tion is need­ed. For poured, GFRC, vibra­tion or rollers are easy to use to achieve consolidation.

Equip­ment: Expen­sive equip­ment is not need­ed for poured or vibrat­ed GFRC with a face coat; for sprayed GFRC, equip­ment gen­er­al­ly costs about $10,000.

Tough­ness: GFRC does­n’t crack eas­i­ly-it can be cut with­out chipping.

Sur­face fin­ish: Because it is sprayed on, the sur­face has no bug­holes or voids.

Adapt­abil­i­ty: Sprayed or poured into a mold, GFRC can adapt to near­ly any com­plex shape, from rocks to fine orna­men­tal details.

Dura­bil­i­ty: Being a sub­sti­tute for steel, the glass fibers in GFRC pre­vent rust­ing and pro­mote dura­bil­i­ty dur­ing salty and high mois­ture envi­ron­ments. Just as well, GFRCdoes not burn and will pro­tect the mate­r­i­al cov­ered from the heat of the flame.

Sus­tain­able: Because it uses less cement than equiv­a­lent con­crete and also often uses sig­nif­i­cant quan­ti­ties of recy­cled mate­ri­als (as a poz­zolan), GFRC qual­i­fies as sustainable.

Cost: GFRC as a mate­r­i­al, how­ev­er, is much more expen­sive than con­ven­tion­al con­crete on a pound-for-pound basis. But since the cross sec­tions can be so much thin­ner, that cost is over­come in most dec­o­ra­tive elements.

Vis­it our web­site for more infor­ma­tion and enough inspi­ra­tion, selec­tion, and advice, to pro­pel your next inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or archi­tec­tur­al design project!