Supplies & Training Pty Ltd

 
Trinic’s GFRC & Wetcast Admix & Mix Designs

After decades of working in the building industry, as concreters and carpenters, and
now over 5 years Pop Concrete here in Brisbane, we’ve come to notice that making
high performance concrete does not have to be hard if you have the right knowledge
and materials. When we started Pop Concrete there wasn’t a lot of information
readily available and it was not that easy to get products to make good Wet Cast
mixes let alone GFRC. To change that we’ve now partnered up with Trinic, in the U.S.,
to bring into Australia high quality products that allow fabricators to make high
quality concrete products that can be used in the Domestic and Commercial market.

Buying off Pop Concrete brings with it years of experience and knowledge making
concrete benchtops, vanities, furniture and architectural concrete products. This
means we can confidently recommend the products we sell – because we use them
and test them. This allows us to provide our customers with support,
service and advice that is backed by ongoing industry experience.

Trinic’s GFRC Admix and range of sealers are game changers. They
allow for high performance concrete that can withstand the rigors of
commercial and domestic settings.

   
  
Supplies & Training Pty Ltd
 
Trinic GFRC Admix
Multi component powdered admixture for the production of ultra high performance
GFRC. Replaces liquid acrylic polymers and many admixtures. These are some of the
benefits:

• Multi component powdered admixture simplifies the production of GFRC, no

more mixing and matching several different admixtures at different dosage rates
to produce high performance GFRC.
• Very easy to dose, less chance for human error with a cost of about $19.75 per m2
(20mm thick GFRC). Liquid polymers are about $22 - $30 per m2 (20mm GFRC)
at a 5% - 7% dose plus any other additives.
• Eliminates the overnight shipping costs, foaming, and moldy product problems
associated with liquid polymers.
• Contains a high quality UV stable micro polymer specifically designed for GFRC
production, eliminates the need for a 7 day wet cure.
• Anti-foaming agents eliminate pinholes.
• Dispersing and wetting agents improve color dispersion, intensity, and stability
resulting in better colour “pop”.
• Contains specialized additives for water reduction.
• Anti-shrink agents eliminate surface crazing, bowing, and curling.
• Closes the internal capillaries within the GFRC matrix leading to a denser, more
acid and stain resistant concrete.
• Mixes faster than traditional GFRC, less cement clumps, more homogeneous
mixes even with less than ideal mixers.

   
  
Supplies & Training Pty Ltd
 
High performing Basic GFRC mix design utilising Trinic’s Admix:

1m3 mix is 2210 kg – Sand 965kg : Cementitious (Cement & Pozzolan) 965kg :
Water 280kg (0.3 Water/Cement Ratio). This is approximately a 3:3:1 mix ratio.
1m3 = 2200 kg = 965 kg Sand : 965 kg Cementitious Content : 270 kg Water

For example to do 1m2 of GFRC at 20mm thick is 0.02 m3 at 44kg = 19.3kg Sand,
19.3kg Cement, 5.8kg Water (at a 0.3 Water/Cement ratio).

• Sand: 19.3 kg – Face / Mist Coat: Try find a good silica sand for this. It won’t
absorb as much water and affect your Water/Cement ratio.
• Backer / Self consolidating mix: you can use just about any sand including
coarser concrete sand, in fact courser concrete sand, which contains a range of
particle sizes will give you higher strength than fine sand.
• Cementitious 19.3kg – You can use white or grey cement or a combination of
cement and pozzolan. We recommend White Silica Fume as it produces a higher
strength more dense concrete at 7% – 10% of cement content and helps create a
workable mix. For example 10% White Silica Fume gives 17.37kg cement and
1.93kg silica fume. Note that Grey Silica Fume can affect workability. Due to cost
and availability. We also use MetaMax as a pozzolan which is a high reactivity
metakaolin (HRM) and is white in colour.
• Water 5.8kg – If you stay under 5.8kg (30% Water/Cement ratio) of water for
this mix you will be making GFRC in the 8,000 to 10,000 PSI range or 55 MPa –
70 MPa. You may need to adjust this according to how absorbent your sand is.
Dry river sand will absorb more water than dry silica sand.
• Ice : Great retarder - Replace up to ½ water with ice in warmer weather – 30 +
deg. C. We use ice all year round (in Brisbane) – essential in summer otherwise
you won’t have a lot of working time. Our mix calculator will work out your ice
content based on the ambient and material temperature and brings the
temperature of the mix down to approx. 140C.
• GFRC Admixture 580 grams – Work with 3% of the cementitious weight;
19.3kg x 0.03 = 580grams. You can add more if required. You don’t need any
additional additives. To get up toward the 15 000 PSI or 100 MPa range you’ll
have to play with your Water/Cement ratio and aggregates a bit – silica sand in a
blended range of sizes and < .28 W/C would be a good starting point for super
high performance GFRC. If spraying verticals add only 2.5% admix. This gives a
bit stickier mix to stick to walls (won’t affect the polymer loading).
• Plasticiser – Dose powdered plasticizer as needed – up to 1% Cementitious
content. Always start low (we start at 0.2%) and add more – too much and your
mix can segregate and it will act as a retarder. This can be offset by using Trinic’s
Stage 2 Hardener/Accelerator.

   
  
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• Fibres 1.3kg – Dose the 19mm AR Fiber at 3% - 4% of the total batch weight –
44kg x 0.03 = 1.3kg
• Curing - Add heat – If you’re not heating your tops you should be. Electric
blankets from Target or K-Mart work fine. Cover tops with plastic (essential to
keep moisture in), heating blanket, then insulating blanket. Put them to bed
before you leave the shop, get them over 45oC at night, you’ll be fine to strip
after 20 - 24 hours. Proper curing ensures no curling!!

   
  
Supplies & Training Pty Ltd
 
High performing Basic Wet Cast mix design utilising Trinic’s Admix:

A solid mix ratio is a 3:3:2 mix, 3 parts Sand : 3 parts Stone : 2 parts Cementitious
(cement & Pozzolan).
To do a 1m2 Benchtop at 50mm thick you will need a 0.05m3 mix. 42kg Sand, 42kg
Stone, 28kg Cementitious, 8.4kg water (30% W/C Ratio)

• Sand 42kg – Go to a local concrete plant, quarry or landscape centre and

purchase some concrete sand. It’s a blend of different sized particles for
concrete sand, its ubiquitous, you’ll make good concrete with it. Any other sand
with a 20 - 70 mesh or so gradation will work, make test batches first. Sand with
all the particles being the same size will be tougher to work with, often times
causing pinholes.
• Stone 42kg – Here again find a 10mm drainage gravel or bluestone from a local
landscape centre. Glass, granite, or any other sound aggregate will also work.
• Cementitious 28kg – You can use straight Portland cement (white or grey) or
combine with 10% - 20% pozzolanic material such as fly ash, silica fume,
MetaMax or slag, the choice is yours. At 10% pozzolan it would be 25.2kg cement
and 2.8kg pozzolan.
• Water 8.4kg – If you stay under 8.4kg of water total (accounting for any water
in the sand) for this mix you will be making about 8,000 psi or 55 MPa wet cast
concrete, this is strong enough to handle just about any situation. This will not be
enough water to make a nice fluid mix without the help of admixtures, see below
• Plasticiser – Dose powdered plasticizer as needed – up to 1% Cementitious
content. Always start low (we start at 0.2%) and add more – too much and your
mix can segregate and it will act as a retarder. This can be offset by using Trinic’s
Stage 2 Hardener/Accelerator.
• GFRC Admix – Start with 2% of the cementitious weight 28kg x 0.02=560g. If
this makes your mix fluid enough to cast great run with it. If you want it more
fluid, add more plasticiser not more water.
• You can add fiber (PVA or AR Fibre) if you like or go old school with ladder wire
or 6-8mm Y bar reinforcement. Check with an Engineer for reinforcing on longer
spans and cantilevers.
• Curing - Add heat – If you’re not heating your tops you should be. An electric
blanket from Target or K-Mart works fine. Lay plastic on the tops, heating
blanket, then insulating blanket. Put them to bed before you leave the shop, get
them over 450C at night, you’ll be fine to strip after 20 to 24 hours.