ADD textures to your wall.

Concrete is an important construction material used extensively in roads, bridges, dams and building. It was first used by Romans and later on, the Colosseum was built. Three hundred years have passed and concrete has become the most commonly man-made material in the world.

Today, concrete is used by interior designers and architects in laying polished concrete floors with varieties of finishes and designing façades and walls. Through the use of elastic form liners, concrete surfaces can be patterned and textured to achieve design requirements and reproduce fine, delicate and complicated details in walls.

By definition, a form liner is any sheet, layer or plate material that imparts a texture to the surface of the concrete and a preparation of designs on concrete walls.

In other countries, concrete wall designs became one of the highlights on the road. And these structures are molded into concrete, provided a lasting, permanent and picturesque display to be enjoyed.

An example is the Pima Freeway in Scottsdale, Arizona that exhibits an 8-mile long images of desert flora and fauna. A roadside mural presenting a visual history of native species and its geography.

These customized form liners, allow contractors, designers, planners and architects to achieve an ever widening variety of architectural finishes.

Also, wide range of sculptured effects is already available. Fine wood graining, rough skin textures, and carved concrete, geometric and abstract patterns, personalize and make for creative finishes.

It is made with more flexible materials, such as liquid rubbers, that lessen breakage when concrete panels are removed from molds and creating intricate designs for pre-cast and tilt-up applications.

Form liners have several types and may vary based on the application. These may be categorized as single use and multi-use plastic form liners; Single-use form liners are normally discarded after the first use and made of styrene plastic.

However, multi-use form liners are usually made of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic. These form liners are known to be reusable and used regularly on sound walls, bridges and other applications.

Also, form liners help to provide aesthetic effect to the concrete surface; achieve artistic expressions; simulate and imitate other materials such as stone walls and stacked slate; improve and increase surface durability; and provide smooth surface finish and coarse textured finish.

A pattern book released by Reckli presented varieties of textures and patterns for concrete surfaces. To be able to achieve these concrete surface pattern, clients, interior designers, architects and planners may now achieve these in the Philippines with the help of J.Vaz.Co. Inc.

Patterns included are standard range, custom-made form liners, photo engraved form liners, make-your-own form liners and concrete surface retarders.

Concrete is not just a mere material used for construction, but it is now use to design and enliven a structure.

The post Achieving concrete surface patterns appeared first on The Manila Times Online.

This article first appeared on www.manilatimes.net