Comments on: Grancrete : Spray-Form Building

By: Milind R Patil

Milind R Patil — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:37:23 +0000

I am a manufacturer of EPS in India and am interested in trying out Grancrete in Pune Maharashtra State. I am keen on a franchise arrangement. If interested you can contact me on polyfab_eps@vsnl.net.

By: Idaho Grancrete

Idaho Grancrete — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:20:06 +0000

Robert, If you would like some information on Grancrete email us at info@brownhomes.org and we will get you the information you need or get you in contact with the right group.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:53:25 +0000

I was one of the first fourm writters and yet to hear when I can be come your seller or partial product owner..When am I going to get more information from you guys? Please hurry many biological clocks are ticking and we want to enjoy our fruits of our investments…Proffessional Marketing, Robert

By: Idaho Grancrete

Idaho Grancrete — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:30:30 +0000

Grancrete has only been available to the public for just over a year and in that time has undergone some major growing pains. For example some of the initial compressive testing data put Grancrete at 6,880 PSI after 28 days under the original mixing instructions. Now with lessons learned and a better way of mixing Grancrete is now getting 12,590 PSI after only 3 days. Some valuable installation lessons learned are to mix Grancrete by hand with a drill mixer at a very high speed slowly adding the powder to the water. The amount of water used in the formula is very key to the final strength. The best performance comes when 18 to 22% water is used by weight on the “PC” formula and down as low as 11% on the “B” formula. We have also found that mesh is another key component to preventing check cracking. Currently the color fades during curing under direct sunlight. If used outdoors or where sunlight will affect the final color we recommend using a synthetic finish. There are still more lessons to be learned from Grancrete and the best way so far has been on the ground by people who recognize Grancrete’s ultimate potential in changing the way people build. Grancrete is moving in the right direction and has produced some beautiful homes, countertops, faux walls, fireplaces, bathrooms, floors and even as a fireproofing for steal. We feel that the surface of what Grancrete is capable of has only been scratched. We have a lot of on the ground experience with Grancrete and appreciate people like Plaster Jon who are willing to give Grancrete a chance and are sorry that things didn’t work out for him. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at info@brownhomes.org or visit us on the web at http://www.Brownhomes.org

By: Idaho Grancrete

Idaho Grancrete — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:29:18 +0000

Jimi,
We do sell Grancrete and would be more than happy to sell you some or get you in contact with the distributor for your area. Please feel free to contact us at info@brownhomes.org or visit our website http://www.brownhomes.org and fill out our contact form and we will get right back to you, most likely the same day.

By: jimi

jimi — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:38:39 +0000

For a product that has theoretically been available for 2 1/2 years, it’s surprisingly difficult to get. An hour of searching the web found nothing but dead “you can buy it now” links to the grancrete site. The material seems impressive, and I would of bought some today if I could of… If anyone from Grancrete LLC reads this, a couple of suggestions. If you “reorganize” your website, figure out how to deal with calls to old pages… it’s not too hard. Also, you have a product people want, it would be nice for you to sell it to them. None of your “distributors” have websites listed. I was able to determine one from the email address, but his site didn’t sell Grancrete. Maybe I’m just confused on the meaning of distributor?

FYI: http://brownhomes.org – Link to the “distibutor”

By: jon

jon — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:16:32 +0000

I have worked extensivley with grancrete in exterior installations. My background is in stucco systems. What I have found is the product doesn’t fully live up to it’s claimes. we have had problems with cracking, color fadeing and delamination. I feel there needs to be more true testing in different enviorments (not a lab). We have also encountered problems with Grancrete standing behind the product the way we feel they should. I have a 13,000 sq. ft. project that is half finished and is stalled until spring in hopes that Grancrete can figure things out. Even with the problems my self and the homeowners hope to be able to continue to work with Grancrete but if we can’t get answers form them on why we are haveing the problems we will be forced to go back to synthetic or conventional stucco. we have been consulting grancrete before and during the project to apply the material the way they suggest.

By: Norm B.

Norm B. — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:14:29 +0000

I’m hoping to test build a small (garage) structure using 8″ to 12″ geofoam with grancrete in the next year. I’d like to use the technique for some structures in the Bahamas. Due to terminites possibly nesting in the foam I want to use Borax impregnated geofoam.

One of issues I see is connection of panels, roofs etc. My current plan is to use long plastic/polyester screws, and use stainless steel screening bent around various connections – corners, cornices etc. Additionally I may run various strapping from foundations. I’m also anticipating some glue.

For window and door bucking, I’m looking to use all plastic/composite wood materials – again trying to avoid termites. I don’t want any wood in the house except in cabinets and furniture and even then the termites are sure to find that wood.

Some other possibilites for a geofoam/grancrete combo:
* geodesic domes. You could precut all the triangles, put up the dome in hours and spray. I believe you could do this without rebar. If desired, metal mesh could be fairly easily installed over the exterior. This would be much easier and cheaper than the air-form, spray foam, rebar, concrete monolithic dome technique. It would also be even better insulated. I’m thinking of 1ft thick geofoam for this.

* quonset hut structures of large size. Geofoam panels come in up to 3x4x16 ft panels. Cut the panels slightly to make a classic roman arch – with 4ft thick walls – and you could cover a football field. The foam is quite good in compression that is provided by the arch. You may want to add reinforcing metal, but perhaps only on the exterior where it would be easy to apply. For a football field of 180+ft wide x lets say by 380ft long, you’d need 24 arches each 16ft wide (1 block) , with each each comprised of about 94 blocks for a total of 2256 geofoam blocks. Though this is way too simplistic thinking and would require more engineering, its nontheless intriguing. Talk about superinsulation – 4 ft thick foam should be sufficient… Note that if you use the highest 2lb density geofoam (I’d anticipate multiple densities – high at base, low at top of arch), geofoam cost should be under $1.4million for this. I estimate 220K sq ft of 1″ to 2″ grancrete at about $400,000 not including labor – so lets say roughly $2million for the shell materials. Double that for labor, add $1.5million for the field itself, and for $5million you have a superinsulated football/soccer/lacrosse field house. Add another million and you might be able to include a track. Just a crazy estimate without sufficient engineering.

* Another fun idea – spray the grancrete around 3x4x16 geofoam blocks, then use grancrete to attach these together into a barge for a floating home.. Then use 8″ geofoam (3″ for interior walls) for building the house structure itself. Although Grancrete is waterproof, I might still consider coating the exterior with a spray-on/roll-on pickup bed liner material like DuraBak.

* Seems that geofoam and grancrete, again due to its waterproof nature, might be excellent for creating a ferro-cement boat. But you might be able to drop the “ferro”. Create your bulkheads out of geofoam, cover with a couple of layers of 1″ thick flexible EPS panel strips (with a fine layer of grancrete between?), use a very fine gunite sprayer to apply grancrete inside and out and you’ve got your boat. And its highly fire resistant. I’m thinking of a large catamaran…

By: R. K. Corbett, Jr.

R. K. Corbett, Jr. — Sun, 06 May 2007 12:44:43 +0000

I understand you are located in Virginia. I would like to see some examples of your construction.

By: Blayne

Blayne — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:51:08 +0000

Anyone still reading this site have any updates on their esperiences with grancrete or gigacrete? Anyone know of any homemade mixes for geopolymers or anything else comparable and cheaper in price?

I am a former masonry and concrete contractor and have been looking for cheaper alternatives for 25+ years. Concrete is still hard to beat in terms material price but is labor intensive.

One thing I have learned in all this is if we’re going to really find a significantly cheaper better material/method were going to have to do it ourselves and spread it word of mouth. But most of us are too busy making and living and living life to put the time and research into doing it.

One thing is for sure anytime some company such as grancrete finds something then the coporate politics always seems to throw a wrench in the gears and or maybe it’s just greed as far as the cost savings not to mention building departments.

I have heard rumors the military has some sort of polymer mix they can mix with just about any soil and it is stronger then concrete. They supposedly use it to make quick runways and other hard surfaces but they don’t want to make it available to the public as it would destroy the building materials market for concrete and asphalt etc. as it is so cheap and easy blah blah. But you know how rumors go…