As a refresher, for Project S: Phase 1 I set out to come up with a countertop mix using Type S masonry mortar. It was a success and I placed the patio grill surround using a fiber reinforced Type S mix which was mixed by hand with a hoe.
I have a fairly large sized countertop pour coming up and have decided to roll this project into a second phase. I am going to develop a glass fiber reinforced concrete system based on masonry mortar.
Glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) countertops consist of a sprayed on surface coat backed with a fiber reinforced support layer. Usually these contain latex polymers for tensile strength and shrinkage reduction. I picked up a large bore drywall hopper gun to spray on the face lift. The backer lift will contain glass fibers and regular bonding latex. Since the masonry mortar contains hydrated lime, I will include some metakaolin clay to use it up. The plan will be that everything but the fibers and metakaolin will be purchased locally and cheap. As we get closer to construction I will do some test sections to dial in the different mixtures. If I have some extra time I am planning on doing some surface coating comparisons to get a head to head idea of how each method I have tried performs.
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