Litecrete Lightweight Precast Not Always a Smooth Looker

Whether it’s cladding for apartment buildings or insulated external walls for stand-alone dwellings, Litecrete lightweight precast concrete is available in a range of surface finishes.

Popular of recent times are rough-sawn or band-sawn timber finishes, either horizontally or vertically orientated. The options range from rough-sawn pine timber planks in regular or random widths, to 150 mm wide band-sawn American Ash. Timber planks need to be replaced after seven to ten castings as the wood fibres accumulate concrete paste, thus compromising the depth of the texture. So much so that for our most popular finish, band-sawn American Ash, we have manufactured 8 metre x 4 metre rubber formliners, in both a vertical and horizontal orientation.

Consequently, we can use the formliners over and over again without a deterioration in the surface definition. Architects sometimes specify Litecrete with a weatherboard texture, as shown on the house above, in this particular instance to achieve the rustic look of a distressed 1930s farmhouse and also offering long-term durability with low maintenance.Litecrete surface finishes don’t just stop with timber; they can also offer options from simple linear designs to sophisticated graphics.

Ask Litecrete whether it is possible to achieve a particular look; they’ll probably say “yes”.