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Alla Linetsky
- Toronto, Ontario
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Alla Linetsky's Discussions
What kind of Liquid Z monster did I make?
Replied 23 minutes ago
EAP touch ups
Replied 2 hours ago
What kind of Liquid Z monster did I make?
Replied 2 hours ago
Alla Linetsky
Latest Activity
Curling is very much a shrinkage issue. I've used Tetraguard and Eclipse Floor, so I know they work very well. I haven't tested SRA-101 yet, the product that Tom carries, so I cannot recommend it at this time. But I bet it's better than nothing.
To…
I tried doing that and ended up with a mess. Why not just wax the scratches, if they're small enough and not completely through the sealer?
You guys are a perfect example of how traditional concrete experience can actually hurt you when you decide to make countertops from high performance concrete. Superplasticizers are water reducers, not water replacers. A heavily super-p'd mix will b…
Gosh Paul, you're making me blush!
I remembered the self-healing admix I was referring to, and it's not Victor Li's bacteria. Here is the link:
http://www.kryton.com/
Is anyone here familiar with this stuff?
Wouldn't oil interfere with bond formation? There are magnesium stearate-based admixtures that supposedly waterproof concrete from within, but a BASF rep told me to stay away from them - even though BASF sells one. Stearates are waxes, I think - any…
Actually, 5 qts water plus 2 qts LZ is on the high side for 30 lbs of cement. Aim for a .3 water/cement ratio, including the water in LZ, and you will be on your way to making good concrete rather than the sidewalk crapcrete that you're accustomed t…
Debra, if you're finding it tough being a woman in this field, you're not promoting yourself well enough. We have a visibility that money cannot buy, and people will remember you far longer and better than any man in your position. Make sure that me…
This could be either due to efflorescence or due to melamine absorbing water out of your mix. Suck it up and grind it.
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- Alla Linetsky
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GFRC destruction pt 2
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GFRC destruction pt 1
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Comment Wall (35 comments)
- At 7:25pm on March 10, 2010,
element concrete said…
- Thanks Alla, I will let you know how it goes for me
- At 10:28am on March 10, 2010,
element concrete said…
- Hi Alla, I have been using your wet cast recipe and it has helped me out a ton. Thank you for your input. I am about to step into the GFRC world and will be trying your SCC mix
binder 30 kg
sand or fine crushed glass 30 kg (the most recent batch has a lot of coarser grains, up to 2 mm diam., so we've upped it to 40 kg)
LiquidZ 2.25 L, split into two equal containers
water 7 to 7.5L
Super-p (Glenium 7700) 250-300 g, depending on whether or not the client wants bugholes (it's amazing how many do!)
Shrinkage reducer 150 ml (2% of water)
3/4" fibres 1.5 kg (2.5% of total dry mix weight)
Here are my Questions. Can I mix this in a regular concrete mixer (barrel style) or do I need the buckets and hand drill?
Do you vibrate this mix at all?
If I am doing some grinding/polishing would you place a small layer first with no fibers?
Thanks for your help and time it has really made a difference in the quality of my product.Patrick
- At 11:49pm on January 6, 2010,
Scott Underwood said… - Alla,
I really appreciate the compliment (that came with the friend request). Any insight I can give is fully my pleasure as I've been absorbing as much as I can about the other aspects of decorative concrete from all of you for quite some time! Keep up the good work!
Scott
- At 7:37am on December 29, 2009,
Derek Peters said…
- I've tried using ICT, but it changes the color with counterhard. It looks dirty and plastic. I can't seem to get it to work for me.
I know EAP is expensive, but I am really getting tired of complaints, they are my biggest concern. I wasn't going to spray EAP either.
Good luck with the new ICT, please let me know how it goes.
- At 8:52pm on December 19, 2009,
al hasson said… - hey Alla, hopeing you can help me figure this out. i cannot seem to get the mix wet enough without going over the .33 water ratio. i had posted earlier and you replied that you use approx. 1- 1.35% of binder weight for the glenium. so we use 23 lbs binder (portland and vcas) so according to what you use it would be about .3 of a lb (3 oz) ? we are using bagged quartz silica sand (sand blast sand) the sizing is 00 they say this is compareable to a 30 seive. using 6.5 lbs water and 102 ml glenium (max amount according to label ? this works for mist coat maybe a bit thin..........still learning. but when doing scc backer coat it is thick enough for the verticle backer coat. where the sand is so dry can i add more water about 2 lbs and still be safe on the ratio or add more glenium or using wrong sand? any help would be appreciated thanks, Al
- At 11:04am on December 13, 2009,
John Cardwell(www.crete-unique.com) said… - Glad to be of help. He's not direct to me so I am not concerned about it too much. Prob 400 miles away. I always made it a point to always only use my own work in my portfolio even though it took a long time to build it up. YOu have to use a true representation of your own work else people will be very surprised when the stuff you turn out looks nothing like your own pictures. Some people are very clueless.
- At 1:41pm on December 10, 2009,
John Cardwell(www.crete-unique.com) said…
- Alla
Having known about you for quite some time through here and concrete connections and recognizing your work I come across an instate competitor of mine whos pics look mighty familiar to me. Not sure if you know this person or not but I do know that is your work for the most part in their pics.
I think I recalled you complaining about this exact problem before. Anywho
http://www.creativecastings.biz/
- At 7:53pm on December 8, 2009,
Bill Robertson said… - thanks info alla, once again i am very impressed with your work. i am definatly going to start playing around with the blue board more. i am also interested in your wet cast GFRC method. but for right now i will just be working on trying to do some interesting wet cast peices.
thanks again
bill
- At 7:39pm on December 7, 2009,
Bill Robertson said…
- hey alla,
bill robertson here. been workin on some small projects, (32" x 32" table tops) just trying to get a good mix going. i saw your pics of your curved peice siton 1, 3 and 4. freakin amazing man. just wondering what your using to cut and shape the blue board and what if anything are you sealing it with?? what is that, that you are using for your drain board?? i would love to be able to make something like that on my own. also what are you using for your form edges?? i noticed your useing hot glue to hold things in place. how do you get that off when your done. sorry for all of the ?'s but i am getting ready for my first big countertop and am about to loose my f'in mind. once again your work is great man.
- At 8:29am on November 14, 2009,
Christian Lotte COUNTERINTUITIVE said… - Thank you, Alla. This helps, you say the inside formwork doesn't have to be as stong as for regular wet-cast aggregate concrete. What do you use to make your inside formwork?
Thanks, Christian
- At 9:11pm on November 13, 2009,
al hasson said…
- Thanks Alla,
i will give him a call, by the way your work looks great.
- At 7:57am on November 13, 2009,
Christian Lotte COUNTERINTUITIVE said…
- Hi Alle, I am a pretty new fabricator down in North Carolina, and while I am contemplating the move to GFRC, I constantly think about making GFRC without the spray application...and have run across that in several of your posts. You call it a wet-cast GFRC. I am trying to get a better understanding of this, but have my concerns.
Is this a single layer application? How do you avoid seeing fibers after processing in your tops? Do you stay in a 3-5% Fiber loading range?
If it is an SCC mix, then how do you assure that the majority of your fibers are oriented in the right direction? The way I learned GFRC is to layer your backer coat and roll the mix out with a compaction roller to assure correct orientation of the fibers. Or do you use additional steel reinforcing in your GFRC tops?
And finally, part of the beauty of GFRC is that you can easily make three dimensional shapes without having to have a 2-part mold. How do you manage to have an SCC mix not slide down vertical surfaces?
Sorry for all these questions, I hope you can point me in the right direction. Love your work!
Thank you, Christian
- At 9:08pm on November 11, 2009,
al hasson said…
- Hi Alla, i am from the matitimes and would also like to know if there are any canadian suppliers for gfrc. i already use glenium 7700 , but that is the only thing i can find so far. i bought gores video and trying to follow his recipe as he has been around for a while and seems to work. i am running out of time as i have to purchase the componets soon, i have a client that is having her cubbords installed at the end of the month...........not much time to practice. any help would be appreciated. one more thing is the eap sealer as good as they say it is. thanks in advance Al.
- At 9:37am on September 27, 2009,
element concrete said…
- Thanks Alla, let the experiments begin
- At 10:57pm on September 24, 2009,
element concrete said…
- Hi Alla, thanks for the reply I really appreciate your time and info. No you have not replied to me before but I bet I am not the first to ask you for some info on mix design. The cheng mix is not a typo but does say to use 72lbs natural sand or 40lbs light weight sand? not sure what that is as the sand I use has been graded for use in concrete. If you don't mind what add mixtures do you use if you do not like polyplex? Thanks again Patrick.
- At 1:18pm on September 23, 2009,
element concrete said…
- Hi Alla, my name is Patrick and I live in BC. I am new to the forum and so far have been amazed at the wealth of knowledge on this site especially your input. I have two questions I was hoping you could help out with. 1) Is there anywhere in Canada I can order admixtures ie: polyplex, vcas 160 etc for my counter mix? This is so I can avoid the duty and less shipping charges. 2) I have been using chengs recipe for my concrete mix. It seems a bit heavy on the sand. (cement 22.5lbs sand 72lbs 37lbs gravel). Is there a better recipe you can recommend? I have a small flatwork company and am very familiar with concrete slabs and walls but counters are fairly new to me. I was thinking of posting this on the forum but wanted specific info from you. If you have the time thanks for any help you can offer. Patrick
- At 2:50am on September 13, 2009,
Kasper Naef said… - I am using the HPC cement from Quickcrete http://concreterepair.com/HPCSpecSheets/HPC.4.4Cement.pdf
I have the white 40 minute one. First I was using it straight, but it was just too hot. Now I came up with the mix I am using now, 50:50 with Portland and it works great. I have poured at 34 degrees C a few weeks back and I used a bit of delay then. I had to hustle, but still got about 30 minutes. Now when it is around 25 degrees, I have about 45 minutes to an hour working time. That is without any delay in it.
I demold everything after 12-15 hours and polish right away.After 24 hours it becomes virtually impossible to polish. Just too hard. I don't do any curing regiment at all. Have not had any problems. I just use regular sand and VCAS. I used SIKA Viscocrete 6100 as a super P.
I have not have had any luck polishing anything where I had the fibers in it, they show right away, so that is why I came up with the method I am using now.
I don't know if the Eclipse helped with the pinholes. I really don't have any at all, other than on the edges and where I do seeded "rivers" with large glass and pebbles. I think it had more to do with going away from Polyplex, which was horrible. I went to Liquid Z, which was much better, but now I am using Mapei Planicrete AC at 5%. That has really eliminated the pinholes. I polish to 200 and the can go directly to the first coat of EAP. Then a slurry coat and one more EAP.
Planicrete is only $80 canadian for 20 liters. I think with the CSA, using acrylic is kind of overkill anyway.
- At 4:22pm on September 12, 2009,
Kasper Naef said…
- Hi Alla,
I know what you mean about the other forum. After all it is Blue concrete's forum.... Don't mention the letters E A P over there..... LOL
I have been using the Grace Eclipse floor and it has worked great. Now all my pieces are perfectly straight everytime.
I am using 50:50 HPC and portland cement. All poured GFRC using regular sand. I pour a thin layer of without fibers first and then add the backer coat.
99% of my pieces are exposed aggregate. I stick a 1/2" strip styrofam along the exposed edges, fill the back coat and then pull the styro out while pouring in some more of the face coat without the fibers. The same for undermount sinks. Works great, exposed agg with poured GFRC, the way to go...
Kasper
- At 8:35pm on September 10, 2009,
James Catabia said… - Hello Alla,
Are you still using Poraver in your mix? I am currently GFRC all the way and I have started using Poraver over the last few months. I like the results. I only use it in the backer portion of my mix. I am at a 25% sub at this time. My concrete at 1 1/2" thick is 15 lbs. per square foot. What are your results like. I am using the 1mm-2mm size.
- At 7:47am on August 21, 2009,
Marty St.Clair said… - You produce some nice peices, Alla.
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