By Ethan Davis
For those that are less familiar with Board Form Concrete check out this post for some detail www.lifeofanarchitect.com/board-formed-concrete.
Today, more people are excited by a modern "old fashioned look" that you get from board formed concrete.
Before the wide spread use of plastic and metal in concrete forming, wood was the forming material of choice for precast and cast in place concrete walls. Wood was relatively inexpensive, readily available and could withstand the substantial weight and pressure associated with a concrete pour.
When steel-reinforced cast-in-place concrete became the standard in large construction projects, little attention was given to the exterior texture the concrete. The concrete was poured, and the impression that the wood forms made on the concrete was just an natural and accepted by-product of the pouring process. At that time, wood was not sanded or prepped in any way, and the rough texture of the unfinished wood sometimes left the recognizable wood grain texture on the surface of the concrete, but it was often an erratic pattern.
Although there are a variety of different concrete surface patterns available on the market, the wood grain look is making a come-back as a highly desirable finished texture. At SCW, we have made it our specialty and we can almost customize any look a customer can imagine.