Choosing between silicone and polyurethane for concrete
The short version: polyurethane is the workhorse for concrete, silicone earns its keep on fine detail and undercuts. The long version, with the reasoning, follows.
Read the guideTCI Construction · Knowledge
Twelve guides on concrete tooling, in plain English.
The knowledge hub is where we write down the questions we're asked most often. No marketing, no bluster — the honest technical answer, in language a yard manager or a specifying architect can use.
Why we write these
Because the trade doesn't have enough plain-language answers.
Ask any silicone supplier a technical question and you'll get a technical answer, in technical language, with technical numbers. That's fine if you're already a silicone specialist. It's less useful if you're a landscape yard manager who needs to know whether the tool will survive the mix you actually pour.
The guides on this page are written for the second reader. Same technical rigour underneath, but the language is plain and the recommendations are honest — including when we think a different route would suit the reader better than the one they've asked about.
All twelve
Read a guide.
Formliner life expectancy and pour counts, in plain terms
There's no magic pour-count number. What you get out of a formliner depends on your mix, your release, your handling, and your storage. Here's how to think about it honestly.
Read the guideRelease, curing and demoulding for precast
Three things happen between pour and finished panel — release before, curing during, demoulding after. Get all three right and your tool life doubles.
Read the guideReproducing historic detail from a single sample
One surviving cornice, finial or keystone is enough to rebuild an entire elevation of losses. Here's how the process works, in plain language.
Read the guideGetting undercut-free architectural relief
An undercut you didn't intend costs you tool life, panel quality, or both. Here's how to spot them at design stage and design past them without losing the visual effect.
Read the guideLarge-format moulds — split lines and handling
Panels larger than a standard bed mean spliced tooling. Here's how to plan the splices so they're invisible on the panel, and how to handle a large tool without wrecking it.
Read the guideWorking with your architect on custom cladding texture
The best custom textures come from an early, honest three-way conversation between the architect, the panel manufacturer and the mould maker. Here's how to run that conversation well.
Read the guideChoosing a formliner for the mix you actually pour
The texture is what the architect sees. The mix is what the formliner has to survive. This guide walks through how each common mix type changes the material we'd reach for.
Read the guidePlanning a heritage cast, from the surviving piece to the reinstated elevation
Heritage reproduction is mostly planning. Get the methodology agreed early, and the mould-making and casting follow calmly. Leave it late, and every stage becomes a negotiation.
Read the guideWhere the split goes on a precast panel, and why it matters
Every large tool has joints. The difference between a good elevation and a disappointing one is almost always where those joints were put — and whether anyone decided on purpose.
Read the guideScaling a formliner run from one pilot panel to a full programme
The first panel proves the texture. The two-hundredth proves the tooling plan. This guide covers how to get from one to the other without the elevation drifting.
Read the guideChoosing between cast stone and precast concrete
Both come out of a mould. Both can look superb. But they're different materials, cast differently, and they ask different things of the tooling.
Read the guideWhat's not in the guides
We won't publish anything we can't stand behind.
You won't find a page here titled '10 tips to double your formliner life' or 'The complete guide to concrete mould design'. That kind of content is easy to write and almost always oversimplified.
What you'll find instead is guides on specific decisions and specific processes, each written to help a real reader make a real choice better. If a topic doesn't have enough honest content in it to fill a proper page, we don't write the page.
At a glance
The idea in a picture.
Planning liners across a wall
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Get in touch
Send us a photograph of the panel or the elevation.
One photograph tells us what surface you're chasing, and one line about the mix tells us what silicone or polyurethane will survive it.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Construction, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- Part of TCI GroupFive specialist brands, one engineering team. Visit TCI Group.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
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