Hi,
I ‘m thinking of trying to cast a breakfast bar/table for my kitchen, it’ll just be the top as I can weld up some legs so it doesn’t need to be freestanding, but to reduce the weight I’ve had a quick look at GFRC. It looks like a good solution to a very thick heavy slab, but has anyone tried it DIY, any tradesmen who can give me an opinion?
Quite happy doing fairly big DIY projects, and think with a bit of effort and thought it’ll be much cheaper than bespoke and exactly as we (my wife) would like?

With a thin GFRC slab you might struggle to make it strong enough in flexure. You could always try casting it on top of a wooden top.

There’s a couple of good books by Fu Tung Cheng, that would be worth looking at firste.g.

Neighbour did it in solid concrete. Took ages and weighed tonnes. Now the edges are chipping it looks a bit rubbish.

Cheers @Natrix, I’ll take a look at the books.

@csb, trying not to end up with a monolithic slab, hence the fibre reinforcement.
Trying to avoid the inevitable YouTube wormholes.

One of the worst materials you could choose for it.

James May did one on a programme years ago called Man Lab, look it up on YouTube.

Hi. Hands in the air!! I have done one. Well a top for a row of low level, bench height cupboards. It’s about 2.5m long and 400mm deep and err 25mm thick. I went round and round researching how to make it and ended up buying a kit and using fibre galss reinforced concrete. Was amazed with hom smooth it came out and it’s well sealed etc. No issues with crumbling edges. Kit came from high design holland. I thought the thickness wouldresult in it being weak, so the unsupported spans from my cupboard structure are low. However the slab didn’t flex when being lifted by 2 people with one at each end and no support. Although I made a mould in melamine chipboard, the flow I laid the mould on was apparently not flat, so the slab does have a very slight rock in it. Effectively a perfect project for me: 1st time trying somehting new, ended up with a useable product, an I know how to improve it for next time! Not up to speed posting images here. But happy to share via. email etc.

This chap is quite good to watch. I mostly watch for the building conversion stuff but he does a lot with cast concrete, particularly using special mixes to allow for thinner concrete: https://www.youtube.com/c/ModustrialMaker

Thanks all, just got the notifications through for your replies!
mugsys_m8 I saw the high design holland stuff during my ‘research’, so i might message you at some point for a bit more info? Cheers.

I thought the thickness would result in it being weak

When I worked at the R & D labs of what was then Pilkington, there were some remnants of the development process for the ‘Cem-Fil’ alkali-resistant glass fibre for cement reinforcement knocking around. Amongst other things, there was a kayak moulded out of GFRC!

(They sold the process to St. Gobain afterwards, and I think that the process is still in use today).

There is a process that uses microcement. Microcement can be used on floors or worktops.

A work top can be made of mdf or plywood and the microcement can be applied over it .

Similar to using epoxy on existing worktops or, on a wood , ply, mdf surface.

See stone coat epoxy etc.

Thanks for all the replies, wife bought a breakfast bar and four chairs off Facebook marketplace.
I think I may have dodged a bullet there…………………