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Fitzgerald Formliners offers more than 250 patterns, including brick, rope, fractured fin and wood. The company has five different liner types for use in tilt-up, cast-in-place and precast walls. "Plastic ABS .110 can be reused six to eight times, while Plastic ABS .150 gets 10 to 15 reuses," explains Jill Richards of Fitzgerald Formliners. "Plastic Styrene is a single-use material. GrayLastic urethane is a heavy-duty urethane material and can get up to 100 reuses." A single-use gasket works in tilt-up construction; precasters use urethane.

The plastic liners come in 4-ft. by 8-ft. and 4-ft. by 10-ft. sizes and weigh from 16 to 34 lbs. each. Because the surface being textured is often not exactly the same size, the formliner may need trimming with a circular handsaw. Plastic formliners expand and contract 1⁄16 in. per 10 ft. with each 20-degree temperature change during concrete placement.

Urethane liner size varies widely, with a standard size of 4 ft. by 10 ft., but they can be much longer. These weigh 5 to 12 lbs. per sq. ft. Some liners are designed for side-to-side and end-to-end matching so when they are butted up together, the pattern will match as it moves across the finished wall. The maximum pour rate for plastic and urethane formliners is 600 to 750 lbs. per sq. ft.; liners with more highly textured patterns require slower placement.

Choosing the right formliner depends on the pattern desired, the liner's intended use and how many times the contractor wishes to use it. If a contractor wants to form up the entire job at once, if the preferred pattern is available, a single use plastic formliner would make economic sense, notes Richards.

Increte Systems Inc. offers the Stone-Crete system for cast-in-place walls. These formliners are used for residential and commercial structural walls, interior basement walls, bridge abutments, retaining walls, subdivision entries and highway sound barriers. All 10 patterns are available in 2-ft. by 6-ft. and 6-ft. by 2-ft. sizes, while the coquina pattern also comes in 4 ft. by 6 ft.