Board-formed & ground architectural concrete · Osier Mills · a studio of eight, since 2013
Concrete with the grain left in.
Grainform pours against sawn fir plywood so the timber prints the surface, ties the formwork where the drawing says, and leaves every hole honest — then grinds the floors to a hone that reads as stone quarried on your own lot. Drawn to scale, batched at 4,000 psi, finished without a grinder in sight until grinding is the whole point.
(555) 218-6604 · studio@grainform.example · 96 commissions drawn, formed and ground across the Mills valley
The studio takes one board-formed commission and one floor a month, and holds that line on purpose — the formwork for a single entry can be a week of joinery before a yard of concrete is batched. The waiting list runs five weeks and every client so far says the wall was worth it.
Services
The three crafts
01
Board-formed walls, steps & entries
Poured against sawn fir plywood and wales bolted on the module of the elevation, so the timber’s grain prints the face and the tie holes land on a rhythm you can read from the street. Arrises arrised, corners cast true, the form released at the right hour — board-formed concrete is joinery that happens to be liquid for an afternoon, and it is priced and scheduled like joinery.
02
Ground & honed floors
Wet-polished through the grit ladder to a 200-grit hone — the cream opened just enough to let the fine aggregate whisper through — then densified against oil and wine and sealed matte. It reads as limestone at a fraction of the quarried price, and it takes a chair leg, a dog and a spilled Negroni in the same stride.
03
Architectural walks & terraces
Widths set by the door casings, joints laid on the module of the façade, integral color read against the roofline wetted and in daylight. Sleeves for lighting and rail cores set before the truck arrives, never drilled after; every commission starts as a scaled drawing and the drawing is yours to keep.
Since 2013
The studio record
A studio of eight draws everything twice — once for you, once for the formwork bench. The figures below are counted from the studio ledger, not estimated from memory.
I specify Grainform the way I specify a cabinetmaker — the drawings arrive as drawings, the tie-hole layout arrives as a rhythm, and the concrete arrives as architecture. The entry wall at the foundry building is the reason the project was photographed.
How it goes
Drawing to seal
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Visit one
The scaled drawing
The site is measured, the tie-hole rhythm and joint module are drawn before anything is priced, and the drawing is what the quote is read against — nothing on the page can become an extra, because you have already seen every line it pays for.
Week 1–2
The joinery
Formwork built at the bench from sawn fir ply, wales and bolts set to the module, sleeves and cores positioned. Board formwork is a week of carpentry that concrete visits for a day, and the calendar is honest about that.
Pour day
The placement
One continuous pour of 4,000-psi low-slump concrete, vibrated against the grain, struck and covered the same afternoon. The forms come off at the right hour — the hour the prints are set and the face is still young enough to cure evenly.
Week 4–6
Grind & seal
Floors honed through the ladder to 200 grit and densified; walls washed and left honest or sealed matte to the specification. The drawing, the mix ticket and the care sheet are bound and handed over with the twelve-year warranty.
The portfolio
Selected commissions
Six pieces from the last three seasons — entries, floors and one terrace that continues the line of a 1927 façade. Every owner will take your call; ask the studio for the introduction.
Grain, grind, money
Questions from the drawing table
The three questions every commission opens with, answered the way we answer them with the drawing flat on the bench.
What does board-formed actually cost?
Entries and steps from $95 a square foot of face, floors from $24 — confirmed by the measure and held sixty days. The gap against plain formed work is the joinery: a week of bench carpentry before the pour, and a form release timed to the hour. It is cabinetry money because it is cabinetry time.
Do the tie holes have to show?
They do if the wall is honest — the holes are where the formwork was bolted, and filling them is a choice some architects make and others refuse. Either way they are drawn on the module before the form is built, so they land as a rhythm instead of an accident. The drawing shows every one of them, and you approve that page.
Can a ground floor really pass for stone?
At a 200-grit hone, through the cream with the fine aggregate just whispering, the floor reads as a warm limestone — because mineralogically that is mostly what it is. Go finer and it goes glossy toward terrazzo; go coarser and it reads industrial. We pour a metre of each grade in your own mix and let your knees decide.
Why only two commissions a month?
Because the bench sets the pace. The formwork for a single entry wall is a week of joinery, and a floor cannot be ground until it has cured under its membrane — the calendar is chemistry plus carpentry, and we would rather quote you a real date than a hopeful one. The five-week list is the honest shape of the work.
Twelve years, on the drawing
If a Grainform wall settles, a floor fails or a joint opens off its module inside twelve years, we return and correct it at no charge — against the drawing, which we keep a copy of, and so do you.
studio@grainform.example · free within forty minutes of Osier Mills
Bring us the elevation, or the napkin.
The measure visit is free within forty minutes of Osier Mills: grades shot, a scaled drawing, and a written number the same week. Two commissions a month; the calendar is honest and the waiting list moves.