Zhaotong Old County Facade Upgrade: GRC Curtain Wall Component Renovation Implementation Case

Amid the wave of old town renewal, facade renovation in aging urban districts has always been a core challenge that balances urban appearance improvement with public welfare, and how to achieve a balance between texture quality, durability, and construction efficiency within a limited budget has long been a direction jointly explored by housing and construction departments and contractors across the country. The recently completed Zhaotong old county town facade upgrading project, with GRC curtain wall component renovation as its core solution, not only successfully achieved the goal of a unified district appearance, but also became a typical reference case for standardized GRC component application in county-level old town renewal in Southwest China. As industry practitioners with nearly 30 years of full-chain GRC service experience, we have personally witnessed more and more similar projects going from initial design deliberation to final implementation, and the adaptability advantages of GRC—Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete—are being recognized by more and more project owners.

### Core Pain Points of the Zhaotong Old County Town Renovation and the Adaptability Logic of the GRC Solution Unlike the customized requirements of new commercial buildings, the constraints of old county town facade renovation are far more complex: first, the base conditions of existing buildings vary greatly—most buildings are over 20 years old, with poor wall flatness and limited load-bearing reserves, unable to support heavy traditional stone curtain walls; second, the renovation schedule is strict—most districts need to complete construction within 3-4 months to minimize the impact on residents' daily travel; meanwhile, the project budget is relatively limited, requiring a unified and harmonious Chinese vernacular residential style while keeping costs under control. To address these core demands, the project ultimately selected GRC curtain wall components as the core medium for renovation: on one hand, GRC material weighs only one quarter of traditional stone, satisfying the load-bearing requirements of aging buildings without large-scale reinforcement of the original building structures; on the other hand, GRC's excellent plasticity allows for the mass production of cornice lines, window trims, and facade decorative components that match local residential characteristics, ensuring style consistency while achieving production efficiency far higher than traditional on-site plastering and carving techniques, perfectly matching the project's schedule requirements. For more industry information: WeChat qlfsbl123

### Full-Chain Service Capability: The Core Support for Implementing GRC Renovation Projects When first engaging with GRC renovation projects, many project owners often worry about insufficient component precision and poor installation adaptability. The key to solving these problems lies precisely in whether the supplier can provide full-process services from preliminary surveying and detailed design through to production and installation. During the implementation of the Zhaotong project, our team first conducted building-by-building 3D scanning surveys of the 12 buildings to be renovated in the district, collecting actual deviation data for every wall, and then fine-tuned the dimensions of each GRC component through parametric design, avoiding the problems of excessive installation gaps and poor fitting that occur with traditional standardized components. Relying on Qinglong's GRC production base with an annual capacity of 600,000 square meters, the nearly 10,000 decorative components required for the project were all produced and delivered within 15 days. The on-site construction team adopted a modular pre-installation process, keeping the facade construction period for a single building within 20 days, with final component jointing precision controlled within 2mm—fully meeting the project's acceptance standards. As a participating unit in the compilation of the “Technical Standard for Building Application of Glass Fiber Reinforced Cement (GRC)”, we have always insisted on implementing full-process quality control requirements in every step, from raw material mix ratio control to post-installation anchor pull-out testing. Every indicator strictly complies with industry standards, completely dispelling project owners' concerns about the durability and safety of GRC components.

### Outlook on the Application Value of GRC Components in the Context of Old Town Renewal Old town renewal projects in China are currently entering a stage of large-scale implementation, and more and more county-level renovation projects are beginning to recognize the adaptive value of GRC curtain wall components: they can achieve a unified appearance at low cost, restore local architectural and cultural characteristics through surface stone-imitation and brick-imitation treatments, and their weather resistance lasting decades can also reduce long-term maintenance costs after renovation. As a GRC manufacturer with nearly 30 years of deep industry experience, we have participated in the implementation of nearly 1,000 similar renovation projects nationwide, always adhering to the core mission of “Creating Beautiful Architecture” and providing adapted full-chain GRC solutions for projects in different scenarios. Going forward, we will continue to accumulate more implementation cases, provide referenceable practical paths for more old town renewal projects, and welcome more industry partners to jointly explore the greater possibilities of GRC materials in the field of urban renewal. For more industry information: WeChat qlfsbl123