GRC Planter Installation, Care & Warranty Guide

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⚠️ WARNING: Ignoring the installation and care guidelines below may void your product warranty

Satu Bumi CityScape planters are engineered to be exceptionally strong, aesthetic, and durable for decades. However, achieving long-term performance requires careful consideration during the design, planning, and physical installation stages.

The following guidelines highlight critical installation factors, so they are not overlooked during overall project planning or contractor selection.

Crucial Advice for Commercial GRC Planter Installation

The most important advice for installing GRC planters on commercial projects comes down to contractor selection and scope of work. Before proceeding, ensure that you:

• Select a Reputable Installer

  Choose a landscaping or installation company based on proven competence and industry reputation, rather than solely on the lowest price.

• Verify Scope in Pricing

  Ensure the contractor's quotation explicitly accounts for and covers all specific GRC installation requirements listed below.

Design Considerations - for GRC Planters

A successful GRC planter installation begins at the design stage. By anticipating site logistics and structural requirements early in the design process, architects and project managers can avoid costly delays and installation headaches.

While GRC (Glassfibre Reinforced Concrete) is categorized as "lightweight concrete" due to its thin-wall construction, it remains a dense, concrete-based material. Large commercial planters can still weigh hundreds of kilograms.

To ensure safe handling and accurate site positioning, consider the following design factors during the specification stage:

• Planter Weight and Dimensions

  Ensure total weight and dimensions align with the site's intended moving and maneuvering equipment, especially for tight or restricted access zones.

• Certified Lifting Lugs

  Specify certified lifting lugs at the base of heavy planters to enable safe crane or hoist operation and prevent structural damage during placement.

• Dimensional Precision and Site Tolerances

  Account for site variations, such as uneven concrete slabs or non-straight walls, by ensuring precise manufacturing tolerances and sizing adjustments.

• Planter Feet and Base Clearance

  Incorporate adequate planter feet height to ensure proper drainage flow and allow room for lifting straps during multi-storey or rooftop installations.

• Forklift Tine Slots

  Design integrated forklift pockets at the base for large commercial planters destined for public spaces or high-traffic areas.

• Threaded Ferrules for Mechanical Fixing

  Include cast-in ferrules to securely anchor planters against wind loads or seismic requirements on elevated platforms and high-rise rooftops.

The Installation Process - for GRC Planters

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Installation surface preparation

If the ground on which the planters are to be placed is not solid it must be compacted and levelled before the planters are placed into position. Where hard surfaces do not enable compacting and levelling, appropriate strong packing material should be used to create a level base.

• Adjustable pedestals from Versijack, or their equivalent, maybe worth considering for very large planters.
• Care should be taken to ensure that planter feet support the whole planter weight evenly before and after the planters are filled with soil and vegetation.
• Planters should be stable and not be able to rock while empty.
• All planter feet should be touching the ground to take any stresses evenly after the planters have been filled with soil and vegetation.

Moving planters into position

GRC planters are most likely to get damaged when they are being moved into position. Therefore:

• Follow the installation and stacking sticker labels on planter packaging to avoid damage.
• Do not remove the packaging within which the planters were transported to site until the planters are ready to be installed.
• Use a pallet jack, furniture dolly or padded hand truck when moving planters.
• Use additional padding on the hard surfaces of a pallet jack, furniture dolly or padded hand truck that may come into direct contact with the planters when transporting them into position.
• Place planters onto their prepared surface. Do not drag or roll them into place.
• Avoid using leveraging bars (crow bars) or use them cautiously with padding.
• Use lifting lugs with appropriate lifting equipment to manoeuvre larger planters into position.

WARNING

Chipping of GRC planters can virtually ruin a GRC planter installation. Therefore, a portable crane gantry, a mini crawler crane or an equivalent piece of equipment for manoeuvring heavy GRC planters into position should be used. GRC planter installation quotations should be seriously questioned if this issue is not addressed in some way in the pricing.

Adding holes to GRC planters

If holes for drainage, irrigation, fixing, the addition of balustrades or any other reason need to be made in GRC planters post manufacture, the following issues need to be taken into consideration:

• Satu Bumi planters come with an internal waterproof membrane (unless otherwise specified at shop drawings stage).
• If holes are punched in the planters this membrane will be damaged and must be repaired to avoid water leakage.
• Diamond tipped drills must be used to create holes in GRC planters.

WARNING

Hammer drills should not be used under any circumstances on GRC planters because they will damage the structure of the planters and weaken them around the area of the hole. GRC is not the same as cast concrete in structure. Therefore, even though a hammer drill may be appropriate for drilling holes in cast concrete it does not mean that the same process is acceptable when drilling holes in GRC planters.

WARNING

The Australian Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 prohibits the uncontrolled dry cutting of crystalline silica materials to reduce the risk of silica dust being inhaled.

Avoid chipping when filling empty planters

Satu Bumi planters come with a heavy-duty cardboard top rim cover for use in protecting the planter rims from damage during the planting process. Therefore, when the planter packaging is being removed this cover should be retained and placed back on the top rim of the planter whilst the planters are being filled with soil and vegetation to avoid chipping or unsightly superficial marking.

The photographs show examples of GRC CityScape trough planters during the installation process in their protective transport packaging, with their top rim cover used for protection during installation and after they have been installed sequentially in accordance with their project plan numbering system.

Provision for irrigation

If you want healthy vegetation in your planters, it is not adequate to simply fill them with good quality potting soil before adding the required vegetation. To avoid drainage blockages, planters should include appropriate levels of mulch, premium potting soil, a layer of drainage filler (i.e. coarse sand, scoria, pebbles, or something similar), and some kind of drainage cell to cover the actual planter drainage hole(s). Good quality landscapers and planter installers will know this. However, this issue can often be deliberately overlooked to save cost. This is a big mistake and can impact or even void your planer warranty.

Both properly installed and improperly installed planters can look identical at completion handover. Therefore, it is important to ensure that planter installation quotes from landscapers include how they are going to address planter irrigation as part of their competitive pricing.

WARNING

When using automatic irrigation systems, if there is any chance of drainage blockage, an internal bitumen ponding sealant should be used on the planters rather than the standard acrylic waterproofing membrane. The use of an internal bitumen ponding sealant will not stop the vegetation in the planters rotting due to excess water. However, it will provide a higher level of waterproofing than an acrylic waterproofing membrane. Therefore, it will minimise the potential of water leakage that can happen when planters fill with water due to blocked drainage.

Attachment to ferrules

Where fixing ferrules have been embedded into GRC planters, care should be taken during the installation process to ensure that any screws and/or bolts used to attach to the embedded ferrules are not attached to anything that could cause a spring or pull-out affect (outward pressure) that had not been considered in the engineering requirements for the design of the planters. This issue would normally be considered in an ITP (Installation Test Plan) for large projects. However, if a formal ITP is not provided by or required of the planter installers, this issue should still be considered by the installers to avoid the potential of uneccesarily damaging the planters during instalation.

Product Care - for GRC Planters

Satu Bumi’s GRC planters require minimal maintenance, are designed to last for decades when correctly installed and include the following additional protective features:

• All planters have a waterproofing membrane applied to the inside of the planters.

• Non-painted planters have a penetrative sealer applied to the exterior surface to protect against oil and water-based stains and to stop algae and moss growth.

GRC planters can be cleaned with a damp cloth and soap-based cleaning products, but abrasive cleaning products should not be used, and high-pressure water hoses are not recommended. If scratches or chips occur during or after the installation of planters that have an acid oxide coating finish, touch up kits are available via the following contact details - sales@satubumi.com.au

Warranty - for CityScape GRC Planters

Satu Bumi CityScape GRC products are manufactured to exacting international standards to provide robust commercial grade planters and street furniture. Therefore, in addition to any relevant implied legal warranties, Satu Bumi provides a four-year extended warranty on all CityScape products. You can download the Satu Bumi CityScape Warranty Statement to review the complete terms.