Waterproofing a Courtyard - February 2006
Flora Street, Kirrawee
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This three storey U-shaped building, constructed on a suspended slab at ground level, surrounds a tiled courtyard over an underground car park. Having been built in the 80’s, the membrane under the tiles had apparently “died” and was allowing water to penetrate down to the concrete slab under, through some shrinkage cracks, to then form stalactites to the roof of the car park below.
While the falls to the courtyard paving were sufficient to accommodate the run-off after heavy rain, because the grouted joints between the pavers were some 20mm wide and slightly concave in shape, a significant amount of moisture was penetrating to the bed under and then by-passing the ineffective membrane into the structural slab.
To the credit of the Owners, they accepted our advice and agreed to strip back the paving, bedding and old membrane all the way to the original concrete slab, and to then rebuild the entire topping arrangement to a watertight design and finish off with “up to the minute” pavers that lifted the aesthetics of the entire area.
SYDNEY BUILDING SERVICES were selected to undertake the works, agreeing to a six week program to keep the disruption to the Owners to an absolute minimum.
As we suspected, when the paving was removed and the remnants of the old membrane were exposed, the cause of the problem was confirmed – the membrane. In addition, some of the falls and outlets to the walkways either side of the Courtyard offered a challenge in providing sufficient capacity in the right positions to take the run off, and when related to the damp proof courses in the brickwork on either side, the configuration of waterproofing measures was quite a delicate balance.
Using an ARDEX two part system, SHELTERBIT, the slab was waterproofed, new outlets were cut in and connected to the existing storm water system and finally the tiling was done.
This was an excellent team effort by all including SYDNEY BUILDING SERVICES, the OWNERS CORPORATION and their on site representative and the Strata Manager, STRATA TITLE MANAGEMENT.
Well done and thanks to all involved.