Waterproofing Wisdom is our monthly snippet of thoughts/lessons learned/news. You can sign up here.
Intro
This is my second ever monthly email sharing “Waterproofing Wisdom”.
This episode will be most relevant to basement waterproofing specialists, but I think it is relevant to any construction professionals with basement projects due to start in the near future.
You can watch a 4/5 min video here or read the highlights below.
Waterproofing Wisdom
- The scope of BS 8102:2022 is broader and the guidance is (~30%) more extensive. This means that we ought to be even more cautious than we used to be about contracts which cite “in accordance with BS 8102” in the scope of work.
- The Grades of waterproofing performance (Table 2) have been changed. This means we will have a period of transition and possibly some confusion around Grade 1b and Grade 2. We will specifically add “in accordance with BS 8102:2022 table 2” after every mention of Grade for the next 5 years. We will also seek to more clearly define the boundaries between the grades and hope that consensus within the industry is quickly reached.
- The requirement to consider crack width calculations when specifying Type B concrete is now very clear. “Just add a waterproofing admixture” is no longer a justifiable approach and likely to be considered negligent.
You can download a copy of our 5 page document outlining What’s new with 8102 here.
Please also be aware of an imminent webinar on this same subject hosted by the Property Care Association. You can see more details here.
Next time
What would you like to hear about?
1. We’re working on some content to do with our design development process. This addresses issues such as “What is ‘design development’, as opposed to ‘abortive work’?” This content would be relevant to project managers, developers, architects, engineers and waterproofing specialists.
2. We could talk through BS 8102:2022 table 2 and attempt to share our take on the various grades. This would probably be more relevant to waterproofing specialists? #waterproofinggeek
Let me know what you’d like to hear about.
Thanks,
Ben Hickman
Technical Director
02074584073
Transcript:
hello and welcome to this the first ever issue of waterproofing wisdom my name is ben hickman and i’m the technical director of clw and i’m hoping to share with you some waterproofing wisdom every month based on whatever it is that we’ve seen this month and what what we’ve learned and experienced so thank you for watching uh this past month i’ve been working on on two different expert witness type appointments and both happen to be on podium decks or plazas both happen to be refurbishment schemes which have failed both happen to be traditional contracts and in both situations the employer has been left in a weaker position than they should be one scheme is an eight million pound renewal of waterproofing on a large plaza and as i said it was uh procured under a traditional contract however the design information was very sparse and in reality the waterproofing supplies details formed the basis of the waterproofing design the workmanship from what i’ve seen is pretty good but the design was poor and unfortunately this has left the employer in a difficult position where they’re probably looking at facing um another renewal of this waterproofing system so that’s the same problem again now how do we avoid this sort of thing um it’s uh i guess this is the wisdom part so if you want to in if you want to procure some complex waterproofing um you really shouldn’t do it under a traditional contract it would be much better to use a with design form a contract and that’s because in the event of failure there’s much less finger pointing having said that please don’t think that you know if you go with a jct with design or a d&b sort of contract please don’t think that you don’t need to pay for the waterproofing design that’s going to come free of charge waterproofing is complex and it’s high risk so we should expect to pay people to do it properly and in my experience this is far more than an architect taking standard details and putting them onto the relevant drawing awards proofing should be designed by competent specialist contractors with suitable in-house experience and expertise and then lastly if we want to make sure that the employer really does have recourse with the designer that’s not just a case of checking is there a collateral warranty we also need to check that the appointment documents line up so that the specialist waterproofing contractor is also appointed to do the design those are my top tips my waterproofing wisdom next time i’ll be talking about uh what’s new with bsa102 and i was involved in the committee that’s just reviewed that and it’s been published very recently and it’s going to cause some some slight changes in the basement waterproofing industry thank you very much for watching and uh if you can if you ever need anything to do with waterproofing design or consultancy give us a call