Beechwood House – Newport

Injection waterproofing at Beechwood House, Newport

Injection waterproofing in action

Timberwise at Cardiff were asked to come up with a waterproofing solution to stop the water entering several basement rooms within historic Beechwood House at Newport in South Wales. The water was seen to be entering through the mortar joints within the masonry and through the wall floor joint.

To provide a waterproofing soloution for this property was not easy as the following issues had to be overcome:

• The rooms not adjoining each other
• There was no discharge point available for one of our sump / pump systems
• The wall surface had been painted with wall mounted fixtures present

As a result of the issues the specification for a successful waterproofing system was also limited.

The most effective system with the highest success rate appeared to be injection waterproofing utilising our expertise with MC Building Chemicals waterproofing products.

Holes were drilled at predetermined centers into the walls and wall floor joint, plastic packers with a built in none return valve were then fitted into the drilled holes.Using our hi-tech injection pump the correct amount of gel was pumped into the cracks, gaps, joints and fiches of the walls and the wall floor joint filling and permanently sealing them.

By correctly assessing the pumping pressure and using the correct amounts of both the A and B components of the liquid we could determine the reaction time of the product from a liquid to the waterproof gel, this could be set at between 10 and 300 seconds (approximately). The gel then provided the watertight seal halting the water ingress.

Due to the walls construction and the drilling pattern a reaction time of about 60 seconds (from the point of injection) was thought suitable, this would keep the liquid in a water like fluid consistency just long enough to find its way through and fill the cracks, gaps, joints and fishers in the masonry before the reaction occurred which would turn it into a waterproof gel.

Once all of the packers had been injected they were removed and the remaining holes were backfilled using a fast setting waterproof mortar. The excess gel was then simply cleaned up using nothing more technical than a brush and shovel!

Timberwise are an approved MC Building Chemical installer, one of only a handful of specialists in the UK with this waterproofing technology and expertise. For more information on injection waterproofing or to arrange a survey call 0800 0199 213 or click here.