basement waterproofing specialist.

Basement Waterproofing Specialist.

BS 8102:2022 says, at 4.2, "A waterproofing specialist should be appointed as part of the design team so that an integrated waterproofing solution is created."

"Alternatively, a waterproofing specialist may develop an outline design, which is later adopted as part of a client's requirements and developed by a suitably experienced and qualified waterproofing specialist as a Contractor's Designed Portion."

The Building Safety Act 2022 (introduced here) includes a requirement to get signed off, in advance, what materials, methodology, and whose workmanship are acceptable to your building control body.

This choice leaves open the questions

Does the waterproofing specialist work for the client with the same loyalty as the architect and structural engineer, or

Does the waterproofing specialist work for the contractor and face blackmail over being paid if he doesn't bend to their will?

Think also about what if the contractor has to be sacked for non-compliance and clearly leaving leaks?

Is the specialist yours and you keep him, or is he theirs and he left with them putting you in breach of the agreement with the building control body?

And what if the contractor paid the waterproofing specialist so slowly, or not at all, and he left?

I have suited, most well, clients who will live in the new home themselves. Those who don't want the problems contractors leave hidden. These have tended to be self-builders trying to make their savings stretch.

Not for them clearing up after a team of sub-contractors, who took unfair advantage of no one watching, and weeks if not months of spending a fortune putting right the short cuts taken.

Or, more usually, £20,000 to £50,000 on internal drainage hiding it all. But as the leaks they left got worse, so these systems failed.

This has been the norm for 99.9% of developers. Cover the work over asap and get on with fitting out the basement. As long as the structural warranty was secure and the house could go on the market, they did not care about anything else. But this was the attitude with the Grenfell Tower. This is the attitude that is now not just illegal, building control will not issue a completion certificate.

The changes since the Grenfell Tower fire are another attempt at making different parties to a project be less adversarial. The new regime is written into law this time, and it requires them to work together.

I remember, years ago, the conclusion of the Latham report (1996), that sub-contractors and main contractors trying to rip each other off was bad for the client.

That got worse, not better. Then there was the Grenfell Tower fire. So many parties fell short of what was good for the people who lived there.

For your project to succeed, you need a team that trust each other without either fearing quality or payment.

I think I am the ideal candidate to be

Your waterproofing specialist

Your site engineer

Your clerk of works

You need a waterproofing strategy that will work for least cost. That means Right First Time. No leaks. No products other than waterproof concrete and additional steel to prevent cracking.

You need a site engineer paid by the client to be on site throughout all the important work to explain and demonstrate how to achieve the waterproofing strategy.

You need a clerk of works who inspects at every stage and at the end before the contractor gets paid stage payments.

Unlike anyone else,

I will be a member of your design team from early on;

I will get the design, methodology, and workforce approved by your building control body;

I will meet with prospective contractors and team members and explain why working under my supervision is good for them.

I will be on site most of the time (not when they are clearing up) and show them how, as well as supervising and inspecting as we go along;

I will sign off work to date before stage payments are made;

Later, after the whole house is weathertight, I will carry out the preliminary inspection and show the workforce how to carry out any repairs, should any leaks be found;

I will carry out the inspection with your building control body and get your basement structure signed off.

RIGHT FIRST TIME SAVES THE MOST MONEY.

More from BS8102:2022, section "4.2 Design team.

The advice of a geotechnical specialist should be sought on the geology and hydrogeology, the external drainage options and groundwater conditions.

A Waterproofing Specialist should be appointed as part of the design team so that an integrated waterproofing solution is created. The waterproofing specialist should:

a) be suitably qualified and experienced, commensurate with the type and size of the proposed project;

b) be capable of devising solutions that accommodate the various project constraints and needs with an understanding of construction forms and sequencing; and

c) provide the design team with information and guidance that assists with and influences the design, installation and future maintenance of the waterproofed structure.

If the RIBA stages are used, a waterproofing specialist should be appointed before the technical design stage at the latest."

Please note. The old go-to, a CSSW Surveyor, is not mentioned anywhere within the Standard. They don't prevent water getting through the structure. They don't comply with the regulation for a new build.

From 2004 to 2013 I removed or remedied every cause of leak through a new build domestic basement. Not a drip through or over any structure built this way since 2013.

I review BS 8102:2022 here

I will start off reasonably with your design team and building control body. Providing documentary evidence of what they should require. I will continue to be reasonable for as long as I can. Generally, the architect is swayed. Public authority building control officers are swayed.

But private building control officers often just reply 'I want to see a guarantee'.

They never explain why. They never explain the benefit. If, for instance, NHBC and Maclennan Waterproofing were involved, NHBC would accept a guarantee from Maclennan for labour and materials of the internal drainage system only. It is ridiculous. The Maclennan guarantee would replace the pump if it broke, but not if it blocked with mud that got through leaks causing the basement to flood. NHBC exclude beneath ground waterproofing from their cover. They would both allow building regulation C2 to be breached, despite a sign off of building regulation compliance.

Eventually, I get angry. Just so you know. I will write to their directors, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Parliamentary Committee, and, if I can (I couldn't when I tried) the new Building Safety Regulator.

I cost

£199 to answer all the client's questions, look through and comment upon their drawings and reports. All before the project starts on site.

£1000 to become a member of the design team and be approved myself and my methodology approved by the building control body. As well as signed off at the end.

£50 an hour working at my computer (including Zoom and Teams meetings).

£400 for each visit to train, supervise an operation, attend a meeting, or inspect. (Mileage allowance, parking costs and overnight accommodation might apply).

3, 4, and 5, in the list above, might be charged to the contractor.

But only once. After a successful first project, these costs will come down when the sub-contractor tenders for the next, similar, project.

Realistically, for a sizeable replacement detached house in Surrey, this might amount to about £20,000. Assume plus VAT which cannot be claimed back on services. £22,000.

It might create a lot more ease and confidence if samples of concrete are taken at site and tested to BS EN 12390 part 8. Information here. It will be about £1,000 including VAT.

I save

Tapes and strips in joints, labour and materials, and fixing leaks later.

Formwork hire, cleaning charges, replacement charges, delivery and collection.

Filling tie bar holes

Generally waterproofing the surface of sound, but not waterproof, concrete.

Concrete kicker repair (Impossible, therefore a lot of money before it is decided they need cutting out and replacing).

Filling honeycombing in walls and making sure the repairs are waterproof.

Internal drainage system.

No need to completely demolish and rebuild properly.

No breach of building regulation C2. No punishments. No claims for damages.

The costs of 1 to 7 alone, ignoring the potential costs of 8 and 9,

Easily at least £55,000 for the same project.

Dutyholder duties and competence.

More here. Same link as above.

I believe that a new basement project needs the specialist who has the confidence of the building control body and will remain if the contractor gets sacked.

For the good of the project and the client, I need to be paid by the client without giving credit; and the client must not apply pressure to cut costs - which always costs the client more in the end, anyway.

Leave me to do my best and the client will get the best outcome possible. As many self-builders and small developers would testify going back years.

The new rules require sign-off by the building control body at the end.

This will need to be some months after the basement structure is complete. The house structure needs to be weathertight and the basement cleaned and dried by the contractor before a preliminary inspection, after heavy rain, by the waterproofing specialist. Then a final inspection to satisfy the building control body.

Then, and only then, might the inside be painted with waterproof paint.

Without all the above you don't get your completion certificate at the end.

I will arrange and sign

Me as your waterproofing specialist directing your architect and structural engineer to make changes so that your basement can be waterproof.

My choosing all the materials so that your basement can be waterproof (which is usually only the waterproof concrete mix and my alternative to tie bar holes).

My getting the approval to start from your building control body.

Provide you with my written guarantee that your basement structure will not visibly leak - ever (but only after it successfully passes inspection just after heavy rain).

Sign off at the end of the basement waterproofing phase. I go through the inspection regime again below.

This means LESS work and LESS responsibility for your architect. Also, it is mostly new work, now required, that your architect could not do.

My fee is £1,000. Plus £50 for each additional hour at my desk. £400 for every site visit. Overnight accommodation if over 90 minutes away during rush hour (only about 50 miles if the M25 is the best route). And petrol money beyond 100 miles away.

The fee, payable in advance, includes my sign off at the end to confirm that the materials, workmanship and inspections were all as promised and all satisfactory.

If we fall out or you sack me early, I keep the whole fee but you don't get my sign off.

If my methods and my competence are agreed with building control, you can't change anything. In particular, you can't change me without my signing where we got to and you starting the whole process of agreement with everyone else again. If you do anything different to what building control expect, or you don't pay me, obviously I will not sign at the end.

Some of my credentials.

Someone at Yorkshire Water has thanked me because they were tasked with finding a way to stop their new water storage tanks being built to leak. The person knew BS8007 inside out, but he credited me and my web site for giving him the starting point and the right direction to find a solution for the future.

Other people have read my work, learned from it and referenced it. I'm told that I have been referenced in over 800 academic papers.

basement waterproofing specialist

The Inspection Regime.

The client must agree to all that is written in green in this section of this web page before I can agree to join the design team or approach your building control body (and before you need to pay the fee).

The client agrees and in this order

To leave the completed basement structure uncovered by anything on the inside anywhere, not a cable, not a pipe, not a batten.

To continue with the rest of the house build until the roof is on, the windows are in, and the entire structure is weathertight.

Only then, to clean and dry the basement and keep it ventilated to prevent condensation.

To inspect the basement structure inside carefully for any sign of leaking water after a period of heavy rain.

Involving me to chisel out the site of any leak and fill it in 3 layers with waterproof repair mortar.

Re-inspect as 4 above and fix leaks as 5 above until the basement is known not to leak.

Only then, involve me again to train and supervise the proper way to apply waterproof bitumen paint.

Only then, begin fitting out the inside of the basement - without causing a leak or damaging the waterproof paint.

Only after this 8-part process will the client ask me to sign to confirm that the waterproofing strategy is complete.

Back to the Basement Building Questions Answered menu.

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For a fixed fee of £199 I will answer all your questions by email. More details here.

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