The Challenge
After twenty years, the waterproofing on the top deck of the busy Avenue Road council car park in Bournemouth was failing. Water was penetrating the structure and dripping onto users’ cars on the lower levels and also into a tenant’s offices situated below. More importantly, this was affecting the structural integrity of the car park.
Being close to the sea, the car park is subjected to highly corrosive moisture and salt levels, which if left unprotected could cause long term structural damage. And indeed, further investigation by the contractors Concrete Repairs Ltd. and Triflex’s Technical Team revealed that part of the concrete substrate was cracking and failing causing potential health and safety issues.
As a result, the council needed to refurbish the car park and have a reliable waterproofing solution that would extend the car park’s service life. In addition, this work needed to be finished before the start of the busy summer tourist period.
The Solution
Concrete Repairs Ltd. and the Triflex Technical Team visited the site to complete an extensive site survey. Testing was also conducted to determine the suitability and compatibility of the substrate and the requirements for its preparation. Triflex DeckFloor was specified for the decks with DeckFloor Ramp System to provide a more aggressive aggregate was to the ramps and inclined areas of the car park. The ramp system incorporates emery aggregate which provides additional traction for those harder wearing areas.
Not only was there a tight timeframe, but a lot of the work had to be completed out of hours to minimise any disruption to the tenants who had offices below the car park.
"We always choose to use a Triflex waterproofing and surfacing solution because of its speed of application and rapid curing time. Car park owners want to minimise any disruption to customers and generally demand a fast turnaround. In this case, the car park had to be finished before the start of the summer holidays and the busy tourist season. We simply cannot afford to delay due to the unexpected nature of the British weather.
Other systems can take up to 24 hours to cure and end up costing the customer more both in extra labour time and also in lost revenue as the project is often delayed. This is particularly the case in the spring when the weather is changeable. Triflex systems allow us to maximise good weather windows.
Triflex not only provides the best waterproofing and surfacing systems in my opinion but also a level of support and testing that is simply not matched by any other manufacturer. It gives us the confidence to leave a job well done knowing that it will meet the needs of the customer over the long term.”
