Construction Water Repellents
There is a wide difference between the designed service life and actual life of reinforced concrete.
Quite often the building never reaches the stipulated life because of environment effect and ingress of deteriorating agents the corrosion of steel reinforcement is by far the single most common cause of structural damage. This situation is rather remarkable, given that steel reinforcement in concrete is well protected against corrosion due to the highly alkaline environment generated from the hydration of cement and which forms a passive shield for reinforcement.
Water repellent or impregnant treatment of the building may increase its life because it would protect the building and reinforcement from any attack of outside pollutants like carbon dioxide, chloride, sulphate etc.,
What is Waterproofing
- The simplest definition of waterproofing is to keep the unwanted water out of the system.
Why is waterproofing required?
- All masonry materials are permeable to water. Most permeable being concrete masonry, least permeable being stone, glazed tile etc.,
- All masonry materials are held together by mortar which is generally very permeable and can allow leakage regardless of permeability of the masonry units themselves.
What do you achieve by waterproofing?
- Protection of reinforcement and thus reduction of corrosion rate in concrete.
- Arrest algae, fungus growth in moist environment, reduce efflorescence
- Works as barrier to carbon dioxide, chloride or sulphate
- Helps heat insulation, prevents soiling of exteriors
- Helps to increase the life of paint
- Serves as pretreatment of surface before painting or any coating.
