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Office building

Office buildings need a dry basement for parking and plant rooms, reliable washrooms on every floor, and a sealed facade. Fire-rated joints and penetrations run through every service riser.

Glass office building with a basement below the water table, wrapped outside in orange waterproofing

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Solutions in build order

What this project needs, step by step

Basement wall and base slab of waterproofed concrete holding back ground water, with a waterstop in the wall-slab joint Waterproof (watertight) concrete For basements, water tanks, pools and sewage works, make the concrete itself resist water with a low water–cement ratio, an integral waterproofing admixture and sealed construction joints. This is for new pours; it cannot fix a structure that already leaks. 7 steps Basement section with a membrane on the outside face of the wall and under the floor slab, facing the groundwater. Basement waterproofing from outside (positive side) For new basements, or where the soil can be dug away, stop water on the face that the soil and groundwater press against. Build watertight concrete, seal every joint, coat or sheet the outside face, then backfill carefully. 7 steps Pipe passing through a concrete floor slab with an orange sealing collar round it and orange sealant at the top Pipe and service penetrations Pipes, ducts and cables passing through basement walls, tank walls, roofs and fire-rated floors are weak points for water and fire. Seal each one for its job: watertight, weathertight, fire-rated, or a simple interior gap. 6 steps Joint between two wall sections sealed on both faces with orange fire-rated sealant, with flames on one side Fire-rated joints Joints in fire-rated walls and floors, such as stair and lift shafts, compartment walls and plant rooms, must hold back fire and smoke for the rated time. The rating comes from a tested configuration, not from the sealant alone. 6 steps Section of a bathroom floor with waterproofing turned up the walls under the tiles, sloping to a floor drain Bathroom waterproofing (under tiles) Most home leaks start in bathrooms: water gets through grout and cracks, runs along the slab and shows as seelan on the ceiling below or the wall next door. Strip, seal cracks, waterproof the floor and lower walls, then tile, grout and seal the fittings. 6 steps Floor tiles on an orange adhesive bed over screed and slab, with sealed movement joints and a notched trowel above Floor tiling (homes, shops and outdoor floors) Fixing ceramic, porcelain and stone floor tiles indoors, on courtyards and terraces, on heated floors and in shops with heavy foot traffic. A flat, mature base and the right adhesive stop hollow, cracking and lifting tiles. 7 steps Large thin porcelain slabs on a full orange adhesive bed, and the next slab with buttered back lowered onto ridged adhesive Large-format porcelain tiles and slabs Porcelain tiles of 60 × 60 cm and larger, on floors and walls. They need a flat base, a C2TE flexible adhesive and full bedding by back-buttering, or they ring hollow and crack. 7 steps Flat roof section with an exposed coating on the slab, turned up and over the parapets and into the drain outlet. Exposed roof waterproofing A liquid-applied membrane that stays open to sun and rain on a flat or sloped concrete roof (chhat). Use it on a new roof once the slab is 28 days old, or to refurbish a leaking roof before the monsoon. 6 steps Two double-glazed panels meeting at an aluminium mullion, sealed with orange silicone, with rain outside Glazing, curtain walls and shopfronts Weather-sealing joints in glass curtain walls, windows, shopfronts and metal cladding, and the specialist silicones used in structural glazing and insulating glass. This is professional facade work and needs project-specific adhesion tests. 6 steps Building facade panels with orange sealed joints, and a close-up of one joint with sealant over a foam rod in the rain Facade joints (concrete, block, precast and cladding) Movement and connection joints on outside walls: between precast panels, at floor slabs, around infill panels and in metal or stone cladding. A sound joint keeps monsoon rain out and lets the facade move. 7 steps Window in a brick wall with an orange sealant bead round the frame, and a close-up of the frame-to-wall joint Window and door frame sealing Sealing the gap between aluminium, uPVC, steel or timber frames and the wall, plus glass-to-frame and interior finishing joints. This is a common place for monsoon rain to get into a home. 6 steps Car park deck section with a coated, sloped surface draining to a gully, a sealed joint, rain and a car tyre. Car-park decks & ramps Car-park decks face tyre wear, oil, water and, on the open top deck, sun and monsoon rain. A crack-bridging resin system with a UV-resistant seal coat and sealed joints protects the slab and the floors below. 7 steps