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Shopping mall / retail

Malls have basements and car parks below, large tiled or seamless floors in the middle, and a glazed facade outside. Food courts and washrooms add wet areas with heavy daily use.

Shopping mall with a tall arched glass atrium, with the sealed joint around the glazing highlighted in orange

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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 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 Floor joint with steel edge angles and orange sealant over a foam rod, and a heavy wheel rolling towards it Floor joints in car parks, warehouses and roads Saw-cut, expansion and connection joints in floors that carry people, cars, forklifts or trucks. The sealant must take both traffic and movement, and the joint must be sized for it. 6 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 Glossy speckled decorative floor surface with a section below showing the coloured layer, primer and concrete slab. Decorative floors Showrooms, offices, malls, lobbies and homes want floors that look good and still wear well. Options range from coloured epoxy with décor granules and soft polyurethane to terrazzo-look PU, coloured dry-shake and polished concrete. 7 steps Tiled shower wall with orange grout lines, falling water, and a cartridge gun filling a joint Epoxy tile grout (showers, kitchens, hospitals) Two-part epoxy grout from a cartridge gun gives stain-resistant, easy-clean joints in wet rooms, kitchens, malls, hospitals and indoor pools. It is for interior use, and the tile face needs protecting during grouting. 7 steps Section of a kitchen with a sink counter, tiled splash-back, sealed worktop edges and waterproofed tiled floor with drain Kitchen floors, sinks & wash areas Kitchens get water, grease, food acids and cleaning chemicals at the sink, dishwash and cooking line. Home kitchens need sound tiling and mildew-resistant sealing; commercial kitchens also need waterproofing under the tiles and chemical-resistant epoxy grout. 5 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 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 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