How to protect your home from water leakages

Everyone strives to have a beautiful home, but nothing scares such an individual like his dream house developing water leakages.

Many homes experience this problem. However, water seepage is easily preventable and remedied. The important thing is to know what products to use and get the right professional consultancy when dealing with this problem.

Where structures are exposed to extreme heat and rains, there is bound to be expansion of concrete. (PHOTO: FILE/ STANDARD)

Usually it is the lack of knowledge and leaning towards old school methods of water proofing that lead to persistent leakage cases. Basic science indicates that in a country like ours, where structures are exposed to extreme heat and rains, there is bound to be expansion of concrete, this leads to cracks, which in turn become easy conduits for  rain water to enter homes.

There are five basic target areas in structures that your waterproofing solutions should focus on.

Terrace

Terraces and roofs have concrete slabs which have water absorbing pores. Until now, terrace waterproofing has been done with conventional methods. Conventional methods are not elastic and therefore crack after some time due to thermal expansion and contraction.

Re-doing aged waterproofing can damage the slab. There are solutions which not only require less manpower & are faster than conventional methods but also impart better insulation properties and are seamless with good waterproofing properties.

Bathroom

Use of substandard material when constructing a bathroom could be one of the biggest sources of leakages, causing internal wall dampness.

Waterproofing bathrooms and kitchen areas prevent water leakage through tile joints, or through the area around the floor traps including pipes and sanitary fittings. It is important that water in these wet areas is drained out only through pipes.

Foundation

It is important for any structure to have a strong and well equipped foundation to deal with salts and water content in the soil. Since concrete is permeable, underground water and salts attack the concrete, leading to corrosion of steel.

There are many waterproofing systems which offer a special tear resistant self adhesive SBS based membrane, specially designed to protect foundations.

It offers great resistance to the damages from the ground level and below. It keeps the soil contaminations at bay giving structures much needed firm support.

Podium

New age design aesthetics and need for open and green space has given birth to the concept of a podium. Elevated bases above the basement, these podiums are often used for gardening, landscaping, playground as well as parking.

In order to take care of soft cape podium, there are advanced solutions that form an additional protection of a durable self-adhesive membrane. They are best used for waterproofing landscaped podium. These products protect the structure from dampness created by the landscape podium soil, which prevent cracks that appear due to roots of certain plants used.

External walls

Like the terrace and roof slabs, exterior walls too are constantly exposed to the sun and rain reducing their durability. They are also prone to cracks within the building causing leakages and water penetration.

In addition to climatic conditions, frames and pipes fittings done on the external walls leave a lot of scope for water absorption as well as widening the cracks.

The best way to maintain exteriors is by using high quality acrylic emulsion polymer in addition to other leakage preventive products. Such solutions can be used as a waterproofing and protective coating for exterior walls of the buildings. It forms an impermeable layer around the building. These solutions are also water and UV resistant, microbial resistant, easy to apply and eco-friendly.