Alchimica Building Chemicals has provided its Hyperdesmo system to provide a waterproofing solution for Goldsmiths in Newcastle. For many years the original highly prestigious Goldsmiths shop has had problems with water ingress which has stained the ceiling of the main sales area. The frustrating part for the owners was that the shop had just had a very expensive shop refit.

After much head scratching the leak was traced to the fire escape stairwell deck. A number of attempts were made to stop the leak and patch it up but nothing had helped. The decision was taken to strip the entire stairwell deck back to the concrete and start again using the Hyperdesmo system.

The customer insisted in using marine ply on top of the concrete base, although this was unnecessary. The ply was secured down using expanding sealer and all joints and perimeter sealed using Hyperseal 50FC.

All the useless expanding foam was removed and a new box enclosure was built over the air conditioning pipework penetration and sealed with Hyperseal 50FC. Two coats of Hyperdesmo were applied to a thickness of 2kgp/m² to the entire surface, box enclosure and the walls. The job, when finished, was far tidier than what had been there before. All of the wood and concrete were completely sealed and waterproofed. The real test came two weeks later when the stairwell was found to be under 6” of water.

The drain was blocked and had to be cleared out to stop it from flooding. However, the leak didn’t show up at all in the main shop area or anywhere else where it had been a problem. This proved that the entire area was now watertight with no more water ingress into this prestigious shop.