BASF have provided their Watertight System at the Castle Leisure Centre in Elephant and Castle, London.

This comes as part of a £20 million redevelopment, providing a six-lane swimming, a sauna with a steam room, and a learner pool with a movable floor.

BASF’s all-in-one hydrophilic pore blocker with superplastizing admixtures for concrete was used in the pond at the Deep Recovery Research & Development Centre.

Following the concrete’s correct placing, compaction and curing, this single-bag system provides a waterproof structure with minimum effect on the original appearance and texture.

The system offered an alternative to membranes and built-up treatments and combines a reactive hydrophobic pore-blocking liquid for wet or dry cast concrete.

The highly water repellent, non-absorptive concrete has a reduced water/cement ratio which is also protected against soluble salts.

BASF’s MasterSeal 910 hydrophilic waterstop, an expanding strip for construction joints, also offered a high-performance alternative to waterbars.

The system eliminated the need for waterbars, which are expensive to install but can be displaced or damaged during the concreting operation.

Concrete is unable to adhere to plastic waterbars, so a failure rate of 15-20% can be expected, as there is no maintenance opportunity the cost can be expensive also.