{"id":2613,"date":"2017-11-15T07:19:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T07:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/flux.com.sg\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2023-02-23T09:55:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T01:55:52","slug":"why-waterproof-your-balcony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/flux.com.sg\/why-waterproof-your-balcony\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Waterproof Your Balcony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Balconies are nowadays commonly found in homes around the world, both in private properties or apartments. Be it as a sunbathing lounge area, a barbeque place, home potted plant range or laundry, balconies are an important space in a home. Yet, being an open space area, it is vulnerable to natural elements such as water and wind. An inherent danger then arises in the form of water leakages and damage.<\/p>\n

In fact, there has been a global trend of residential multi-story, multi-dwelling, apartment buildings experiencing an alarming frequency of building defects. According to building insurance studies, the majority of which occur due to waterproofing failure. Furthermore, balconies have been identified as a weak spot in your building\u2019s waterproofing system.<\/p>\n

Reasons for Balcony Leakage<\/span><\/h2>\n

Your balcony is an open area which is exposed to forces such as rain, wind and direct sunlight. This makes it a prime suspect spot for water seepages and thus require strong handiwork to defend against leakages.<\/p>\n

General Seepage<\/span><\/h3>\n

Over time, water that enters your balcony will begin to seep past the top balcony surface and exposed edges of any reinforced concrete or timber frames. Once this happens, concrete spalling occurs, whereby the surface starts to peel, pop out of flake off as a result of the trapped moisture. This means that components of your balcony will start to become lose and even detached, resulting in large gaps.<\/p>\n

Tile Breakage & Movement<\/span><\/h3>\n

In addition to moisture issues, gaps in your balcony surface also occurs due to temperature or building shifts. In either case, the forces create a misalignment that weakens the bonding between the materials and the core structure. Typically, your construction team would have predicted the possible temperature changes or general building shifts. As such, they would have built in buffer for any expansions or contractions.<\/p>\n

Porous & Deteriorated Grout<\/span><\/h3>\n

Grout is used as a sealing material between your balcony\u2019s tiles. Without it, water would easily get into gaps between your tiles and then transit beneath the tiles. However, grout is still a vulnerable component of your balcony which can taken in water over time. When this happens, you will start to see dark spots appearing on your grout. A subsequent removal of porous grout and a replacement of a new layer would then be required.<\/p>\n

Poor Drainage & Fall Path Design<\/span><\/h3>\n

A huge component of your balcony\u2019s surface defence against water penetration involves its drainage and fall path design. Any good waterproofing system can be made null if it is exposed to a significant amount of water for prolonged periods. This typically occurs when either your drainage point becomes clogged or if poor fall path design is in place. In which case, water will not travel towards the drainage point as intended.<\/p>\n

If water is not allowed to swiftly exit from your balcony, then puddles or even ponding may occur. Due to the volume of standing water that would be sitting on top of your balcony\u2019s tiles, they would be allowing in a significant amount of water seepage.<\/p>\n

Summarising the Signs to look out for<\/span><\/h2>\n

Having covered the reasons behind balcony water leakages, we will now list the signs to look out for. We have alluded to a few of these previously, however we will now be specifying what to observe.<\/p>\n