The leak in the house is the nightmare every homeowner could have had。
Whether living in an old neighborhood for 10 years or in a new delivery, the sense of collapse is understood by all those who have experienced when the corner begins to return to the aberration, when there is an unknown water stain on the ceiling, when the neighbours downstairs knock on the door。
Even more desperate is the random search of a water-proofing company online, the telephone calls and the master comes to the door and says, “the water-protective layer is broken, all of it is smashed and reworked”, and offers between 8,000 and 15,000. When you bite your teeth, you pay for the bricks and waterproof, less than six months — again。
This is not an example. According to industry-wide statistics, over 60 per cent of leak maintenance is overworked or repeated. It is not a leak that is not poorly repaired, but most people have been led in a direction from the outset。
Today's guide, which is self-evident, is a one-time statement from the judgement of the leak type, the means of testing, the choice of the construction programme and how to pay for the contract. After reading it, you can learn to look at every master in the house in a professional manner, and no one will kill you。
First, to determine what type of leak is your house
Leakage is not a disease, it is several. Different types correspond to completely different maintenance programmes and costs。
First: cascades leaking from tiles
Following the bath, water stains were found below the ceiling, but not directly below the pipe, but in a form of fragmentation. Eighty per cent of this is due to the ageing of the tile suture and the water leaks into the slurry layer. There is no need to break bricks, make bricks free of pressure, complete half a day, usually at a cost of $12,000。
Second: the tube is sealed off
Leakage is concentrated around the bottom of the toilet, the ground, the bottom of the sink. This is due to the ageing of the seal or the lack of closure at the time of construction. Just a partial reinforcement, and a few hundred dollars will fix it。
The third: the breach of the tunnel
Close all the water taps in the house and watch the water table. If the water table is still moving slowly, this means that the pipes buried in the ground are broken. This requires the precise positioning of the electronic listening leak and the endoscope and the recovery of a piece of brick that opens the leak point. Tests and repairs are usually around $2,000。
Fourth: overall failure of the waterproof layer
If the house had been closed for more than 15 years, the leaking downstairs had increased significantly after 48 hours of closed water testing, and the water was leaked both around the drain pipe and in multiple parts of the corner of the wall, it could have been the whole waterproof zone. Only in this case would it be necessary to double the bricks at a cost of $3,000 to $6,000 for a period of five to ten days。
In summary, the company's favorite term is “waterproof” because it has the highest profits. However, less than 20 per cent of the cases that really deserve to be done。
Ii. Re-test: instruments do not lie, experience
Once the type has been determined, do not rush to find a construction team to finish the test。
When the regular water protection company comes to the door, the first thing is not a quote, but a device to detect a leak. There are three common types of equipment:
Infrared thermal imager can scan the water distribution inside the wall and find invisible seepage pathways through temperature differential imaging, reaching 0. 2 mm accuracy。
Electronic listening leaks and pipe endoscopes are responsible for the detection of the dark tube, which locks the damaged position within a 20 cm error range and avoids the blind opening of the entire ground。
The high-precision humidity instrument is used to measure water content in the depths of the wall and to determine the extent of leakage。
If a master comes to the door and doesn't have any equipment, and he looks at it and says, "this one's going to blow it all," you can take him out。
This is a step that many owners consider to be “more expensive”. However, the cost of a precision test is usually two to three hundred dollars, while the unnecessary construction and renovation damage caused by blind destruction is dozens of times the cost of testing。
Options: the construction process determines the useful life
When the test is completed and the report is available, the project can be discussed with the construction party。
Cookers are free of bricks: high-pressure injection is currently the most mainstream micro-starter. Small plumes are drilled through platinum cracks to inject modified epoxy resin into the slurry layer and the material is solidified to form a new waterproof barrier. The advantage is that half-day to one-day work is done, which is fixed and does not damage the renovation, at a cost of only one third of what is done with bricks. Quality assurance periods generally range from three to five years。
Crushing of bricks: removal of bricks and bricks from the floor, cleaning of the floor to the structural layer, painting of waterproof coatings two to three times, 48-hour closed water test to confirm that there is no leakage and re-painting of tiles. Quality assurance period 5 to 10 years。
Waterproofing of roofs: no single scroll or one single coating is recommended. The best currently recognized durable option in the industry is the composite system of “non-sterilized rubber asphalt coatings plus sbs modified asphalt scrolls”. Underground coatings have mutated properties that automatically heal the cracks at the grass-roots level; surface rolls are so hot and sticky that they form an overall seamless protection. The focus of the construction is on the weak parts of the yin-yang corner, the roots of the daughter's walls and the waterfall, which must be reinforced by additional layers。
The external wall waterproofing process: first, the infrared thermal imager is used to scan the seepage area, remove empty drum tiles, and then target repair is done using specialized anti-uv and anti-aging paints. The construction of offshore areas also requires paints resistant to salt fog corrosion。
Iv. Looking at the contract: the strategy is blue
Once the programme and price were negotiated with the construction party, the contract was the last line of defence. Work commenced without a contract, which was tantamount to giving the other party full initiative。
A qualified contract for waterproof construction shall include at least the following:
The brand and model of the material used should not be limited to “quality waterproofing paint”, but should be specific to the manufacturer and product name. The scope and scope of the construction should be clarified, whether it should be partially repaired or completely renovated. The cost details, the cost of testing, the cost of materials and the cost of labour, respectively, are locked and the total price is denied. Quality assurance, free of brick smashing, recommended three to five years and structural water protection, five to ten years. Refurbishment responsibilities during the quality assurance period。
In terms of payment modalities, it is recommended that instalments be used: 30 per cent for contracts and 70 per cent for receipt and inspection upon completion of construction. Avoid a one-time full payment and retain the acceptance initiative。
Any word “your whole life” would be worse than a letter of quality assurance in a contract. Oral promises are almost legally unaccountable。
V. List of pit shelters: these types of construction teams stay away as early as possible
In the search for water protection services, there are several typical “pits” that require special attention。
The first is the “low price bait type”. The ad says it's a few dozen pounds. It sounds very cheap. However, normal toilet slurry does not use much material, and they use “hunting hundreds of pounds” to create a high total price and break it easily. There is a strong demand for a single price or a detailed quotation。
The second is the “undetected or smashed” type. Entering the door without looking, without surprise, without asking questions, with the direct suggestion of doing all the work. Such construction is either unprofessional or directed towards a highly profitable brick-throwing project。
The third is “no qualified contract”. No business licences and water-proofing qualifications were obtained, and no contract was signed and only verbal commitments were made. We'll leave when we're done. We'll never get in touch。
The fourth is “material ambiguity”. No branding material, or “importing high-molecular nanomaterials”, could be said to be used, but no specific components could be specified. Formal water-proofing materials have clear product names and country symbols。
At the end
Leaking maintenance is essentially not a force job, but a technical one. Its core is not “shattering” and “blacking”, but “diagnosis” and “matching”。
Learn to speak with instrument tests, learn to choose matching techniques based on leak type, and learn to write quality assurance clauses into contracts, and you can avoid most well-designed consumption traps in the industry。
I hope this guide will help you make a clearer decision when you need it. The house was not repaired, but the damage and anxiety caused by blinding could have been avoided。
