Parkade waterproofing
The membrane is the only thing between your slab and the rain.
Traffic-bearing systems for suspended slabs, ramps and exposed roof decks — installed in phases so the building keeps working while we do.
The work
A traffic deck system is four coats doing four jobs.
A parkade membrane is not paint. It is a built-up system where each layer has one job: the primer bonds to the concrete and tolerates vapour coming up out of it, the base membrane does the actual waterproofing and bridges cracks as the slab moves, the aggregate broadcast carries the abrasion and provides slip resistance, and the aliphatic wear coat takes the ultraviolet so the layers beneath it never see sun.
Get one of those wrong and the system fails in a predictable way. Skip the moisture test and it blisters. Under-broadcast the aggregate and the membrane becomes the wearing surface and wears through in a couple of winters. Use an aromatic topcoat on an exposed roof deck and it ambers and chalks through the first Whistler summer.
Vertical detailing is where most systems are actually lost. The membrane has to turn up at every curb, column, wall junction and drain, and it has to be terminated properly at every expansion joint. Water does not care that ninety-eight per cent of your deck is perfect.
- Typical build
- 20–25 mil
- Return to traffic
- 24 hours
- Systems
- TUE · TUE-FC
- Warranty
- Manufacturer-backed
Detail
Phasing is the part that decides whether a project is tolerable.
Nobody can close a residential parkade for three weeks. The scope we write starts from how many stalls you can afford to lose at once and works backwards — commonly quarter-level phases, sometimes single bays, sometimes night work on ramps and entrances where daytime closure is impossible.
Most of the systems we install are back under foot traffic within a few hours and vehicle traffic within twenty-four. That number is what makes tight phasing realistic, and it is worth confirming on any quote you compare us against.
Detail
Why Greater Vancouver decks fail faster than the datasheet suggests.
Chlorides are the accelerant. Road salt tracked in off the North Shore and the Sea-to-Sky in winter dissolves in standing water, works down any crack it finds, and depassivates the reinforcing steel. Once the steel starts corroding it expands, and expanding steel inside concrete has nowhere to go but out.
Richmond adds a second mechanism. A high water table means vapour drive up through the slab is constant, so a system that would be fine in a dry climate blisters from underneath. Whistler adds a third: eighty-plus freeze–thaw cycles a season, which means the membrane has to stay flexible at temperatures where cheaper products go brittle.
Questions we get
Straight answers.
How long does a parkade membrane last?
A correctly specified and correctly installed traffic deck system should give you ten to fifteen years on a suspended slab, and often longer on a deck that is not exposed to direct sun. The variables that move that number most are the quality of the surface preparation, whether the drainage actually works, and whether the wear coat gets refreshed once during the system's life.
Can you work while the parkade stays open?
Yes, and on occupied buildings that is almost always how we do it. We phase the work by level or by bay so residents and tenants keep access throughout, and we work nights on ramps and entrances where a daytime closure would not be workable.
Do we need to fix the concrete first?
If there is spalling, delamination or exposed rebar, yes — a membrane over failing concrete just hides the problem while it gets worse underneath. We sound the deck during the assessment and quote any structural repair separately so you can see what is waterproofing and what is repair.
What does the assessment involve?
A walk of the deck, sounding for delamination, moisture testing of the slab, a look at the drains and the expansion joints, and photographs. From that we can tell you what the deck needs, what it will cost, and how it can be phased.
Is this covered by our strata's depreciation report?
Parkade membrane replacement is normally a line item in a depreciation report, and if yours is coming due it is worth pulling that section before we visit. We can write the scope to match how the report described it, which tends to make the approval conversation much shorter.
Related
You may also need:
Structural concrete repair
Spalls and exposed rebar dealt with before the membrane goes on.
Learn more →Site assessments
Send us the slab. We'll tell you what it actually needs.
Photographs and a rough area are enough to start. We'll come out, test moisture, and scope it properly.
Main (236) 873-2580 · Second (604) 230-0256