Concrete Repair and Protection of Window Cills, Balcony Areas and Ring Beams
Background
As part of an overall PFI project extending over three and a half years, large scale social housing refurbishment has been carried out in Leeds. Sustainable communities for Leeds (sc4L) is a group of organisations formed specifically to deliver the project, consisting of Scottish Widows investment partnership infrastructure funds, Equitix and Keepmoat, all working in partnership with Leeds City Council to build new council homes, refurbish existing council properties and regenerate communities in Little London, Beeston Hill and Holbeck.
Part of the project has involved the refurbishment of six high rise accommodation blocks, namely Carlton Close, Carlton Croft, Carlton Garth, Oatland Court, Oatland Heights and Oatland Tower. Roofs and balconies have been renovated, windows have been replaced and external insulated panels have been installed to the external walls. Flexcrete products were specified for the repair and protection of window cills, balcony areas and ring beams.
The Solution
In conjunction with Gunite (Eastern) Ltd, an effective and long lasting eye catching refurbishment solution was provided by Flexcrete. Following thorough preparation, Steel Reinforcement Protector 841 was applied to the exposed re-bars in order to provide a corrosion preventative coating. Monolite, a high build, low sag, class R2 lightweight cementitious mortar, was then applied to repair, render and profile the concrete. Monolite, which is CE marked in compliance with BS EN 1504, can be applied up to 100mm in a single application in vertical, horizontal and overhead situations, so repairs can be carried out rapidly and efficiently. The product is supplied as a single component system and only requires the addition of clean water on-site, so it is extremely easy to use. In total, over 50 tonnes of Monolite was used for this project.
Bond-Prime was applied as a priming coat before the application of Monodex Ultra, a cost-effective, decorative, waterborne anti-carbonation coating which has a 10 year design life. Monodex Ultra was applied to selected areas of concrete in special ‘accent’ colours such as Signal Violet, Traffic Red and Coral Red, to create a striking effect. As Monodex Ultra is water-based, it is low hazard with minimal VOC and ultra low odour, so there was absolutely no disruption to residents during the coatings work.