Licensed and insured, waterproofing across Brisbane since 2010
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly which it is. Where the leak is through grout and joints on a sound deck, a liquid membrane over the tiles can be a genuine fix. Where the falls are wrong or the membrane has failed, the honest answer is a strip-out. How to tell the difference.
It is the first question almost every balcony leak starts with, and the honest answer is: it depends, and we will tell you which it is before we quote. Sometimes the tiles can stay. Sometimes a coat over the top just hides the problem for a year. The difference is worth understanding before you sign anything.
If the deck is sound, the fall to the drain is right, and the leak is coming through the grout lines and the joints, a clear or coloured liquid membrane over the tiles can be a real fix. We clean and prepare the surface, detail the perimeter, the upturns and the penetrations, then apply a membrane rated for the exposure. It is far cheaper than a strip-out, and it lasts when the problem really is the surface.
If the water ponds because the fall is flat or runs the wrong way, or if the membrane buried under the tiles has failed, an over-tile coat only buys time. The water is getting in below the surface, and a topical seal cannot reach it. The honest fix is to lift the tiles, correct the fall, re-do the membrane to AS 4654, and re-tile. It costs more, but it is the difference between fixing the leak and paying for it twice.
A surface seal over a structural fault is the cheap-looking quote that comes back. We would rather quote the strip-out you need than the coat that leaks again next winter.
The stain on the ceiling below is rarely directly under the leak. Water tracks along the structure and shows up somewhere else. So before we promise a no-tile fix, we trace where the water is actually getting in, often by checking the falls, the drains and the junctions. Then we quote the option that holds, not the one that looks cheapest on the day.
Ask this, exactly
“Have you checked the fall to the drain and where the water is tracking, and is the over-tile fix right for my deck, or does it need the tiles up and the membrane redone?”
An over-tile membrane is a real fix for a grout-and-joint leak on a sound deck. On a deck that ponds or has a failed membrane, it just hides the problem.
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