Serving as a wonderful viewing platform, overlooking the Pacific Ocean from six floors up, the roof of an upmarket Mount Maunganui apartment building was beginning to look tired. The butyl rubber membrane was beginning to oxidise - a condition more commonly known as “chalking-off”. The old butyl was struggling with the intense UV and heat (being black), putting excessive pressure on the building interior’s air-conditioning requirements, and therefore energy costs of the building.
The building owners installed some artificial grass as a ‘quick fix’, but despite the marginal success, they knew they had to replace the roofing membrane to keep with the quality and location of the building. The solution was found with Viking’s BRANZ Appraised Dec-K-ing system.
Viking Dec-K-ing is a hard-wearing, aesthetic, waterproofing membrane, providing the ultimate underfoot finish and waterproofing for decks above living areas. It is a PVC membrane reinforced with a polyester mesh scrim inherent in the sheet to provide latitudinal strength and puncture resistance.
Originally designed in the 1980s for the marine industry (boat decks), its robust nature and heat-weldable seam technology deemed it an attractive option for the construction sector to the point that it’s now installed on homes and buildings all over the world.
Installed by a Viking Approved Applicator, the 500m2 installation wasn’t simple. The extremely uneven concrete substrate needed to be ground back to a smooth finish prior to installing the Dec-K-ing membrane as the rough texture would have been visible through the surface. Additionally, once the substrate had been diamond-ground it needed to be coated with a hydropoxy surface sealer. Being wintertime, this prevented the need for down-time to dry out the substrate after each rainfall during the installation period.
The building owners were delighted with their wonderful new roof-deck, allowing them to entertain guests and view the ocean on an attractive, robust, but more importantly watertight membrane.
For more information on Viking's Dec-K-ing system, click here.