Performance of Lightweight Wet-Room Floor with Two Waterproof Membranes
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 2
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate the performance of a lightweight wet-room floor structure with two waterproof membranes with a water-resistant cast compound between the membranes (twin floor). The twin floor was developed for use in existing buildings with a reduced load-bearing capacity of foundation or floor division. A watertightness test in the laboratory clearly indicated that wet-room materials for structures with one membrane were workable in the twin floor. Hereafter, two twin floors were constructed in an existing building including sensors for measuring temperature and moisture content in the cast compound. Multiple moisture measurements and watertightness tests near one floor gully showed potential water ingress in the cast compound through either the primary membrane, floor gully, or their assembly. Neither in the laboratory tests nor in the full-scale twin-floor tests was water penetration through the secondary membrane observed. In conclusion, the twin-floor showed promising results for working in practice. However, a redundancy layer is crucial to implement in the twin floor, because of the difficulties in testing and constructing the twin-floor structure.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Johan Elsass Nøhrby and Palle Steen Larsen from BvB and Birgitte Maltesen from Gaihede Consulting Engineers, who have been project leaders on this project. Then, we would like to thank Kenneth Nielsen from BvB and Niels Peter Kloch from NP Kloch ApS for conducting the onsite measurements and inspection. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers for their comments provided to improve this article. The photographs used are taken by: BvB, Gaihede A/S, and the Danish Building Research Institute. The Landowners’ Investment Association and BvB financed this development project.
References
Bjerring, D. 2017. “43.000 boliger uden bad.” Dagens Byggeri, Erhverv. May 11, 2017. Accessed October 23, 2018. http://www.dagensbyggeri.dk/artikel/95141-43.000-boliger-uden-bad.
Blumberga, A., D. Blumberga, E. Kamendere, A. Kamenders, K. Kass, R. Purvins, and G. Zogla. 2015. “Report on historical building types and combinations of structural solutions.” Accessed March 1, 2019. https://www.ribuild.eu/sites/default/files/RIBuild_D1.1_2.0.pdf.
Brandt, E. 1997. Systematik til feltundersøgelse af baderum [Methodology for field investigation of bathroom]. Nordtest report: NT technical report 366. Espo: Nordtest.
Brandt, E. 2001. SBi anvisning 200. Vådrum [SBi guideline 200: Wet rooms]. Hørsholm, Denmark: Danish Building Research Institute.
Brandt, E. 2005. “Reduced service life due to common failures in Denmark.” In Proc., 10 DBMC Int. Conf. on Durability of Building Materials and Components. Lyon, France: Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment.
Brandt, E. 2008. “Service life of light weight bathrooms.” In Proc., 11 DBMC Int. Conf. on Durability of Building Materials and Components, edited by A. N. Türkeri, and Ö Sengül, 857–864. Istanbul, Turkey: Istanbul Technical Univ.
Brandt, E., E. B. Møller, and E. J. de Place Hansen. 2011. “Reduced service life of bathrooms due to leaks around floor gullies and pipe penetrations.” In Proc., 12 DBMC Int. Conf. on Durability of Building Materials and Components, edited by V. P. de Freitas, H. Corvacho, and M. Lacasse, 1113–1120. Porto, Portugal: FEUP Edicoes.
Brandt, E., and C. W. Nielsen. 1991. SBi-anvisning 169: Gulve og vægge i vådrum—i nye boliger og ved renovering [SBi Direction 169: Floors and walls in wet rooms—in new dwellings and in connection with renovation]. Hørsholm, Denmark: Danish Building Research Institute.
Byg-Tek. 2010. “61.800 boliger uden bad” Byg-Tek Aktuelle nyheder om byggebranchen. Accessed October 23, 2018. http://bygtek.dk/artikel/andet/61800-boliger-uden-bad.
Chew, M. Y. L. 2005. “Defect analysis in wet areas of buildings.” Constr. Build. Mater. 19 (3): 165–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2004.07.005.
Chew, M. Y. L., and N. De Silva. 2002. “Factors affecting water-tightness in wet areas of high-rise residential buildings.” Archit. Sci. Rev. 45 (4): 375–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2002.9696953.
Chew, M. Y. L., and N. De Silva. 2003. “Maintainability problems of wet areas in high-rise residential buildings.” Build. Res. Inf. 31 (1): 60–69.
Eichhammer, W., T. Fleiter, B. Schlomann, S. Faberi, M. Fioretto, N. Piccioni, S. Lechtenböhmer, A. Schüring, and G. Resch. 2009. Study on the energy savings potential in EU member states, candidate countries and EEA countries. Final Report for the European Commission. Directorate-General Energy and Transport. Germany: Fraunhofer.
Eriksen, S. S., O. Hommel-Hansen, C. W. Nielsen, and K. Ovesen. 1991. Nye vådrum i gamle boliger. Erfaringer fra en undersøgelse af 44 nyere vådrum. SBi-meddelelse 87 [New wet rooms in old apartments. Experience from an investigation of 44 new wet rooms. SBi Communication 87]. Hørsholm, Denmark: Danish Building Research Institute.
European Organisation for Technical Approvals. 2005. “ETAG 022 guideline for European technical approval of watertight covering kits for wet room floors and or walls—Annex A watertightness around penetrations and other details in wet room floors with flexible substrate.” Accessed July 8, 2018. https://www.eota.eu/en-GB/content/etags-used-as-ead/26/27/.
Forcada, N., M. Macarulla, and P. E. D. Love. 2013. “Assessment of residential defects at post-handover.” J. Const. Eng. Manage. 139 (4): 372–378. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000603.
Hartless, R. 2003. Application of energy performance regulations to existing buildings, final report of the task B4, ENPER TEBUC project, SAVE. 4.1031/C/00–018. Watford, UK: Building Research Establishment.
Johansson, P. 2014. Utvärdering av datamaterialet i Vattenskadeundersökningen. [Evaluation of the data in the water damage survey]. Rep. No. TVBH-3062. Lund, Sweden: Lund Univ.
Kargaard, P. 2015. “Færre kilo beton skåner gamle bjælker.” Accessed March 1, 2019. https://www.licitationen.dk/article/view/211284/faerre_kilo_beton_skaner_gamle_bjaelker.
Meyer, T. 2003. “Entwässerung innerhalb von Gebäuden—Anforderungen an Bodenabläufe”. IKZ-HAUSTECHNIK, Ausgabe 24/2003, Seite 28 ff. Accessed October 16, 2018. https://www.ikz.de/ikz-archiv/2003/24/0324028.php.
Morelli, M., and E. Brandt. 2015. “Assessment of pre-fabricated bathrooms from the 1990s.” In Proc., 1st Int. Symp. on Building Pathology, edited by V. P. de Freitas, E. de Angelis, H. Corvacho, J. Delgado, and A. S. Guimaraes, 213–220. Porto, Portugal: FEUP Edicoes.
Morelli, M., and E. Brandt. 2016. “A performance assessment of prefabricated bathrooms installed in the 1990s.” In Recent developments in building diagnosis techniques, edited by J. M. P. Q. Delgardo, 105–126. Singapore: Springer-Verlag.
Morelli, M., and E. Brandt. 2017. “Lightweight bathrooms with increased durability.” In Proc., 14 DBMC Int. Conf. on Durability of Building Materials and Components, edited by G. De Schutter, N. De Belie, A. Janssens, and N. Van Den Bossche. Paris: Rilem Publications.
Paludan, J. J. 2015. Interview of Jens-Jacob Paludan about experiences with the twin-floor structure. Copenhagen, Denmark: Øens Bricklayer Company.
Paludan, J. J. 2017. Information given by Jens-Jacob Paludan on a meeting evaluating the construction of twin-floor structure. Copenhagen, Denmark: Øens Bricklayer Company.
Pan, W., and A. G. F. Gibb. 2009. “Maintenance performance evaluation of offsite and in situ bathrooms.” Constr. Innovation 9 (1): 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931525.
Quitzau, M. B., and I. Røpke. 2009. “Bathroom transformation: From hygiene to well-being?” Home Cult. 6 (3): 219–242. https://doi.org/10.2752/174063109X12462745321345.
Risholt, B., E. Waernes, B. Time, and A. G. Hestnes. 2013. “Renovation status and technical condition of Norwegian dwellings.” Struct. Surv. 31 (5): 334–346. https://doi.org/10.1108/SS-09-2012-0028.
Tramex. 2018. “TRAMEX Innovation in moisture detection—MEP—Moisture Encounter Plus.” Accessed July 8, 2018. https://www.tramexmeters.com/mep-moisture-encounter.
Vattenskadecentrum. 2017. “Vanliga skadeorsaker.” Accessed October 20, 2017. http://www.vattenskadecentrum.se/vanliga-skadeorsaker.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 25 • Issue 2 • June 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 21, 2017
Accepted: Dec 17, 2018
Published online: Mar 14, 2019
Published in print: Jun 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Aug 14, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.