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BUILDING CONNECTION
SUMMER 2016
materials. Both substrate and lining materials must be
used in conjunction, or combination; not as a standalone
substrate or lining material. Welded sheet vinyl is
scheduled as a water resistant flooring material that
must be combined with a compliant substrate, but water
resistant only. This is insufficient; where the requirements
listed above, call for waterproof materials for critical
components. Section 2.4.1 also recognises waterproof
welded sheet materials as a compliant waterproof finish,
however this is not referring to welded sheet vinyl, but
is intended to refer to sheet membranes such as: heat
welded PVC sheet membrane, FPO (Flexible Polyolefin)
sheet membrane, TPO (Thermo-plastic Polyolefin) sheet
membrane, Butynol rubber sheet membrane and EPDM
(modified rubber) sheet membranes. If a material is not
scheduled under section 2, then it may not be compliant,
however many builders insist on incorporating materials
such as timber, plaster setting and carpet in wet areas.
These materials should either be removed or protected
from contact with water.
5. Most welded sheet vinyls are classified as water resistant
by their manufacturers, as stated on published technical
data sheets. Therefore, where waterproof systems are
required to shower floors, all timber floors, sealed wall
& floor joints, and sealed wall joints everywhere, we
5
COVER STORY:
TILING DEFECTS
must provide a compatible waterproofing membrane
beneath the water resistant vinyl. Alternatively, install
a waterproof vinyl. There are only a small number of
compliant waterproof welded vinyls on the Australian
market. These are documented with a compliant
CodeMark testing certification, recognised by the ABCB
(Australian Building Codes Board) and tested to AS 4858
– 2004 Wet Area Membranes. Tarkett’s range of welded
vinyls is an example, and is documented as CodeMark
compliant materials. However certification is only issued
when these products are installed by Tarkett qualified
installers and all welds are tested!
WATERPROOFING MEMBRANE ANDWELDED VINYL
INSTALLATION ISSUES
A number of issues arise when combining waterproofing
membranes and welded vinyls. Quite often defects become
evident, over time where the vinyl begins blistering, membranes
fail and BCA performance breaches occur where water exits
the wet area causing damage to other building elements and
adversely affects the health and amenity of occupants.
These defects can be attributed to faulted installation
practices such as:
1. Incompatibility between waterproofing membranes and
solvent based vinyl adhesives - Water based membranes
5:
Cementitious isolation layer protects waterproofing membrane from incompatible adhesives and installation damage as
with ‘Butterfly ‘ corner cuts.