Hi there,
Welcome to Episode 17 of ‘Waterproofing Wisdom’ – our monthly email. In this email I have chosen to take a slightly different approach, and talk through our Waterproofing Risk Report, the CLW tool for assessing basement waterproofing risks.
I think this content will be especially relevant to Project Managers, Architects and Engineers.
You can watch the short 5-minute video below or read on for the highlights.
Introduction
Welcome to our free, quick-to-complete risk report tool for basement waterproofing projects. The tool asks users to answer twenty questions, after which they will receive a bespoke score and report assessing their project’s risk across five key categories – all within just a couple of minutes.
Waterproofing Wisdom
In the video I walk you through a sample scenario involving a complex double-basement refurbishment in London with podium features, sharing my responses to the questions.
While the hypothetical client is experienced and has completed necessary site investigations, uncertainties around the design team, contractor, and procurement process lead to a high-risk rating of 33%.
Closing Comments
This app measures your project’s basement waterproofing risk and produces a free report for your consideration. The tool aims to help architects, engineers, and project managers to quickly identify potential weaknesses in the approach to waterproofing, supporting better planning and mitigation, and the ability to address concerns early.
I would love your feedback on this tool!
Many thanks,
Ben Hickman
Technical DirectorSo, my name is Ben Hickman, and I’m the Technical Director of CLW, and I wanted to share with you a risk report that we’ve created for basement waterproofing. This – this is the landing page for our risk report, and you can see I’ve already filled it in.
Essentially, what this is trying to do is this – we ask of you 20 questions, it’s completely free, and at the end of that, you are given a report that identifies how we would perceive your risk in terms of five different categories for basement waterproofing. Let’s begin!
It’ll only take two minutes – might be optimistic – maybe three minutes. Bear with me.
So, I have in mind a project that is, it’s a basement refurb in London and, there are going to be two basement levels and it does have a podium – in that there are currently pavement lights, or smoke vents, and they will be rate retained.
But the needs waterproofing – so there is a podium.
We’re currently at Riba Stage 3.
‘How experienced is the client?’
I, I don’t know, so I’m going to leave it at quite close to ‘not at all’.
I’ll tell you what, let’s do the opposite. Let’s pretend this is an experienced client. They’ve owned loads of property in London, they’ve seen it go wrong, and they know what it’s like, so they’re well aware of the risk.
And ‘Is the basement use confirmed?’
Yes – a significant portion of it is sort of end of journey facilities, changing rooms, that sort of thing. It’s not gold leaf, but you know, it is higher end finishes, and the consequence of damp would be pretty significant. We’d have to remove changing facilities and lockers, all of that sort of stuff, to try and get back to the structure and repair it.
‘Is there a site investigation report?’
Yes, there is, and yes, there’s a flood risk assessment.
I don’t know if there will be an insurer involved.
‘Is design responsibility allocated within the existing design team?’
I don’t know. Presumably not if they’re asking me for a fee proposal, so I’ll say I don’t know. ‘Who’s the current designer?’
I’m going to say architect just by default – they have done some work on this.
‘Will a detailed waterproofing performance specification form part of the tender documents?’
I don’t know.
‘Is the waterproofing a stand-alone package, as opposed to a subcontracting package?’
I don’t know. In fact, I’m almost sure it won’t be, because there’s some piling, so I’m going to say no.
‘Who will install the waterproofing?’
I don’t know.
‘How competent is that?’
I don’t know.
And ‘Will a waterproofing specialist review the tender responses?’
I don’t know.
We’re nearly there!
And ‘Will waterproofing advice be within the client monitoring during construction phase?’
I don’t know.
So, there’s my 20 questions! I’ve raced through it a little bit.
I don’t know how many minutes that was, but we’re saying – look – the client is pretty risk adverse, and quite well informed,
so that’s good news.
And we’ve got our all our site information, we’ve got the soil investigation, we’ve got the flood risk assessment.
But we’ve got some concerns in these areas about the contractor, and how we’re procuring it, and the design team.
So that’s the system. You know, it’s not rocket science, but hopefully helpful for architects, engineers, project managers.
We’ve got a basement project. Where’s our risk?
Have we got all the things that we should have in place?
And we can download the report, and it looks something like this.
The project is called ‘Example’ – there’s a cheesy picture of me – and we’re saying, ‘we’re worried about your contractor’, and the overall project score is 33%. We’re saying that’s high risk despite, you know, the client doing well and the site information is good, but it’s a complex project, it’s a double storey refurb in a brownfield site with podium deck. That’s high risk. It’s a complicated project, and the design team doesn’t seem to have any waterproofing advice in it and we’re unsure about how we’re going to procure it, and who the contractor is.
So that’s the kind of report that we produce, takes two minutes – it’s free – and I hope it’s of value to people.
So, thank you very much, and if you ever need any input for basement waterproofing, do shout!