Waterproofing Wisdom – Episode 21 – Welcome Andrea: A New Perspective on Basement Waterproofing

Hi there,

Welcome to Episode 21 of our Waterproofing Wisdom series, content that will be especially relevant to Project Managers, Architects and Engineers.

In this edition, our Founder, Ben Hickman sat down with our new Practice Director Andrea Maugeri, to discuss his first couple of weeks since joining a waterproofing consultancy and what he has learnt so far. You can watch the vlog here by clicking on our logo below, or read on for a summary.

This edition marks the beginning of something new for us.

I’ve decided to start a kind of video-log or written diary of Andrea’s journey as he transitions from architecture into the world of waterproofing consultancy. Why? Because I think his experience, and the lessons he learns, could be hugely valuable for others in the construction and design industries.

Meet Andrea

Andrea is a registered architect (ARB, RIBA) with a background in sustainable architecture. He has spent over a decade working on residential projects, including major extensions and listed buildings, and also has some experience with basements.

Andrea has worked across Italy, Spain, Poland, and for the past 8 years, London has been his base.

He’s joining CLW not only to support design but also to help improve process, organisation, and how we communicate and deliver on technical projects.

So Why the Shift into Waterproofing?

Andrea shared an honest reflection on what drew him to join CLW and what he’s learned so far:

“When Ben first asked if I’d ever done waterproofing details, I said, ‘Of course, I’m an architect!’ But joining CLW has been eye-opening. Even after just a couple of weeks, I’ve realised that what I thought I knew about waterproofing was really only scratching the surface.”

A Grey Area in Construction

One of the key things Andrea has picked up early on is the “grey area” that often exists between disciplines, particularly between architects, engineers, and waterproofing specialists.

“As architects, we’re trained to think holistically about the building envelope, structure, finishes, etc. But what I’ve realised is that waterproofing, especially for basements, is highly specialised. There’s a real risk when we treat it as something that only needs to be dealt with in Stage 4.”

Andrea’s point is an important one: waterproofing decisions made too late (or made based on assumptions) can cause major issues later on, from design clashes to cost implications and even structural risk.

The Value of Early Involvement

One of Andrea’s biggest takeaways so far?

“I would never have considered involving a waterproofing consultant at Stage 2 or 3 when I was in practice. But now, I see that’s exactly when you need them. By Stage 4, you’ve already locked in many key decisions, sometimes without the information needed to make them robust.”

He’s also seen how much richer a waterproofing design becomes when it considers not just structure, but usage, drainage, landscaping, roof terraces, and even client expectations for dryness and comfort.

The Disconnect (and How We Fix It)

We also talked about some of the disconnects between waterproofing designers and the rest of the project team. Andrea pointed out that often, waterproofing specialists are only given structural drawings, without the broader context they need to design effectively.

“Without access to planning documents, site usage plans, or context about what goes above the basement, waterproofing design becomes reactive instead of proactive. That’s when miscommunication happens, scope is misunderstood, and ultimately, the programme and budget suffer.”

Without clear information about the intended use of the basement or performance expectations, providing an accurate waterproofing design (or cost) becomes a guessing game.

A Fresh Perspective

What’s exciting about having Andrea on board is not just his architectural experience, but the way he’s bringing fresh eyes to the waterproofing process. He’s already helping us ask better questions and understand how to integrate with wider project teams more effectively.

For example, I’ve loved being able to ask him things like: “What do we need to get done by RIBA Stage 3?” or “What planning constraints should we be aware of?”, and getting clear, thoughtful answers based on real experience.

Closing Comments

This post is just the start. I’m not entirely sure how often we’ll publish updates, but I’m hoping to share Andrea’s journey, the insights he gains, the challenges we tackle together, and how we evolve as a team.

We hope this behind-the-scenes look is useful. Maybe it’ll challenge some assumptions, or at least open up a few conversations.

**Because the truth is: **waterproofing doesn’t begin at Stage 4. And it’s not just about stopping leaks, it’s about making sure your project is designed and delivered with long-term performance in mind.

Got questions or want to know more about basement waterproofing consultancy?

Feel free to get in touch, or follow us for future updates as we share more from Andrea’s journey.

Welcome to CLW, Andrea. We’re excited to have you with us.

Many thanks,

Ben Hickman

Linkedin

Alright – well, hello!

My name is Ben and I am the Founder and Technical Director of CLW and we do basement waterproofing, in a consultancy role. I wanted to introduce you to Andrea – and I’m not quite sure how this will go – but I wanted to try and record a video log of Andrea’s journey because Andrea is new to CLW, and I think his journey into basement waterproofing consultancy could be really interesting to other construction professionals. So Andrea, tell us about yourself. Hi everybody, my name is Andrea Maugeri, actually I am an Architect, a RIBA registered architect. I’ve joined CLW as a new Practice Director. Yes, I think its interesting, like an interesting step because my background is pretty much architecture. I specialise in sustainable architecture, and I would say in the last ten years I worked entirely in residential projects – major extensions, listed buildings (a lot of listed buildings). I also had the opportunity to work in some basements. I remember when I started having conversations with Ben, one of the questions was “Have you ever done waterproofing detail?” and I said, “Oh yeah, of course, I’m a master”, as any architect might think about it, and now it’s, I have to say its like, now I’m on the other side, Wow! It’s been how long? Like, a couple of weeks was like a very intense, intense journey so far. Yes.

Great. Good. So you are a qualified architect. You’ve got, I think, well over 10 years experience.

You were, I feel like you, you’ve worked in…which countries have you worked in? So my background is, I studied in Italy, but I worked in Spain. Then I worked for two years and a half in Warsaw for an architecture practice based in Warsaw, it was actually a British practice based in Warsaw.

And then I moved to the UK where I wanted to specialize myself in listed buildings. Like my journey in residential mainly. And then the last eight years that I worked as architect here in London. So, so yeah.

That’s great. So I guess from my perspective, so there’s myself, Johnny, and Adam, and, Andrea has just joined us as Practice Director. And one of the really key things that I want from Andrea is process and organisational competence, which I’m terrible at! But also that with the really deep understanding of design development.

So in terms of basement waterproofing, we need to interface really well with architects and engineers and everybody else, and make sure that we get the right bits of information into the design at the right time. So it’s been really fun having Andrea in, just on a few meetings so far, and being able to ask him – in terms of planning – what’s going on here?

What is it that we need to get done by RIBA Stage 3? So that’s been great. From your perspective, Andrea, is there anything that you’ve noticed so far you’re like, oh, I hadn’t really realised that, or is it largely a confirmation of what you already did and know in terms of waterproofing that you’d done to date?

So I’ve had the chance to, to talk to project managers, architects, structural engineers over the past few weeks. Been involved in several projects so far. And I have to say, of course, like, there is a common knowledge or common sense that waterproofing actually falls under the architect or structural engineer role, which is in a sense, of course, it makes sense because if you think like the architect or the engineer should have the overall knowledge about the whole, the whole package of the building. So if you mentioned like a shell and core package, you mentioned that of course you have to understand how, how each layer works. Now what I understood, like what is that one? There is a grey area, and actually I understood very much in the past few weeks that there is a grey area with the limitation of specialisation of the architect and engineer. I’m not saying that, those consultants are not great in the construction process. I’m just saying that the limitation of specialisation might generate the issue at a later stage. One thing that I really appreciate is the fact that, as an architect, I would never appoint or involve a waterproofing specialist at an early stage just because I wouldn’t leave this elements as a detail at Stage 4. Yes, of course, I understand the principle. I understand that I need, like, a waterproofing detail at Stage 4, but never would I think to add at Stage 3. Instead, now looking at the implication, especially like in build-ups and requirements, it’s something different that I would take into consideration.

It’s like something that, yes, showed me that a waterproofing specialist is actually, it’s needed at a really early stage, especially when we’re talking about very complex projects – which are the ones that we’re working on. Yes.That’s cool. That’s great. Good. I guess one more question I would have is, you’ve spent about a couple of weeks with me and the team.

Are there any, are there any things that you think are – the waterproofing guys don’t understand this thing that would help us work better with the rest of the team, you know, the project managers, the clients, the architects, engineers?

Well, I would say, I would say that, maybe because there is not, still there is no such a conscious of involving a waterproofing design at an early stage. There is a sort of, like a lack of opportunity, for the waterproofing designer to get familiar with the scheme at early stage. Which led me to – I’ve seen it, for instance, we looked at so many projects, for instance, of planning and we try to dig up information from the planning portal. And one thing that I’ve seen that – perhaps as an architect, I’m trained to – exactly what information I’m looking for – the goal, where perhaps waterproofing design, often I’ve seen that they’ve been given like a very, very small amount of information. Mainly like structure, which doesn’t really give you the overall picture. So this limitation of just like, think that waterproofing design, ok, I will give the structural engineer because of course they’re doing like just the waterproofing on structure, but actually the volume is much more complex, the scheme is much more complex, which needs to take into consideration, not just the structure, but also the usage. Also the implication if there is a terrace – how the terrace is used. So for instance, if you like, a heavy duty terrace, if it’s a garden, if it’s exposed, perhaps to rainfall, there is a lot of things that is not taken into account when someone approaches the waterproofing design. This one then leads to perhaps a misunderstanding of some scope of work, which ultimately, of course affected the program, affected everything. Yeah. That’s really interesting. So we just submitted a tender for Crown Estate earlier this week. And it was such hard work to try and get the relevant information so that we could understand. I don’t know what you want to put in the basement. I don’t know how dry it needs to be. But you want a price for us to do the design? Well if the design is going to be a cavity drain system, there’s a lot more work than if it is just – well it’s already Grade 1b performance. we’ll leave it alone. I think just as an intro – welcome, welcome to CLW, it really is great to have you with us, and I don’t know quite how often we will try and do these, but my hope is that we can record something of the journey that you make into the specialist world of waterproofing. Not sure how we will share that with the rest of the world but hopefully we can make something that is interesting and useful to others.

Thanks Andrea, it is great to have you with us.

Thank you so much. Bye.