Framework
Specify too little and water gets in. Specify too much and you pay for redundant systems. The trick, as Goldilocks worked out, is getting it just right.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of the best-known children's stories in English. A young girl called Goldilocks wanders into the home of three bears while they are out. She tries their porridge: one bowl is too hot, one too cold, one just right. She tries their chairs: too big, too small, just right. The same with their beds. Everything comes in threes, and the lesson is always the same: the extremes do not work, but somewhere in the middle is the answer.
It turns out this is a surprisingly useful way to think about waterproofing design. Specify too little and water gets in: damp, mould, structural damage, remedial costs. Specify too much and you pay for redundant systems you do not need. The trick, as Goldilocks worked out, is getting it just right. That is what we call Goldilocks design.
The three approaches
What separates under-specification from over-engineering, and where Goldilocks design sits.
Too little
Latent defects surface post-DLP. Remediation costs exceed spec savings ten-fold.
Just right
Right system. Right contractor. Right oversight. The building performs for its design life.
Too much
Risk appreciated but addressed in the wrong way. Coordination remains poor; tender and construction prices are high but significant risks remain.
CLW Consulting. Independent waterproofing strategy. No product to sell, no installer to protect.
The story
Once upon a time, in a town far away,
A young lass called Goldilocks came out to play.
She wandered right past the construction site gates,
And found three basements, oh my, what fates!
She entered the first with a cautious peek,
The waterproofing there was pathetically weak.
Just a lick of tanking slurry, applied far too thin,
And water was pouring and seeping right in.
The walls were all damp and the air rather stale,
Black mould in the corners, a horrifying tale.
"This is far too little!" poor Goldilocks cried,
"The cheapest option makes wallets run dry!"
She walked through the second with eyes opened wide,
Where over-engineering ruled far and inside.
Triple-redundant membranes, cavity drains galore,
Where one system would do, here were five or more.
The spec was gold-plated, the cost astronomical,
Half of this wizardry was simply comical.
"This is far too much!" Goldilocks did declare,
"A brilliant disaster of excessive flair!"
She entered the third with a sigh of relief,
Here waterproofing was honest and brief.
An independent consultant had designed it with care,
The right system chosen for the right site condition there.
No skimping, no gold-plating, just sense through and through,
A system designed to perform and stay true.
"This is just right!" Goldilocks happily said,
"It is commercially sensible, and dry overhead!"
And so the tale ends with a clear moral true:
Get independent design. That is what you should do.
Don't let the bears (or developers) steer you astray.
Call CLW Consulting. We'll show you the way.
Get independent design. That is what you should do.
Talk to CLW about a Goldilocks waterproofing strategy for your scheme. The right system, the right contractor, the right oversight.
