Blue Barrier Hits the Spot

Blue Barrier Hits the Spot

Wellington house-painter Terry Archer has made the transition from houses to apartment blocks thanks to his expertise with a brilliant new American product called Blue Barrier, which is ‘breathable’ when applied up to a millimetre thick like paint, but absolutely waterproof when extra layers are applied. No fewer than ten properties have been or are being treated in Wellington with many more good prospects on his list.

Now to Auckland where his company — Seamless Coatings — has secured a project worth in total some $.5million in Auckland’s CBD, following successful testing of the system in Christchurch on houses in the Flockton Basin where earthquakes caused the Avon to flood and, combined with liquefaction and land sinking, created a much higher effective water table. Hundreds of houses are involved there.
He’s also using the product on mainly stucco type walls on houses all over Wellington.

In Auckland Seamless Coatings will be covering a monolithic-clad 15-storey multi-tenanted apartment block in Mount St, Auckland, known as Mount Terrace. The structure has been fitted into a tight corner so scaffolding has to include a bridge to reach one of the walls. All window surrounds, where waterproofing has been an issue, will be sealed individually before applying the sealant as a paint, once the roof internal gutter has been dealt with and the whole upper surface covered.

The 15-year old Mount Terrace is a good example of Auckland’s ‘leaky buildings’ problem writ large, says Archer. Seams in the roof as well as the internal gutter are in need of caulking along with other leak-sensitive areas.
Mount Terrace will be very blue for a few days, but a Wattyl’s Elastomeric Grano Impact industry-quality final paint coat will help it blend with its surroundings. Blue Barrier got its New Zealand Code Mark for the pre-lined stage of construction prior to cladding a few months ago, says Archer, but it has been well proven in the US on many applications over a number of years and an extension to cover external use is pending.

Its designed use is as a rigid moisture and air barrier for the pre-lining of new-builds or recladding: ‘It’s magic stuff’ he says. ‘You can trowel it, roll it on, even apply it under water, and it’s a permanent fix — as long as the building stands. It’s like wrapping an entire building in a water-tight skin.’

Ends

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