Question: Can a step down and membrane compensate for lack of slope causing pooling on a balcony?
Answer: When you are addressing an issue in relation to a balcony, a sliding door or a cavity, we don’t recommend dealing with issues in isolation.
An adequate step down and membrane system will prevent water from going laterally into the sole occupancy unit.
However, if you’ve got substrate or fall (slope) issues in your actual balcony itself, that potentially creates its own issues, for example, a slip hazard. If you’ve got water that is never receding and pooling in an area, you’ve got a loss of amenity. You can’t go out onto the balcony in your socks in dry weather and traverse that area.
It also has the ability to promote efflorescence leaching out of the minerals that are contained in the bedding material and the grout joints. You’re going to have unsightly efflorescence coming around the grout joints in your tiles. If it’s left for an extended period of time, this has the ability to break down the bond that exists between the adhesive of your tiles, your bedding material, and of course, your membrane as well. A bedding system is intended to drain and not remain saturated, if the substrate or surface of the floor is not adequately drained there is a high risk of degradation of the system.
The answer to the question is probably yes and no. It’s not ideal to retain a flooring system that features a lack of fall however if it isn’t resulting in a loss of amenity or water ingress below or beside, this is often not resolved by building owners out of cost vs necessity considerations. When you are addressing an issue in relation to a balcony, a sliding door or a cavity, we don’t recommend dealing with issues in isolation. Our recommendation is to deal with it all in a cohesive way and make sure everything is compatible and compliant.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to make changes.
James McIntosh
Sedgwick
E: james.mcintosh@au.sedgwick.com
P: 0415 459 486
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