Situation
FirstPort contacted BASSE Solutions after water ingress was spotted in their client’s commercial property’s ground floor and basement car parks.
FirstPort were eager for the BASSE team to be deployed to investigate the problem, identify the source, and recommend a solution before any further damage was done.
Task
The BASSE Solutions team attended the site and inspected the roof as well as several other areas of the building, including the pipework and water outlets.
The vents and inlets on the roof were found to be in good working. However, other areas of the building, such as the ground floor storeroom and the basement parking garage, were found to be more concerning.
Action
The BASSE team determined that further tracing would be required to better understand how the supply pipework and drainage in retail unit 3 of the building transitioned through , the floor slab, and down to the basement.
The BASSE team were able to establish that the water was most likely transitioning through the block wall, as evidenced by significant damp on the floor and by the door in the ground floor storeroom. Our experts also identified a missing cap on a stack in the ground floor storeroom, but this was later written off as being an unlikely cause as there was no significant water ingress present below it.
When the team arrived at the basement parking garage, they noticed a few oddities. Water had been transitioning across the slab above and leaking through the weak points in the structure, visible through staining on the ceiling slab pour lines. Water was particularly focused around service penetrations through the slab directly below unit 3.
Further investigation back inside the demised retail unit identified water within the finished floor level screed, poor or non-existent access to pipework underneath the finished floor levels and potential issues with pressure within the hot water supply system. This was referred back to the client and retail tenant who in turn exposed pipework under the floor and found several breaks. These were replaced and the leak has stopped, and the area is drying out.
Results
