Problem
The lower part of the outer walls at the lowest level of the Guildhall building
had both visible and measured water ingress.
We proposed the MPS treatment of 395 sqm of wall area.
Then a second stage installation was conducted a few years later
Challenges
The Guildhall of Swansea is a Heritage listed building built in 1933 and this
require the waterproofing system to be nonintrusive on the buildings surface.
The Client also did not want to excavate the entire perimeter of the building
in order to install new drainage. Hence the MPS/AOP was a perfect solution.
We placed the anodes in the groutlines of the brick and repointed thereafter.
This made the installation completely hidden and the surface kept its character.
The 2 cathodes used where buried into the ground on the outside and was also completely hidden after installation.
Contract
The architects of Davis Langdon were set to find a solution to the water ingress issues at Guildhall.
They had heard of MPS installations and called us to conduct a feasibility study at Guildhall.
We concluded that the building was meeting our success criteria and we were awarded the contract to waterproof
Guildhall of Swansea. We started the works in 2008.
Outcome
We met the Clients design criteria of nonintrusive installation.
We are also compliant in terms of EMC to sensitive installations like data rooms and technical gear.
The first stage installation showed a steady 90% RH on the target areas, which is paint dry.
This triggered the second stage installation which completed the perimeter of the building.
The system has no moving parts and thus is not subject to wear.
Thus regular maintenance is limited to periodic checking to ensure that the system is still energized and recording and reviewing
the current levels in each of the electrode circuits.
The systems have been running since 2008 and continues to keep Guildhall basement dry.
AOP system
Hydrotech the original company terminated in 2011, Triton Norway remains as the authority on AOP as the system was
developed by the Triton Norway team. The latest generation of AOP is now called AOP (Advanced Osmotic Puls). The AOP
System is a revolutionary technology based on an accepted theory of electro osmotic. It gives new life to existing brick, masonry
and concrete structures avoiding expensive reconstruction and has a broad field of application in new concrete structures. The
“state of the art” methods in use in the building industry today can be characterised as temporary solutions to a problem for which
there is no apparent cost effective permanent solution. The AOP System provides a permanent solution. The AOP System is
utilised for transporting water encapsulated within the capillaries out of structures, as well as permanently preventing the
penetration of water into structures. A control unit produces a low voltage electrical charge, which is passed through electrodes in
the form of probes or wires strategically placed within portions of the walls and/or floors which are wet.
