Why Capping & Water drips are so important

How to prevent damage to the walls of your house: Part 1

Many people think that natural stone is only used because of its beauty, they are often unaware that it also provides the building with crucial protection from the elements, reducing maintenance and increasing its lifespan.

The most common problems encountered in a warm humid climate are:

• Wall damage due to the absence of wall capping and proper water drips.
• Stairs installed without proper over hang and water drips
• The concrete base of the wall is exposed to the weather due to improper protection.

Wall Capping problem:

No wall capping installed, the wall is untreated raw concrete and the rain runs straight down the side of the building. This building is only three years old and already it is plainly evident that major damage that has started to materialize.

Here we can see a concrete wall that actually has capping. Unfortunately the capping was also made from concrete which is the wrong material to use. Why? Because of its high porosity and susceptibility to damage from heat i.e the Sun. Had there been a water drip present allowing the water to drip on the pavement instead of down the wall it would have slowed the damage down. These mistakes (wrong material choice and no water drip) have resulted in serious permanent damage.

The pebblewash is discolored and impregnated with fungus, while the slate has completely lost its original colors (black and muli-color). The reason for the poor state of the pebble wash is due to the wall missing capping, a common architectural and construction oversight in Thailand.

The slate being natural stone keeps its color for millions of years and is immune to the elements, so why then has it become dull and faded? Originally after installation this part of the wall was lacquered, so that the slate would look darker and more colorful. The other reason people often use lacquer on natural stone is that they mistakenly believe it will seal and protect the stone from elemental damage. What they do not realize is that lacquer becomes damaged by ultraviolet radiation; it loses its luster becoming dull and soapy and starts to peel off. It is possible that this part of the wall can be repaired and reconditioned by stripping off the remaining lacquer and using proper stone restoration chemicals. This is however a time consuming and costly task with no guarantee of success.

This beautiful office building in Muang Thong Thani 3 is three year old and unfortunately while the architect spent an enormous amount of time creating this fantastic looking building they forgot to include any capping with water drips in their design. Fungus & lichen damage is destroying the expensive cladding, which will start falling down within the next few years. If this situation was rectified immediately, only some of the cladding would have to be replace, if nothing is done then all of the cladding will have to come off and be replaced.

If we compare this building to the previous one we can see it has proper capping with water drips protecting the windows. This building was built 16 years ago and has had no maintenance due to being unoccupied. We can see that the windows have no damage unfortunately the capping is made from concrete and is damaged due to sunlight/ rainfall. The solution is to use proper natural stone capping.

This reflection pond at the newly completed Novotel at the Impact Convention Center is already showing signs of damage due to poor design. The containing wall has been clad in granite and the erosion of the joints due to water is clearly visible. The wind is forcing the water over the edge of the wall and it runs down the granite seeping into the joints. If the top of the retaining wall had wider capping with a water drip then the water would drip straight down without hitting the joints.

Stairs:

Proper capping is not only important for wall but also for outdoor stairs, In this photo we see the stairs at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani 3 have an insufficient overhang and no water drip causing major damage to concrete.

These stairs are newly installed (5 months) without an overhang and water drip.

Base of Wall:

While it is clear that walls and stairs need to have capping to protect them from falling water damage and erosion of the joints, did you know that the base of a wall also needs protection? Why? When water hits the ground it splashes up and if the base of your wall is not protected, the water will start to damage it there. In this photo we can see the absence of proper protection and the base of the wall is covered in fungus that is destroying the cement.

This is a different building that is also showing damage from water that has splashed up and started to destroy the base. The solution is simple, use proper natural stone to clad the base.

When we say proper natural stone we mean a stone that is able to withstand the assault of the elements.