BRENDAN: Good morning, ladies and gents. Welcome to another MARKHAM podcast! Today we have a special guest speaker, Robert Speirs-Ferrari; a specialist accredited consultant from Building Diagnosis Centre. Robert is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building, an accredited building inspector with 45 years of experience, and an expert advisor in construction litigation proceedings. Welcome, Robert.
ROBERT: Yes, thank you, Brendan.
BRENDAN: Can you tell us a little bit about your early background and history in the industry and how you came to be involved with construction remediation?
ROBERT: Yes, well, I’ve been a master licensed builder since 1976, designing and constructing, originally, alterations, additions to family homes, progressing up to new builds in construction of new homes and then getting into the repair of old homes. Then as time goes on you, you know, move into bigger and better things. So I got into commercial and strata buildings, as well as heritage churches and councils’ infrastructure, tunnels and things; so quite a wide scope of construction experience and involvement; and also providing expert witness evidence in disputes. And believe it or not, mainly most of the issues are to do with water ingress, and failed waterproofing membranes.
BRENDAN: Yes I see, now that’s interesting because it touches on some of the work that we do; not that we do membranes. But are there any particular types of structures that you see that in, more than others?
ROBERT: Yes, yes. Well, parts of structures, namely such as roof slabs, car parks; balconies are very common. Particularly where there’s older buildings that have got the magnesite that releases chemicals, corrosive chemicals into the concrete. Concrete is normally porous, so it gets the “concrete cancer”. This is spalled concrete.
BRENDAN: Yes, that’s understandable. So is that … would you say that’s one of the most common types of failure situations you see or…?
ROBERT: That is, when I say, the common, it’s the common and the most expensive. Waterproofing defects are the most common problem the building industry has. And when it comes to the part, the materials such as concrete, that gets corrosive chemicals into the reinforcement steel; and then it explodes the concrete off the steel. And it’s actually, unfortunately, very common, and it’s very, very expensive to rectify. The process of rectifying spalling concrete is quite detailed, and we carry out inspections of each of those processes to make sure each process is done right before moving on to the next process, and then the final protection of the repairs and the whole concrete area itself is then to make sure it’s properly waterproofed.
BRENDAN: Yes, open up on that point a little bit more, as to why the waterproofing, in particular, is so important to make it work.
ROBERT: Well, the initial fault… just to go back a bit, the initial cause is a failed waterproofing system to begin with, because concrete normally won’t… if it’s properly protected, it’s got, you know, we all know it can have a whole lifetime of serviceability. But the failure of the waterproofing is the cause of it; or movement in the building causing cracks to break a liquid or a sheet membrane, and this is where the MARKHAM AQURON products have…as we’re now specifying … that eliminates all these failed waterproofing faults and litigation case. So it’s not affected by other… how can I explain this? It takes away a lot of the issues that you have normally with the conventional waterproofing systems that have been around for decades.
BRENDAN: Oh, I really appreciate the shout out to the product!
ROBERT: Oh no, well we specify it because it’s…we need to make sure that our clients get the right fix with the right products, so that’s what we aim for, to make sure that it’s done right. First of all, we like to make sure it’s done correctly when it’s being constructed when the building and structures are being built. And then if something happens, then we like to make sure it’s equally rectified as good as new, so to speak.
BRENDAN: That’s a good point. Very good point. If it’s not an inappropriate question in the context of the litigation, and I’m thinking here about risk management for the parties involved, who are you normally looking at, that holds responsibility for the failure?
ROBERT: Well, it’s a good question; and unfortunately with litigation, all parties will be drawn into it. It goes through that blaming stage. So it boils down to the designer and the licensed master builders. They’re the two entities, the main ones, because they’re the ones that have designed and constructed it, so they’re the ones that are the first to be called in to ‘please explain’, so to speak.
So they both have a very, very high responsibility to make… to ensure that it’s going to last the life of what’s expected. The BCA, NCC and the Australian Standards, you know, their design for a building to last for at least 50 years without any serious problems.
So it’s a long time; and if the building is designed, supervised, and constructed properly, there’s no reason why it can’t last for much longer than what the BCA NCC requires.
BRENDAN: Yes, that’s fair enough. That’s good because we’ve seen it a lot in new builds about risk management. It seems to be the name of the game these days in the industry. Taking responsibility early.
ROBERT: Yes, well, just with that. I’ll just add a bit to do what I’ve just mentioned. We actually specify your product, the AQURON system, because it actually penetrates. First of all when it’s applied, it penetrates into concrete structures at the initial stage, without any time for any salts to get into the concrete. So it’s done as it’s being made, as it’s being poured, and in the process of being finished. So that product that penetrates very deep in the concrete, as you know, as the supplier of that product – it can go up to 150mm deep. So it’s actually waterproofing the thickness of the concrete from the top surface, so it eliminates anything penetrating it.
And the secondary benefit of it is that it actually, when it’s applied when the concrete is just being poured, as well as being in the mix as well, at the plant, it cures the concrete, so it eliminates that cracking that is commonly seen in concrete in the conventional way of construction. So this penetration; and then basically you’ve got a structurally sound waterproof concrete throughout the thickness of it, which eliminates the traditional sheet and liquid paint-on membranes that goes on top.
BRENDAN: That’s excellent, that’s excellent. Absolutely excellent to hear that from you as an industry expert in the area.
Can you give us … just by way of stepping back through the process; I think in your website you use the expression ‘defect-free’. Is there … can you tell us what’s the best approach? Not exactly in the context of methods or products, but building defect-free: what should people be thinking about from the early stages?
ROBERT: OK, well building defect-free begins with the architect educating the client and the builders, and communicating with all the design team, and the construction team, if that’s possible. So that it can be … all the procedures and the materials can be decided by the group of the people that are going to make this structure and make it last. So that it’s all these entities as a think-tank.
And it’s getting more common that this is happening. Rather than, in years gone by, where architects give drawings to builders, and the builders sort of think, Well, this is how we’ve been building for many, many years and this is what I’m going to quote on. And then the architect advises the client: Well, we’ve got these… so many tenders; these are the prices. And then it’s … there really hasn’t been a holistic joint process of designing that happens.
It’s getting more and more so today that architects are now communicating more with specialists in the field; because the litigation and the complaints, and the cost of running a litigation. Just on that point, nobody wins out of litigation. Everyone loses. And the one that loses the most is the client. The owner of the property or the proposed property.
Sorry, did that answer that question?
BRENDAN: Yes, yes it does, it very much does. It’s a very important point. I guess it emphasises, doesn’t it, the importance of considering this early, and making sure you’ve got your communication channels open with all those that are involved.
ROBERT: Well, we’re getting more and more enquiries as a company, in specialising in waterproofing and durability of structures, from clients, from architects, and from builders; and actually when you sit down around the table, when you have all the parties talk about this, they’re all actually so relieved that they can see that they’re going to have a good product, in this think tank arena. And people feel more comfortable to go ahead with projects because they feel as though they’ve built it mentally in a meeting from start to finish, and everything seems to have gelled. And people are quite relieved that they’re not going to be getting a building that’s going to suffer – in talking about concrete, suffer spalling concrete, which is the old phrase “concrete cancer” – in, you know, within 10 or 15 years or 20 years.
BRENDAN: Yes, no, that’s good, that’s excellent. So in that context, Robert, do you certify your work or what’s the approval process involved there?
ROBERT: All right, OK. Well, in relation to the AQURON waterproofing systems: there’s not a specific Australian standard on that that we can certify that it’s according to that standard. But in the NCC we’ve got the performance solution reports we can now produce, that private certifiers accept. So when we’re involved with your types of products, the waterproofing chemicals, we go through the whole process of evaluating the design, the systems that are proposed to be used, or we may be needing to design your products in the systems for waterproofing.
And then on completion whilst … seeing we’ve gone through the whole process, on the completion, we can then provide a certificate in the form of a performance solution report, that is accepted by all the design team, the private certifiers, and the client. So we’ve got the engineers, the architects, hydraulic engineers, as well as structural and civil, and the project manager. So every party to the contract and working … or the design team and the authorities, they sign off.
Well, it starts with that we have to put in a proposal for a design, and then that’s signed off by all parties. Then we go ahead with the whole inspection process, and then provide, on completion, a performance solution report, that the certifier puts into the file, into the system, and then it’s signed off as being a satisfactory complying construction job.
BRENDAN: Fair enough. That’s an important point; because as you say, we’ve struck situations where we don’t exactly fit into the mould; so that performance is what we’re looking for, isn’t it?
ROBERT: Yes, well, that’s it. It’s the performance that will… It will provide the required waterproofing ability for the life of the building. And the usual term of life of the building is a minimum of 50 years. And so I haven’t come across a waterproofing membrane… well, I’ve been in business for 46 years, but I haven’t seen a warranty for that long so that it’s incredible to the product. In fact, it’s the new state of the art. Well, when I say ‘new’, I don’t think it’s actually totally new. But it is a satisfactory solution as far as we’re concerned. And all the design team and the private certifiers.
BRENDAN: Yes, yes, that’s good. Excellent.
And I guess just by way of wrapping it up, if one of our listeners wants to get in touch with you, Robert, what’s the best avenue to reach out to you?
ROBERT: Well, look, we’re all on mobile nowadays, so we hardly use our office phone because people want to talk to the person directly. So our mobile number is 0408 911 210. And obviously, we don’t have mail anymore. We’ve got email, so it’s [email protected]
BRENDAN: Excellent, excellent. All right. Very much appreciate your time today, it’s been good. There’s definitely very important points that you’ve touched on there. I’m sure our listeners will appreciate it too.
ROBERT: Thank you Brendan.
BRENDAN: Thank you very much.
ROBERT: It’s a pleasure. Thank you so much too.
